FAQ
Grade boundaries with the real published figures, what the examiner reports say about losing marks, and the practical questions about retakes and paper variants.
The most-searched IGCSE topic, answered with the published figures.
In the June 2025 Edexcel International GCSE Biology (4BI1) series a grade 9 needed 140 out of 180 marks — about 78%. Grade 8 was 124, grade 7 was 109, grade 6 was 94 and grade 4, a standard pass, was 65. Chemistry (4CH1) ran higher that series at 151 for a grade 9, and Physics (4PH1) sat at 143.
Grade boundaries are the minimum raw marks needed for each grade. They are not fixed in advance: examiners set them after marking, so a harder paper needs fewer marks for the same grade. Always mark a past paper against the boundaries published for that specific paper and series — using last year's boundaries on this year's paper gives you the wrong grade.
On the 9–1 scale, 9 is the highest and roughly equivalent to a high A*. A grade 4 is a standard pass and 5 a strong pass. Most sixth forms ask for 5s or 6s across the board, with 7s in the subjects you want to take at A Level. Check the actual entry requirements for the courses you want next — they are more specific than any general rule.
Both are in use. Most Edexcel International GCSEs and many Cambridge IGCSEs now use the 9–1 scale, but some subjects and some regions still report A*–G. The specification and the published boundary tables tell you which applies to your paper.
What the evidence and the examiner reports actually support.
Most students who do well start structured revision around three months before the first paper, then move to timed past papers in the final four to six weeks. What matters more than total hours is spacing: short sessions on the same topic across several weeks beat one long session, and questions you get wrong and revisit are worth far more than notes you reread.
Past papers are the single most effective revision tool, but not on their own. Questions are never reused — across four years of Edexcel Biology papers we found no repeated questions — so memorising answers does not work. What does transfer is the pattern: the same concepts return in new wording, the same command words dominate, and the final question is usually an experiment-design task. Use notes to learn the content, then past papers to learn the paper.
Describe means say what happens. Explain means say why it happens, using a mechanism or a reason. This is the single most common complaint in published examiner reports: students describe when the question asked them to explain, and lose the marks even though the science is correct. If a question says explain, your answer needs a 'because' in it.
Answer questions across the whole specification and track which objectives you get wrong, not just which topics feel hard — those are often different. Feeling shaky on a topic you rarely lose marks on wastes revision time; being confident on one you consistently drop marks in is worse. IGCSE MASTERS scores you against every numbered syllabus objective for exactly this reason.
The practical questions about sitting the thing.
Yes, and there is no limit. Both Cambridge and Edexcel let you sit a subject again in any later series — typically the next May/June or October/November. You can enter through your school or as a private candidate at an approved exam centre. Your best grade is the one you use; a lower earlier grade does not cancel it out.
Yes. Private candidates register directly with an approved exam centre, often run by the British Council, and prepare independently or with a tutor. Entry deadlines are typically several months before the exam, and some subjects with practical or speaking components are harder to sit privately — check with the centre before committing to a subject.
Do all of them. Boards run regional variants so exams can be sat at a sensible local hour — Edexcel labels these 'R' papers, for example 4BI1/1BR, sat in the UAE, the wider Gulf, Asia-Pacific and elsewhere; Cambridge uses numbered variants like /11, /12 and /13. The content and standard are identical and only the questions differ, so every paper is good practice. Grade boundaries, however, are published per variant — always mark against the boundaries for the paper you actually sat.
Most students take eight to ten. Universities and sixth forms generally care more about the grades than the number, and a smaller set of strong grades beats a longer list of weaker ones. Check the entry requirements for the A Levels or IB subjects you want next — those usually specify particular subjects at particular grades.
IGCSE is the international version, designed for schools worldwide and sat in over 150 countries. The content and standard are comparable and universities treat them the same. The practical differences are that IGCSEs are examined at more points in the year, and some subjects are assessed differently — for example science practicals are usually examined through written questions rather than assessed coursework.
Separate science specifications contain content that is not in the combined or double award, marked in the specification with a bold letter reference. In Edexcel IGCSE Biology, 42 of the 176 objectives are separate-award only. IGCSE MASTERS filters these out automatically once you say which award you are sitting, so you never revise material that cannot appear on your paper.
What this is, and how it is built.
A free revision platform for IGCSE students. Revision notes and topic questions are written against every numbered objective in the awarding body's own specification, questions are marked instantly with real mark schemes, and your score is tracked per objective so you can see exactly which parts of a topic are costing you marks.
Three things. First, content is built from the specification objective by objective — 553 parsed so far — rather than from a general syllabus outline, so nothing is off-spec and nothing is missed. Second, questions are written to match how the real paper asks: we analysed 24 past Biology papers and found two in five marks come from 'Explain' questions, so ours are mostly short written answers with mark schemes rather than only multiple choice. Third, every question carries a tip drawn from published examiner reports — the mistakes examiners actually record, not invented ones.
Yes. Revision notes, topic questions, mark schemes and the past-paper index are all free while we are in early access. We hold no payment details, so there is nothing to cancel, and we will not start charging an existing account without asking first.
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Biology (4BI1), Chemistry (4CH1) and Physics (4PH1) are live, covering the 2017 specification. Biology is complete with revision notes and topic questions across all 22 sub-topics; Chemistry and Physics currently have the full syllabus structure and past papers. Cambridge and OxfordAQA courses are being built next.
Content is drafted against the specification objectives and the published examiner reports, then reviewed before it is served to students. Nothing reaches a student until a person has read it and approved it, and every approval is recorded against the reviewer.
No. Past papers and mark schemes are the copyright of the awarding body and are published on their own site. We index them so they are easy to find — grouped by session and labelled with the paper code and regional variant — and link to the board's own copies.
Your display name, email, the subjects you chose and your practice results. Optionally your school, year group and country, each of which changes what you see. We do not collect your full name, date of birth, phone number or address, and we never share student data with advertisers. You can download everything we hold, or delete your account entirely, from your settings page.
The fastest way to find your weak topics is to answer some questions and let us score you against every syllabus objective.
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