Cambridge IGCSE and A Level
Across Cambridge IGCSE and A Level, you’re writing mostly to a scheme, but the scheme is built on named command words rather than a free-form answer. Describe, explain and evaluate each ask you for a different kind of response, and answer the wrong one well and you’ll still earn little. Some subjects add oral, coursework or practical components alongside the written paper, so the shape shifts from one subject to the next — read the syllabus for your specific subject, not the qualification as a whole.
Your grade comes back as a letter, not a raw percentage, and at A Level there’s no failing letter at all. The pace is slow, real minutes per structured answer, so give time-per-mark and the right command word equal weight.
Grading is where Cambridge differs most. There’s no percentage to chase, and at A Level there’s no fail either — score below the lowest pass grade and you’re simply ungraded rather than marked as failed. Some A Level subjects let you start with the shorter, standalone qualification and carry it into the full one, so don’t assume a subject’s pace until you’ve checked its own syllabus. Set your target per subject, since the letter scale and the syllabus both differ subject to subject; the box below holds Cambridge’s own current grading scale, which Cambridge revises.
Open the syllabus and a specimen paper for one subject you are taking, from Cambridge’s own site. Answer the four questions from them: what form, what the marker pays for, what a miss costs, how many minutes each question earns. Write the four answers down — that page plans your season, not this chapter.
A low mark still feels like a fail, whatever the letter says, so treating it that way is the safer plan.
At A Level there is no failing letter — a result below the lowest pass grade is reported as ungraded, not as a named fail, and the letter is set by the board’s own grading, not by your raw score. Treating a low mark as a fail before checking the grading scale plans against a result that may not exist. Read your subject’s own grading guide first, and aim the season at the command words, not an imagined pass line.
Cambridge: check the current notice
As read on 14 September 2026 in Cambridge International’s own grading-scale guides and current programme pages, on cambridgeinternational.org. The box holds the numbers; Cambridge changes them, the shape does not. Confirm in the current notice: the specific syllabus, paper structure, marks and timing for each subject you are taking. Also confirm whether your own school reports IGCSE on the lettered scale that runs from A star down to G, or on the 9–1 scale, and the exam series dates for your session.