Career Launcher UAE offers IGCSE biology tuition for Cambridge 0610 and 0970, Pearson Edexcel 4BI1 and OxfordAQA 9201, as a separate science or within Combined Science, in Dubai and Sharjah, from centres in Bur Dubai, Al Nahda 2 and Al Qasimia, and online.
Lessons follow the syllabus your school enters you for, including its practical paper, and use that board’s past papers and mark schemes. Classes run as batch classes, small groups or one to one.
THE SYLLABUS, BOARD BY BOARD
IGCSE Biology: the papers you will sit.
Schools in the UAE enter IGCSE biology with Cambridge (0610, or 0970, the same course graded 9 to 1, which Cambridge offers to UAE schools), Pearson Edexcel (4BI1) or OxfordAQA (9201). Combined and Double Award Science (Cambridge 0653 and 0654, Edexcel 4SD0, OxfordAQA 9204) cover much of the same biology.
Cambridge
Cambridge IGCSE Biology (0610)
Grades
A* to G. Cambridge IGCSE (9–1) Biology, 0970, is the same course and papers graded 9 to 1.
Tiers
Core (Papers 1 and 3, grades C to G) or Extended (Papers 2 and 4, grades A* to G), plus one practical paper for everyone.
Exams
June and November. A March series is for schools in India only.
Practical skills
Paper 5, a practical test in a laboratory, or Paper 6, a written Alternative to Practical: from food tests and osmosis to photosynthesis, transpiration and sampling.
Paper 1 or 2 (Multiple Choice)45 minutes, 40 marks, 30%40 four-option questions, Core or Extended.
Paper 3 or 4 (Theory)1 hour 15 minutes, 80 marks, 50%Short-answer and structured questions, Core or Extended.
Paper 5 (Practical Test)1 hour 15 minutes, 40 marks, 20%Experiments in a laboratory.
Paper 6 (Alternative to Practical)1 hour, 40 marks, 20%Written questions on experiments, in place of Paper 5.
Cambridge’s next syllabus, for 2029, makes no changes that affect teaching.
No practical exam. Fourteen practicals in the specification, from food tests to sampling with quadrats, are tested in the written papers.
Paper 1 (1B)2 hours, 110 marks, 61%Multiple choice, short answers, calculations and longer answers on the content shared with Double Award Science.
Paper 2 (2B)1 hour 15 minutes, 70 marks, 39%The whole course, including the biology-only content. It opens with a passage to read that sets the scene for the questions.
Coordination and response: coordination and response; sense organs; hormones; homeostasis; tropic responses
Drugs
Reproduction: asexual; sexual; in plants; in humans; sex hormones in humans; sexually transmitted infections
Inheritance: chromosomes, genes and proteins; mitosis; meiosis; monohybrid inheritance
Variation and selection: variation; adaptive features; selection
Organisms and their environment: energy flow; food chains and food webs; nutrient cycles; populations
Human influences on ecosystems: food supply; habitat destruction; pollution; conservation
Biotechnology and genetic modification: biotechnology; genetic modification
Edexcel 4BI1 syllabus
The nature and variety of living organisms
Structure and functions in living organisms: cells, molecules, nutrition, respiration, gas exchange, transport, excretion, co-ordination
Reproduction and inheritance
Ecology and the environment
Use of biological resources: food production, selective breeding, genetic modification and cloning
OxfordAQA 9201 syllabus
Organisation: cell structure; principles of organisation; animal tissues, organs and systems; plant tissues, organs and systems; transport in cells
Bioenergetics: photosynthesis; exchange and transport in plants; circulation in humans; digestion; breathing; respiration
Ecology: energy transfer in ecosystems; adaptations, interdependence and competition; decay and the carbon cycle; humans and the environment
Organisms’ interaction with the environment: the nervous system; homeostasis; water and ion content; temperature control; blood glucose; behaviour; infection and response
Variation and evolution: continuous and discontinuous variation; natural selection
WHERE MARKS ARE LOST
What the examiners keep pointing out.
From the boards’ own reports on recent exams, in our words. These are the points lessons and practice papers are built around.
Describing when the question says explain. Many did not answer the command word: asked to explain the fall in polio cases on a chart, a sizeable number only described it. Cambridge 0610 examiner report, June 2024
“Produce energy”. Saying mitochondria produce energy earned nothing. Credit went to release or provide energy, or produce ATP. Cambridge 0610 examiner report, June 2024
Reading graphs exactly. Many said transpiration “stops” when the rate levelled off, and confused transpiration with respiration, or lactose with lactase. Cambridge 0610 examiner report, June 2024
Planning an investigation. Plans named the variables but not how the independent variable would be changed or the dependent one measured. Tables put units in the cells instead of the headings, and “m” was used for minutes. Cambridge 0610 examiner report, June 2024
Accuracy is not reliability. Asked how to make a result more accurate, many said repeat the experiment, which makes it more reliable, not more accurate. Pearson 4BI1 examiner report, June 2025
Definitions that miss half the idea. Homeostasis was defined only as temperature control, and an organelle without saying it has a specific function. Pearson 4BI1 examiner report, June 2025
One point for every mark. “Discuss” and “comment” answers need as many separate points as there are marks, and standard form, rounding and unit conversions cost marks too. Pearson 4BI1 examiner report, June 2025
HOW LESSONS WORK
Start from the gap. Build to the exam.
Start from the syllabus code. The first conversation takes the board, the code, the tier and a recent test or mock, so lessons start from where marks are actually going.
Teach the topic, then the question. Each topic is taught for understanding, then practised on the board’s own past papers and marked against its mark scheme.
Mocks, then the exam. Timed papers and mock review in the run-up to the exams, so method, wording and pace hold up on the day.
TAKING GCSE INSTEAD?
GCSE Biology.
UK GCSE Biology is a separate qualification. AQA 8461 and Pearson Edexcel 1BI0 each have two papers of 1 hour 45 minutes and 100 marks at Foundation (grades 5 to 1) or Higher (9 to 4), sat in May or June, with required practicals tested in the papers. Tell us the board, and lessons follow that specification.
WHERE TO FIND US
IGCSE biology tuition in Dubai and Sharjah.
Three centres, and online classes for students who live further away. Contact the closest centre and the team will confirm where and how IGCSE biology is taught for your board.
Recall matters, but examiners keep pointing to other skills: answering the command word (explain, not describe), reading graphs exactly, planning investigations, and making one point for every mark in longer answers. Those improve with practice on the board’s own questions.
Should my child take Core or Extended IGCSE biology?
On Cambridge 0610, Core leads to grades C to G and Extended to A* to G, so anyone aiming at a C or above should take Extended. Edexcel 4BI1 and OxfordAQA 9201 are not tiered: everyone sits the same papers.
How is practical work assessed in IGCSE biology?
Cambridge 0610 has a practical paper worth 20%: a test in a laboratory or a written Alternative to Practical. Edexcel 4BI1 and OxfordAQA 9201 have no practical exam; their practicals are tested in the written papers.
What is the difference between 0610 and 0970?
They are the same Cambridge IGCSE Biology course with the same papers. 0610 is graded A* to G and 0970 is graded 9 to 1, and Cambridge offers 0970 to schools in the UAE.
Is IGCSE biology tuition at a centre or online?
Both. Classes run at our centres in Bur Dubai, Al Nahda 2 and Al Qasimia, Sharjah, and online, as batch classes, small groups or one to one. The team confirms the format, the tutor and the timings before you enrol.
Ideally early in Year 10, when the two-year course begins, and at the latest once the Year 11 mocks show where marks are being lost. An early start leaves time to fix gaps in core topics rather than cramming past papers in the spring.
