Despite an earlier leak claiming that there would be a two-tier system - similar to the old O-levels and CSEs - the new qualification will be a single exam for a wide range of abilities.
This summer's English GCSEs were a new modular qualification, with pupils sitting written exam papers and controlled assessment, and schools decided when pupils submitted that assessment work and sat exams.
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If the students wish to pursue a certificate to confirm that they have achieved the official level of primary or basic education (three years of secondary school), they are able to sit an exam to obtain this qualification whilst attending the programme.
They compared the IGCSE syllabuses from the two exam boards that offer the qualification, Edexcel and Cambridge International Examinations, with two GCSE syllabuses.
Reducing resit opportunities would disadvantage pupils and the government seemed determined "to reduce the A-level to an elite university entrance exam" rather than a qualification for all young people, she added.
Apart from competition from the well-established A-level, the new qualification could also be rivalled by another proposed exam, called the Pre-U, aimed at stretching pupils planning to enter higher education.
He said there had been "grade inflation", fuelled by competition between exam boards to attract schools to their qualification, in effect that they had been making their exams easier.
The fear was that the English Baccalaureate certificate with its 'more challenging' tag, with its big bang end of year exam would mean universities and employers outside Wales regarded a qualification gained in Wales, in future, as not quite as shiny as the gold standard EBacc.
New courses for all A-level and Advanced GNVQ subjects have been written and a brand new exam called the AS or Advanced Subsidiary will give pupils an extra qualification.
At the same time the AS-level would no longer be a stepping stone exam that counts towards a full A-level but instead become a stand-alone qualification.
Jerry Jarvis, the managing director of Edexcel, one of the three big exam boards, has said that early adopters of the diploma risk emerging with a worthless qualification.
If such open access online courses no longer required A-levels as an entry exam, she raised the question about what this would mean for the future of the qualification.
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