Course outline

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for students sitting the International GCSE Triple Award Science examinations in June 2012. Students sitting IGCSE Dual Award Science are welcome to enrol on this course, but might find that some of the material taught is beyond the requirements of their syllabus. Because of the differences in specification, this revision course is unsuitable for students sitting Biology GCSEs through other examination boards.

The course is structured to follow the Edexcel exam board. However, students sitting the CIE exam board will also find the course suitable.

Key Topics Covered

Because of the volume of material on the IGCSE syllabus it is impossible for tutors to revise all the topics in detail (most tutors manage to cover between 50% and 70% of the syllabus). Most tutors will ask students to highlight topics from the following areas;

• Cells
• Plant nutrition
• Human nutrition
• Gas exchange (humans & plants)
• Transport in humans
• Transport in plants
• Excretion
• Coordination & Response
• Reproduction (humans & plants)
• Genetics (including cloning, selective breeding & GM)
• Ecology
• C,N & Water Cycles
• Human impact on the environment
• Food production

Other Information

This course is structured across two days of tuition (14hrs). In addition to refreshing the key concepts and factual material of the IGCSE Biology syllabus, tutors will also cover application of knowledge, investigative and evaluative skills. There will also be a heavy slant towards exam style: most tutors will teach exam technique using practise questions from past-papers.