How Important are my IGCSEs?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I finished my IGCSEs a month ago as a sophomore. I already have an A* in Math (1 year accelerated). Here are some other IGCSEs I took - as well as my teachers' predicted grades and the final grades I think I got (6 = A, 7 = A*):</p>

<p>Further Pure Math 7, 7
Biology 6,6 or 7
Chemistry 7, 7
Physics 7,6 or 7
Economics 7,7
History probs 6 or 7, 6 or 7
Music probs 6 or 7, 6 or 7
English Language 6, 6 or 7
English Literature 6, 6
Foreign Language Mandarin 7, 7</p>

<p>So 11 IGCSEs in total; hoping something like 7/8 A*s.</p>

<p>How important are my IGCSE predicted grades? Will these have an impact or will they not matter as long as they are somewhat similar to my final grades?</p>

<p>Say I got 6's for all the subjects I predict I got '6 or 7' (so 5A's, 6A*s) and 2 As in Bio and Physics - will my chances for top math+science unis like MIT/Caltech drop significantly?</p>

<p>I will be taking IB next year:</p>

<p>Math HL
Chem HL
Physics HL
Economics SL
English Lit + Lang SL
Chinese B SL</p>

<p>I will get at least 43/45 for my predicted grades - most likely 6 for Eng, possibly another 6 from either Econ or Chinese.</p>

<p>Will also participate in AMC 12 next year and hopefully qualify for AIME; definitely cannot qualify (in terms of score - not a US citizen) for USAMO :(</p>

<p>Also considering that I will get good SAT scores (2300+/2400, 800 for Math II, Chem, Physics and possibly 700+ World History), how important will my IGCSE grades be? Can they mean the difference between an offer and a rejection? I slacked off during my sophomore year because of League of Legends addiction -_-; please give me your thoughts on how important my IGCSE grades will be. I am an Asian male international student (I heard this is a huge disadvantage).</p>

<p>Pls give me your opinion on my IGCSE grades when it comes to top schools like Princeton/MIT etc.</p>

<p>Also, what do you think would be the highest ranked 'safety' school for me in terms of numbers?</p>

2

<p>Cool! another IGCSE+IB student! :)</p>

<p>Depends. If you are a british applicant (or you are at least from a british school) schools will only see your IGCSE+IB scores, which, by the way, are awesome. In that case your predicted scores will not even matter. For IB, you really can’t say yet how much you think you are going to get, since it is much tougher than IGCSE. You should wait another year for proper predictions.</p>

<p>And, BTW, I read that an A and an A* in IGCSE are both equal to a 4.0 when converted in american GPA</p>

<p>PS: IGCSE grading is very generous. From personal experience I can tell you that in math extended last year I thought I got a C or even a D in one of the papers, but then I found out that my overall grade was a A (2% away from an A*). If your school is somewhat strict on your predictions you might end up getting much higher!</p>