IGCSE Homeschooling has become a very popular method of acquiring an education these days.
For parents and students who see no novelty and sense of wonder in the conventional schools.
Homeschooling taps on certain key aspects such as personalized learning and an individual’s social and academic enrichment without the side effects of bullying.
Homeschooling provides every child an opportunity for ‘personalized learning’ and understanding.
This is what parents find most effective.
Personalized learning allows your child to learn effectively at the pace, style, and level they want to.
Homeschooling creates a whole world of opportunities for anyone, including the differently abled.
Students tired of the rigid strata of the school and their curriculums, or even students weak at certain subjects can enjoy the benefits of homeschooling.
According to Ray (2004), as cited in Watson, 2019, Homeschooling of students brings about flexibility in events and studies.
As a result, home schooled students have the freedom to approach their subjects and interests in different angles and explore a more fluid mode of learning different things.
Now more than ever, homeschooling is considered as a very effective alternative to conventional schooling.
So, what about Homeschooling for the IGCSE Exams?
Given the benefits of homeschooling, how does a student prepare for the IGCSE examinations?
A lot of parents have requested that we create an IGCSE Homeschooling Guide with Tutopiya.
This article is written out of necessity for students and parents to find a reliable IGCSE Homeschooling Guide.
Therefore this article will provide you with steps that need to be considered when beginning the journey of IGCSE homeschooling.
As much as we would like to help you further, this article does not speak on behalf of the British Council or the Cambridge International Examinations Board.
Any information mentioned in this article with regards to registration, exam centers and payment of fees or any other aspect of the exam is subject to change, as this is an international exam.
So for that purpose all the relevant communication channels and website links are given for you to double check every detail
Getting Started with the IGCSE Homeschooling
Researching On Your Own For the IGCSE Exams
Let us start from the very beginning.
Researching about a certain exam and knowing how and what needs to be done is very important.
This is the very first research the student does before listening to the advice of seniors, peers and older relatives or cousins.
IGCSE homeschooling students are known as Private Candidates.
Private Candidates are students who are registering for the IGCSE exam on their own without going through an IGCSE exam center.
The initial phase of research requires you to know the following:
- What the IGCSE is and how the exams are going to be like?
- What needs to be done to apply/register for the IGCSE?
- How long the preparation time is and the subjects the student needs to prepare for?
- What resources need to be used to prepare?
To make life easy, Tutopiya has an in house Cambridge & Edexcel IGCSE Guide to give you all the information you need.
You can find information on the subjects and how the papers will be assessed from our Cambridge IGCSE Subject Guide
On the whole, by using the articles mentioned above any new student will be able to get a good idea of what the IGCSE exams are.
As mentioned above private candidates have to register for their IGCSE exams on their own via a Cambridge exam center.
Cambridge exam centers are schools or institutions that are registered with Cambridge International as exam centers.
They can also register via their country branch of British Council that acts as a center for private candidates.
Visiting Your Country Branch of British Council
Most private candidates prefer visiting their country branch office of the British Council.
The British Council acts as a center for all British Qualifications including the IGCSE exams.
You can access the Singapore British Council IGCSE Exams page here.
Visiting the office and speaking to a customer representative will allow you to know in detail regarding the registration and payment process.
Registration for the IGCSE exams happen a couple of months before the exam itself.
The British council and the Cambridge exam centers release the IGCSE timelines for the examination every year a few months before the IGCSE exams.
Starting The Process Of Learning For IGCSE Homeschooling.
Now that you know what the IGCSE exams are and what the registration process is all about.
It is time now to guide you through actually prepping for or studyingyour child for the IGCSE exams.
After deciding to do the IGCSE examination two years from now, your child must decide which subjects her or she will be taking for the IGCSE exam.
Using our Quick IGCSE Cambridge Subject Guide you & your child can decide which subjects you wish to prepare for.
If you wish to find the detailed list of 70+ subjects, just follow this link here.
Once you have choosen your subjects, then it is just about getting started with the correct resources and tuition for your chosen subjects.
In the next section, Tutopiya gives some useful homeschool study tips for students who wish to excel at their IGCSE exam prep.
IGCSE Homeschooling Study Tips And Planners
Homeschooling for the IGCSE exams requires quite a bit of planning, self-study or reading and structuring of study schedules.
In a study by Ray 2011, which summarized and reviewed research done by Martin- Chang, Gould and Meuse in 2011 on the “The Impact of Schooling on Academic Achievement: Evidence from Homeschooled and Traditionally Schooled Students,” showed that students educated through structured homeschooling were found to be superior to students from traditional schools.
Making sure there is a routine and structure to studying for the IGCSE exam, enables you to cover a lot of material in a single day and hence makes your study sessions productive.
Use our printable IGCSE Homeschooling study planner given at the end of the article to help plan out & structure your child’s study sessions.
Tips To Ace You IGCSE Prep At Home
Planning and Sticking to a Routine
Planning and sticking to a routine are extremely important pillars of a successfully IGCSE preparation journey.
These two aspects set the foundations of a student’s preparation and learning curve.
The minimum number of subjects that need to be taken are 7.
There is no restriction on the number of maximum subjects a student can take.
Hence, it is only natural that a considerable amount of planning and preparation is required to complete the syllabus for all the 7 or more subjects that the student has chosen.
Using our IGCSE Homeschool Study Planners for weekly study and single subject revision, students will find it easier to navigate and complete the syllabus.
Studying
Irrespective of the amount of planning one does, nothing will come out of it if no action or actual studying takes place.
Students and parents must both be firm and enthusiastic when it comes to sitting down to revise or studying.
The IGCSEs are a 2 year course and within these 2 years it is up to the student and the parent to make sure that sufficient studying and revision takes place to cover the syllabus.
Using the right resources is also extremely important.
Names of the suggested textbooks to use while studying for the IGCSE subjects can be found on our blog.
Click on the link below to find out the names of the text books for each subject.
https://www.tutopiya.com/blog/best-cambridge-igcse-and-edexcel-igcse-prep-books/
You can either purchase these text books or see if they are available of online in the E book format
Apart from these, Tutopiya has a huge variety of IGCSE Short Notes and Tips for all subjects which the students can use to revise.
Practice Makes Perfect
Under this section, we will focus on the importance of practicing past paper questions to prepare for the IGCSE exams.
Exam papers follow a certain pattern of questions and also if you are lucky, some questions get repeated.
Therefore, it is paramount to have had a considerable amount of past paper practice to be familiar with the paper formats, questions types, mark scheme answering styles and mark allocation for each question.
So, make sure you add sufficient time on your planners for past paper revision and correction.
Speaking of practice and past papers, Tutopiya’s vast IGCSE resources contain all past papers till date for every IGCSE subject.
If you choose to have lessons for your child through Tutopiya, Specialist IGCSE subject tutors will give your child these past papers.
To help them with past paper practice and assess their performance at a particular subject
Through our Homework and Resource Sharing Tab students can upload their past papers, worksheets, and assignments any time for the tutors to mark.
This gives them the option to seek expert analysis and mark scheme answers.
Why Tutopiya Is Perfect For IGCSE Homeschooling
Tutopiya is perfect for your child if you are contemplating IGCSE homeschooling.
Here is an inforgraphic of the benefits of using Tutopiya to help in your IGCSE homeschooling journey.
Sign up for a FREE 1- live and interactive IGCSE subject trial NOW!
IGCSE Homeschooling Study Planners
Here are the study planners that we promised at the end of the article.
