IGCSE History Tutoring for Students in the UAE
IGCSE History is a skills subject wearing a content subject’s clothes. Knowing the period is necessary and not sufficient: the marks go to source evaluation and to arguments that answer the question asked rather than the topic named.
- 2 awarding bodies, each examined differently — both set out below
- 12 syllabus areas mapped to your school’s scheme of work
- Taught by a specialist in this subject, not a generalist
- 90-minute online lessons, scheduled in UAE time
How History is assessed, board by board
2 awarding bodies examine History and they do not do it the same way. Find yours below — each block names the syllabus it came from and the date it was checked. If you do not know which board your school entered you for, the specification code is on the front of the syllabus and on every past paper.
Cambridge International
Cambridge IGCSE History (0470)
| Component | Weight | Length | What it asks for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1: Structured Questions | 40% | 2 hours · 60 marks | structured questions and essay |
| Paper 2: Document Questions | 30% | 1 hour 45 min · 40 marks | source evaluation |
| Component 3: Coursework | 30% | Marked in school, moderated by the board | coursework — One assignment; an alternative to Paper 4 |
| Paper 4: Alternative to Coursework | 30% | 1 hour · 40 marks | source evaluation and essay — For schools that do not enter for coursework |
- Paper 2 sets its document questions on a prescribed topic that changes by examination year. Practising on a past paper from the wrong year trains source technique on content this cohort will not be asked about, which is worth knowing before buying a revision guide.
Read from the published syllabus and checked on 2026-09-22.
Pearson Edexcel
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History (4HI1)
| Component | Weight | Length | What it asks for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1: Depth Studies | 50% | 1 hour 30 min · 60 marks | source evaluation and essay — Two depth studies from a published list |
| Paper 2: Investigation and Breadth Studies | 50% | 1 hour 30 min · 60 marks | source evaluation and essay |
- Pearson does not tier this subject: every candidate sits the same papers and every grade is reachable from them. That removes the entry-tier decision entirely, which is one of the practical differences between the two boards.
- Two papers, no coursework and no alternative-to-coursework paper. The options are chosen by the school from a published list, so "IGCSE History" tells a tutor almost nothing until the options are named.
Read from the published syllabus and checked on 2026-09-22.
Weightings are the awarding body’s own published figures. Where a board tiers the entry, the same weighting applies to both tiers — what changes is the grade range available.
What students usually need help with
Not a list of topics — a list of the specific things that cost marks in History regardless of how well the content is known.
Provenance, not opinion
Reliability marks are earned by reasoning from who wrote the source, when and why. "It is biased" without that reasoning scores nothing on either board.
Cartoon interpretation
Political cartoons carry heavy marks and are the source type students handle worst, because the meaning is in symbols and captions rather than in text.
Answering the actual question
"How far do you agree" requires a counter-argument and a judgement. A narrative of the period, however accurate, sits in the lower bands.
Knowing your options
Both boards let the school choose depth studies. Revising the wrong one is a real risk and a preventable one.
What the syllabus covers
The content both boards cover, grouped by area. Unit names and their order differ by specification — this shows the shape of the course; your own syllabus shows what is examinable.
Core content: international relations
The peace treaties of 1919–23 and the League of Nations · The causes of the Second World War · The Cold War: origins, crises and détente · Decolonisation and regional conflict, where prescribed
Depth studies
Germany 1918–45 · Russia and the USSR 1905–41 · The USA 1919–41 · China, South Africa or Israel and the Palestinians, depending on the school’s option
Source skills
Comprehension and inference from written and visual sources · Cross-referencing sources for agreement and disagreement · Evaluating reliability and usefulness by provenance and purpose · Using sources together to reach a supported judgement
Where marks are actually lost
The evaluation marks are the ones students leave behind, and they follow a formula that is not secret. A source is useful or reliable because of who produced it, for whom, and at what moment — a German newspaper in 1933 is not unreliable in the abstract, it is shaped by a censorship regime that started that year. Candidates who write "this source is biased so it is unreliable" have described a property of all sources and earned nothing. Candidates who reason from provenance to a specific limitation earn the top band, and the reasoning can be taught in a few sessions.
The Cambridge Paper 2 topic rotation deserves flagging because it wastes revision time quietly. The document questions are set on a prescribed topic that changes by examination year, so a past paper from two years ago tests source technique on content this cohort will not face. Practising the technique on it is fine; revising its content is not. Checking which topic applies to your series is a five-minute job that saves weeks.
Send the specification code
Two students can both be "doing IGCSE History" and sit different papers, at different lengths, with a different grade ceiling. The specification code — 0610, 4BI1 and so on — is on the front of your syllabus and on every past paper, and it is the first thing we ask for. With it we can put you with a tutor who has taught that paper; without it, the subject match can be right and the exam preparation wrong.
Frequently asked questions
The questions UAE students and parents ask us most often about this program.
Related programs
Other preparation tracks students often combine with this one.
IGCSE Tutoring
Subject tutoring for Year 10 and Year 11 students working towards IGCSE or GCSE. Lessons follow your school’s board and specification, with past papers from the start rather than at the end.
IGCSE Pricing
IGCSE tutoring is priced per subject. Starting in Year 10 rather than Year 11 is the single biggest thing a family can do to reduce what it spends.
How it works
Every student starts with a free consultation and ends with a plan that has a date on it. What happens in between depends on which exam you are sitting.
Tell us where History is going wrong
Send a recent piece of marked work or a past paper with the marks on it, and tell us the specification code. That shows us more in five minutes than a description of the problem does in an hour.