Overconfidence Makes You Careless: An IGCSE Blog

== Overconfidence Makes You Careless: An IGCSE Blog ==

=== A word of wisdom from Captain John Price best describes how I feel after a year of IGCSE. ===

If someone tells you that IGCSE is easy, well, let me put it this way, they’re trying to murder you.

No, I’m just kidding. Compared to what other Chinese students are learning, the IGCSE syllabus feels like a walk in the park. But if you think you could kick back and relax for this reason, then you might as well buy a house in Malibu and do sketches of topless chicks on the beach every day. Seriously, if you mess with IGCSE, IGCSE is going to whop your butt eventually.

The biggest challenge is language, don’t go ‘Challenge accepted’ yet. Let me tell ya somethin’, you are born and raised in China, you started to speak English when you’re in pre-school (Unlike me I’ve been speaking English as long as I’ve been speaking Chinese), you were educated in Chinese for all these years, AND NOW, you’re going to be educated in English by foreigners. It won’t be as easy as you think because you’re not as familiar as you think to the language. (Bad grammar alert, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.)

There is only one way to overcome this monstrosity (the language problem, not the IGCSE. ‘Monstrosity’ is hardly enough to describe it.): READ MORE, LISTEN TO MORE and SPEAK MORE! Don’t shy away because of your bad English, talk to the teachers. They’re lonely strangers in a strange land full of strange people, I’m sure they’ll be more chatty than you think if you’re willing to…you know… chat with them. Read more English books, don’t be afraid to do it just because of the crazy vocab, you have a dictionary, don’t you? Trust me, all that lookin’ up would serve you well. As for listening, try to not look at the subtitles when watching The House of Cards.

Jason Xing