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What Is Cambridge Checkpoint?

A Cambridge-marked diagnostic test at the end of Stage 6 and Stage 9, scored 0–50 across six bands. What the report says, and what a band predicts for IGCSE.

Respuesta breve

What is Cambridge Checkpoint?

A set of tests Cambridge marks for its schools at the end of primary and lower secondary. It is diagnostic, not a qualification — no university or employer will ever ask for it.

La respuesta corta
Cambridge Checkpoint is a diagnostic assessment taken inside a Cambridge school at the end of Primary (Stage 6) and Lower Secondary (Stage 9), with papers marked externally by Cambridge. Since the May 2023 series, results are reported on a 0–50 scale with six performance bands, from Unclassified up to Outstanding.

Qué cambia la respuesta

Schools choose whether to enter learners at all, so a child at a Cambridge school may never sit it.
Global Perspectives is assessed differently — by coursework marked in school and moderated by Cambridge — and is reported on its own scale.
The score reported is a standardised score rather than a percentage, so it will not match the raw mark out of the paper total.
The prediction from a Checkpoint band to an IGCSE grade is an average across all learners, not a forecast for one child.

A test your school buys, not a qualification you carry

Checkpoint sits inside the Cambridge Pathway as a checkpoint in the ordinary sense of the word: a place where a school stops and finds out, from an outside marker, how its learners are doing against an international standard. The papers are taken in school and sent to Cambridge for marking.

What comes back is a Statement of Achievement and a detailed report. What does not come back is a certificate anyone outside the school will ask about. No university admits on Checkpoint, no employer asks for it, and it does not appear on an IGCSE certificate.

That is the right frame for a parent. It is information about teaching and learning, addressed to the school and to you, and its whole value is in what it changes about the next two years.

The subjects and the stages

Checkpoint runs at the end of Cambridge Primary (Stage 6, typically age 11) and at the end of Cambridge Lower Secondary (Stage 9, typically age 14, the year before IGCSE courses begin).

Each subject has its own curriculum code, which is worth knowing when you are matching a report to a syllabus.

Cambridge Lower Secondary Checkpoint, Stage 9 — English (0861), English as a Second Language (0876), Mathematics (0862), Science (0893)
Cambridge Primary Checkpoint, Stage 6 — English (0058), English as a Second Language (0057), Mathematics (0096), Science (0097)
Global Perspectives — coursework marked in school and moderated by Cambridge, reported on a 0–40 mark scale with Gold, Silver and Bronze bands

Reading a 0–50 score

Before May 2023, Checkpoint used a 0.0 to 6.0 scale. Cambridge replaced it with a 0 to 50 scale and a set of six performance bands shared with the Progression Tests, so that a school could use one vocabulary across both.

The crucial point is that the score is not a percentage. Cambridge converts raw marks using Rasch analysis, which takes into account how difficult the individual questions were. In Cambridge's own worked example, 42 raw marks out of 80 becomes a Checkpoint score of around 33 — and the exact conversion depends on the difficulty of that particular paper.

The pay-off is comparability. The same score means the same standard in every subject and every series, so a child scoring 33 in mathematics and 33 in science really is at a similar standard in both, even though the raw marks behind those scores differ.

0 — Unclassified
1 to 10 — Basic
11 to 20 — Aspiring
21 to 30 — Good
31 to 40 — High
41 to 50 — Outstanding

What a band says about IGCSE

Cambridge publishes a general progression guide, and it is the most useful line in the whole report. On average, a learner in the Good band at Lower Secondary Checkpoint would be expected to achieve at Cambridge IGCSE grade C/4 standard, and a learner in the Outstanding band at grade A/7 standard.

Cambridge is careful, and so should we be: these are averages across all learners. Some children make more progress than the band indicates and some make less, and the further the IGCSE subject sits from the Checkpoint subject, the looser the relationship becomes.

The scale is also designed so that a child progressing at the expected rate stays in the same band from Primary Checkpoint to Lower Secondary Checkpoint. Which means the genuinely informative reading is not the band itself but whether the band moved — and in which direction.

The part of the report worth reading twice

The subject score is the headline and the least actionable number in the document. Underneath it, Cambridge reports at strand, sub-strand and question level, and that is where the teaching decisions live.

A mathematics score of 28 built on strong number and weak geometry needs a completely different response from the same 28 built the other way round. The headline cannot distinguish them; the strand breakdown can, in about two minutes.

So the question to ask the school is not 'what did my child get'. It is: 'which strands are furthest behind, and what changes in Stage 10 because of it?' That is the conversation Checkpoint exists to make possible, and it is worth having in the term the results arrive rather than a year later.

The Cambridge Checkpoint reporting scale, in use since the May 2023 series: 0–50The Cambridge Checkpoint reporting scale, in use since the May 2023 series[1]
The score range for the Good performance band: 21–30The score range for the Good performance band[1]

Preguntas frecuentes

Can a child fail Cambridge Checkpoint?

There is no pass mark. The lowest band, Unclassified, applies to a score of 0, and everything above that is described in terms of what the learner can do. The report is built to say what to work on next, and reading it as a pass-or-fail verdict wastes most of what it offers.

Why does my child's percentage not match the Checkpoint score?

Because the Checkpoint score is not a percentage and is not half of one. Raw marks are converted using Rasch analysis, which weighs how hard each question was. Cambridge's own example turns 42 raw marks out of 80 into a score of about 33, and a different paper would convert it slightly differently.

Does Checkpoint matter for IGCSE entry or for university?

Not for university, and not formally for IGCSE. What it does affect in practice is the school's internal decisions — which set a child is placed in, whether Core or Extended is being assumed for IGCSE, and where support goes in Stage 10. Those decisions matter a great deal.

Can a private candidate sit Checkpoint?

No. Entries come through registered Cambridge schools, not from families, because the tests are designed as an internal assessment tool for a school delivering the Cambridge Pathway. If your school does not enter learners, there is no external route to sit it.

Fuentes

FAQs: Changes to Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary Progression Tests and Checkpoint reporting — Cambridge University Press & Assessment

Última actualización 21 de agosto de 2026