IGCSE tuition, live online
IGCSE contains a decision that is easy to make badly: several subjects are tiered, and the tier caps the grade. Sitting Core when you could manage Extended costs you marks you would have earned; sitting Extended before you are ready costs you the ones you would have kept. That call is worth making on evidence rather than on how a term felt, which is what the first few lessons are for. After that it is the specification, in your school's order.
Exam format
What the IGCSE actually looks like
The structure, the timing and the scoring, stated plainly — before anything about a course.
- Length
- Typically a two-year course, examined at the end
- Questions
- Set by your board; several subjects are tiered
- Scored
- 9–1 or A*–G depending on the board and subject
Cambridge or Edexcel
The two boards most international schools use. Each publishes its own syllabus with a code, sets its own papers and applies its own mark scheme. As with A-Level, the content overlaps and the technique does not.
The tier decision
Several subjects are tiered — Core and Extended at Cambridge, Foundation and Higher at Edexcel — and the tier caps the grade available. It is a decision made months before the exam, on evidence, and it is the one most worth getting right.
Papers and components
Most subjects have two or more papers, and some carry a practical, oral or coursework component. Which component carries your weakest area determines how much it actually costs.
- The grading scale differs by board and subject — 9 to 1 in some, A* to G in others — so a target expressed in one scale means nothing in the other.
- IGCSE grades feed sixth-form and A-Level entry, and some universities look back at them, particularly for English and Mathematics.
Before you start
Is IGCSE preparation right for you?
Who it suits. Students working towards a specific IGCSE subject with identifiable topic gaps or exam-technique needs.
When to check another option. Planning from the subject name alone. The board, syllabus and any tier choice need to match the papers you will sit.
Why it matters
What a IGCSE score is for
IGCSEs are the foundation the next two years are built on: sixth forms set entry requirements on them, A-Level and IB courses assume them, and some universities still look back at English and Mathematics when a later grade is borderline. They are also the first qualification most international students meet where the tier and the board actually change what grade is reachable — which makes early, informed decisions worth more here than raw effort later.
Coverage
What the preparation covers
The ground a course goes over. A group course takes it in its published order; for one-to-one lessons, how much of it you need and in what order is what the diagnostic decides.
- Cambridge or Edexcel, to your own school's specification
- The tier decision, made on marks rather than on impressions
- Mathematics, the three sciences, and Economics and Business
- First and Second Language English, and the literature papers
- Past papers marked to the board's own scheme, not a general one
Where marks go
Where candidates lose marks on the IGCSE
Not a list of study tips. These are the specific ways this particular test takes marks off people who know the material.
Entering the wrong tier
Core or Foundation caps the grade you can be awarded; Extended or Higher risks a lower one if you are not ready. Both mistakes are expensive and both are made on impressions rather than on marks. It should be a decision taken from evidence, months out.
Using the other board's past papers
Cambridge and Edexcel papers look interchangeable and are not. The question phrasing and the mark schemes differ enough that practice on the wrong one builds habits that cost marks on the right one.
Answering without reading the command term
State, describe, explain and evaluate ask for different things and are marked for different things. A described answer to an explain question is a mark-scheme failure rather than a knowledge failure.
Leaving coursework or practicals late
Where a subject has them, they are marks available under less pressure than the written papers. Compressed into the final weeks, they become another exam instead of a cushion.
Revising by rereading
IGCSE papers reward recall under time. Rereading notes feels productive and transfers poorly; answering past questions to time and marking them honestly is what moves grades.
Treating Second Language English as easier
It is a different paper, not a lighter one, and the grade is read differently by some sixth forms. Which one you sit is worth a deliberate decision rather than a default.
Lesson format
One-to-one, or a private group
Private group · 30 hours per subject
There is no open IGCSE group course, but three or more students preparing together can have a group of their own, with the lesson days and times agreed with them. What it covers and what it costs are in the prices below.
One-to-one
Usually one-to-one: IGCSE students almost always need two or three subjects rather than one, and a prepaid package can be split across them.
How it runs
How the teaching works
A diagnostic before one-to-one lessons are planned
One-to-one lessons start by finding out where the marks are actually going. That is not a formality: on most of these tests the gap a student describes and the gap the diagnostic shows are different, and hours spent on the described one are hours wasted.
Teaching in the order your deadline allows
One-to-one lessons follow your order, not a syllabus's. We start with whatever is costing you most and work outwards rather than marching through material you have already half covered.
Timed work from early, not saved for the end
Untimed accuracy is a poor predictor of a timed score, and finding that out three weeks before the test is too late. Timed sections start in the first fortnight, short at first.
Review and progress checks
Review looks beyond the mark: which errors recur, whether the reasoning is clearer and how accuracy holds under time pressure. Bring earlier attempts to the discussion so the next practice has a specific purpose.
All of it runs in the browser, live, with a teacher on the other end. There are no recordings sold as a course and no premises to travel to.
Timeline
How long IGCSE preparation takes
A rough shape rather than a promise. People arrive at different starting points and the plan is built around yours, but this is what a full run usually looks like.
- 1
First lesson — board, syllabus code, tier
Which board, which syllabus code, and where the tier decision currently stands. Those three answers shape everything after them.
- 2
Through the course — alongside school
Support in your school's teaching order, across the two or three subjects that need it, with a prepaid package moving between them as the year changes the answer.
- 3
The term before — past papers to time
Your board's papers, marked to its own scheme. This is also when the tier decision is confirmed or changed on the evidence rather than on how a term felt.
- 4
Final weeks — targeted revision
The topics still costing marks, weighted by which paper they sit in, and the command terms that keep converting knowledge into middling answers.
FAQ
IGCSE questions we get asked
- Cambridge or Edexcel — which do you teach?
- Both. Tell us the board and the syllabus code when you enquire; it changes which past papers and mark schemes we work from, which is most of what tutoring is.
- Core or Extended? Foundation or Higher?
- It should be decided on marks rather than on confidence. The tier caps the grade available, so entering low costs a grade you could have had and entering high risks one you already have. A few weeks of timed past papers answers it better than any conversation.
- How many subjects can you help with?
- As many as you need, and a prepaid package splits across them. Most IGCSE students come with two or three — usually Mathematics and one or two sciences.
- Is there a group IGCSE course?
- Not an open one. IGCSE help is board-specific and subject-specific, so it is usually taught one-to-one. When three or more students taking the same subject with the same board come together, we can open a private group for them, priced per subject.
- Do IGCSE grades matter for university?
- Indirectly and sometimes directly. They set sixth-form entry, and some universities look back at English and Mathematics — particularly when a later grade is borderline or a subject requirement is unmet.
- When should we start?
- Early enough for the tier decision to be made on evidence, which in practice means well before the entry deadline rather than in the final term.
Pricing
What IGCSE preparation costs
Shown in US dollars. Charged in US dollars — there is no conversion at checkout to be surprised by.
One-to-one lessons
Usually one-to-one: IGCSE students almost always need two or three subjects rather than one, and a prepaid package can be split across them.
Single lesson
One 90-minute lesson, to see how it goes.
$100Book10 lessons
Prepaid, usable across subjects where the exam has them.
20 lessons
The usual choice for a full preparation run.
Private group · 30 hours per subject
There is no open IGCSE group course. When three or more of you are preparing together, we open a group of your own.
- Each class is one subject with one exam board, so everyone in it sits the same papers
- Priced by the number of subjects, as our IB Revision groups are
- Opens once three or more students come together
- Lesson days and times agreed with the group
- Every lesson recorded, to rewatch for 14 days
- One payment, no instalments
- 1 subject · 30 hours$1,150
- 2 subjects · 60 hours$2,150
- 3 subjects · 90 hours$3,000
- 4 subjects · 120 hours$3,900
Paid by card on this site, in US dollars, through Stripe. The exact amount is shown before you pay.
Where this comes from
Everything above about the format of the IGCSE is taken from Cambridge International, the body that sets it. Last checked against that source on . If you find something here that no longer matches it, tell us and we will correct it.