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Our standards
Our awarding standards
Our awarding standards
Our awarding standards at Cambridge IGCSE and O Level
We align our standards at Cambridge IGCSE to the equivalent standards at GCSE for England.
All our Cambridge IGCSEs are graded on an A* to G grading scale. We make sure that the grades
we award on this scale are equivalent to the GCSE grades awarded on the
9 to 1 (PDF,
637KB)
scale used in England.
For some administrative zones and syllabuses, we also offer Cambridge IGCSEs graded on the 9
to 1 scale. We make sure that the grades we award on this scale are equivalent to those
awarded on the 9 to 1 scale used in England.
There is a choice between core and extended tier assessments in some subjects. Assessment at
core tier is targeted at candidates expected to achieve grades C to G or 5 to 1. Some extended
tier assessments also have restricted grade sets, such as A* to E or 9 to 3. The grades awarded in
tiered IGCSE assessments have the same meaning and value, regardless of the tier of entry.
They also have the same value as those achieved in non-tiered IGCSE qualifications.
Our Cambridge O Levels are graded on an A* to E grading scale. We align our standards at each
Cambridge O Level grade to the equivalent Cambridge IGCSE grade.
Candidates taking our Cambridge O Levels can be sure that their Cambridge O Level grades are
at the equivalent standard as GCSEs grades awarded in England. We know this because GCSEs
in England are at the equivalent standard to our Cambridge IGCSEs and these are at the same
standard as our Cambridge O Levels.
Our awarding standards at Cambridge International AS & A Level
The grading process – how we ensure quality
When we set the position of grade thresholds, we use a variety of sources of evidence. We look at
statistical evidence, such as the performance of comparable groups of candidates in the current
exam series and in a previous exam series (usually the same series a year previously). We also
consider judgemental evidence, such as the principal examiner’s view about the difficulty of each
question paper.
Our highly trained assessment staff know how to use appropriate evidence to grade each component
of a qualification – our different assessments test a variety of skills and content and are taken by
different numbers of candidates, so the same balance of evidence is not appropriate in every case.
Our extensive experience working with schools around the world also means that, when we make
grading decisions, we know how to account for changes in the cohorts of candidates taking our
qualifications.
Our grading decisions are made by experts who document and justify each step in the decision-
making process. The decisions are not made automatically by a computer. The initial decisions are
reviewed by a second expert team to make sure all qualifications have been graded accurately, fairly
and comparably, and finally they are reviewed by our most senior staff.
We continually research the awarding standards of our qualifications and how these compare to
those of equivalent qualifications. Our research teams work with senior assessment specialists to
review the comparability of the content and skills requirements of our syllabuses and question
papers. Our statistical experts analyse results data to assess comparability, such as the outcomes for
cohorts of candidates who have taken a mixture of different qualification types at the same level,
such as IGCSE and GCSE. As is common practice across awarding organisations, we make fine
adjustments if there is evidence of any divergence of standards in either direction.
We also work with external agencies to verify the awarding standards of our qualifications. For
example, in 2019, a
benchmarking study by UK ENIC
, the national agency in the UK for the
recognition and comparison of international qualifications and skills, found that Cambridge IGCSE is
at a comparable level to the reformed GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Alignment of our awarding standards and what this means
Awarding standards are aligned between two different qualifications when it is overall not easier or
harder to achieve a given grade in one qualification, such as IGCSE, than it is to achieve the
equivalent grade in the other qualification, such as O Level. The alignment of awarding standards
works at the level of the whole cohort of candidates in each qualification. For individual schools,
working with smaller numbers of candidates, results may not always appear aligned because of local
differences in teaching, learning and exam preparation.
The alignment of our awarding standards at Cambridge IGCSE and Cambridge International AS & A
Level with standards in England applies for all our Cambridge IGCSE and Cambridge International AS
& A Level subjects, even when there is not a directly equivalent subject offered in England. Likewise,
the alignment of our awarding standards at Cambridge IGCSE and O Level applies both for the
subjects that we offer at Cambridge O Level and IGCSE (using the same or different assessment
models), and for the subjects we offer only at Cambridge IGCSE or only at O Level.