How to score 10A* in IGCSE (Part II)
Hey everyone! I'd love to share with you tips on how to score 10A* in IGCSE. This is a continuation of my previous post, which is the "How to score 10A* in IGCSE (Part I)".
In this post, I would be sharing my experience of registering for the IGCSE exams, which is far more tedious and complicated than I had anticipated ; Also, I'll include tips that I wished I knew a few months ago. :)
I sincerely hope that this helps and leave a comment if you like!
6. Registering for IGCSE exams
This tip is applicable if you are a homeschooler or if you intend to resit any papers as a private candidate, which is really common among students, since IGCSE can be taken over 4 intakes.
Suffice to say, this tip is for people like me, actually, since I nearly missed the registration deadline for the May/June intake.
Yeah, I know, I'm brilliant.
If you are registering as a private candidate, you should be aware of two things: Some institutions charge less than others for IGCSE. Secondly, the registration period is really short.
If you intend to register at British Council, lord and saviour be with you, the cost of taking one subject would be RM 1000 over. So, if you take 10 subjects with British Council, you'll pay at least RM 10000. Here's the price list for your enjoyment.
....okay, so maybe even RM 10000 wouldn't cover it.
I didn't take any papers with British Council because....yeah.
Since I live in KL, I scouted for other international schools that conduct IGCSE for private candidates too. I ended up with St John International School and Sri Emas International School.
I signed up for 6 subjects with St John, (i) because St John's price list is cheaper (ii) I couldn't take the remaining 2 because St John provides limited subject choices.
The above is the fee schedule for the 2016 October/November intake. I note that there has been a hike in price. When I took the exam in May/June, the registration fee for private candidates was RM 250, which has been stepped up to RM 300, as you can see. The fee per subject was RM 500 for me, which has been increased to RM 600 as of now. The only conclusion I can draw for this is: money-making business.
Aaaaaanyway, this RM 600 per subject thing is still WAY cheaper than British Council.
Sri Emas, on the other hand, has a similar price list to British Council, but slightly cheaper. I took BM foreign language and Chinese First Language with Sri Emas, because I had no choice.
The above is Sri Emas's price list. It's slightly cheaper than British Council, so there's that.
Second thing to be noted is this: Like mentioned before, please remember that the registration period is divided into early bird, late and very late. The above price list is applicable for early bird registrations. There is a late penalty imposed if you miss the deadline. Trust me, it's very easy to miss the early bird registration period, especially if you're a first-timer.
The above is British Council's registration period
To give you an idea of how much money exactly you'll be fined, if you take, say, 5 subjects with Sri Emas, or British Council and you miss the early bird registration period. You will be fined RM 220 per subject, which translates to RM 1100 topped with a non refundable RM 150.
Ouch.
For British Council, it is RM 444 per subject (what a weird number), so if you are taking 5 subjects with British Council the fine would be RM 2220. Lovely :)
So, yeah, please do register in time and don't let these institutions dig out more gold than they should be entitled to.
Third thing I want to touch on, which is based on past experience, is juggling between running from one institution to the other.
Basically, I registered for IGCSE at both St John and Sri Emas. Now, technically, you aren't supposed to do that, or at least, the institutions would tell you that. This is because, for obvious reasons, these institutions would want you to register ALL your subjects with them.
That's good and all, but nope, I still registered at two schools, one at KL city centre and the other all the way in Kelana Jaya.
On the first day of exams, I went to Sri Emas in the morning for the BM paper, which was scheduled to start at 9am, because that's the designated schedule by CIE; 9am, 1pm and 5pm. However, due to the surplus of students who registered for this paper, I was put in the "second session" which means that I could only take the paper at 11am. Okay, this was really, really bad. Why? I had another paper at St John at 1pm, which meant that I could potentially miss my second paper.
Long story short, I finished my BM paper in half of the time allocated, dashed off to St John, missed my lunch and got there just in time.
It sucked, real bad. I would not want the same fate to befall any of you. Later on, I got into a bit of a feud with Sri Emas over this, but I rather not delve into that.
Anyway, my advice for you is this: You gotta take the time management thing into account and choose wisely. Make sure that you have enough time to run from one school to another and that the school does not have this "session 1" "session 2" thing.
Oh, yeah, and always pack some food in the car, in case of a traffic congestion and lack of time to eat before the next exam.
I'll stop here because this post is longer than I expected ^^ I hope that all the above drama does not happen to you because it sucks.
I'll continue this as soon as possible!
Much love x
Jie Fei
Disclaimer: I do not intend to insult or slander any alleged party, all that has been stated above is nothing but the truth and one must not tell lies.
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