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Most colleges and Sixth form institutions require at least five A – C grades at GCSE level in order for a student to join and continue their education. The core subjects of the GCSE program are English and Maths.

Michael Gove, Education Secretary, has recently explained that GCSE’s and A-Levels are about to get a lot harder as he plans to reform the examination system.

Gove recently said at a lunch in Westminster:

Edexcel’s International GCSE in History has now been accredited for use by state-funded schools in the UK and is called the Edexcel Certificate in History. During the process of accreditation, the qualifications regulator, Ofqual, asked for a small number of changes to be made to the existing International GCSE specification. In order to guarantee the […]

The Oxford Online Learning classroom can now be accessed via the My Moodle Iphone app. But was it worth the effort of setting this up? This is a question I am still pondering several days later.  Downloading the app directly from the Iphone app store and with only a minor amount of tweaking I soon […]

In blog 9 in our series aimed at students studying distance learning French IGCSE or distance learning Spanish IGCSE, an Oxford Open Learning distance learning tutor gives tips on how to succeed in oral exams. When you are preparing for your IGCSE speaking exam, it’s definitely worth bearing in mind that it will be recorded […]

In the next blog in our series on French films at A Level, an Oxford Open Learning tutor and distance learning course writer reviews the 1977 Comédie Française film Le Misanthrope, directed by Jean-Paul Carrère. Although this DVD was made thirty years ago, it is still one of the best performances of Le Misanthrope. Staged […]

When entering for examinations it is very important that you as Private Candidates know exactly which exams you want to be entered for and that you are able to give the correct information to the Examinations Officer at the centre where you hope to sit. Knowing this information makes everything much easier for the person […]

In blog 8 of our  French and Spanish series an Oxford Open Learning tutor gives advice on preparing for language oral exams. The oral or speaking exam is of course optional at IGCSE, but for many people integral to the reason that they are studying French or Spanish in the first place – to be able […]

IGCSE French/Spanish: 7:  How to dream in a foreign language; tips to increase your immersion. It is a common belief amongst linguists that once you actually have a dream in a foreign language you have achieved fluency, and as such is an ambition of many language students. What constitutes fluency is a continual matter for […]

IGCSE French/Spanish: 6: Making your writing more interesting; maximising exam performance. A lot of what you are about to read may sound obvious, but students are under a huge amount of pressure in an exam, and it is therefore not surprising that even the most ‘obvious’ things often get forgotten. Key things you should try […]