Cambridge Checkpoint at Stage 6 and Stage 9: what it is, how it is scored, and how to prepare

If your child is at a school on the Cambridge Primary or Cambridge Lower Secondary programme, whether in the Netherlands, Dubai, Toronto or India, two tests punctuate the journey to IGCSE: Cambridge Primary Checkpoint at the end of Stage 6, around age 11, and Cambridge Lower Secondary Checkpoint at the end of Stage 9, around age 14. Parents from India tend to treat them like board exams. They are not, but the Stage 9 result quietly decides more about IGCSE than most families realise. This guide explains what is tested, how it is scored, how schools use it, and when to start.

What Checkpoint is

Cambridge Checkpoint is a set of externally set and externally marked tests in English, mathematics and science, with optional tests in Global Perspectives and, at lower secondary, ICT. Cambridge writes the papers, the school sits them under exam conditions, the scripts go back to Cambridge for marking, and the school receives a report for each child and for the cohort.

The purpose is diagnostic. Cambridge's own description is feedback on strengths and weaknesses before the next stage. There is no certificate of the kind a university or an Indian school would ask for, and there is no pass mark.

When it is sat

Cambridge runs Checkpoint series each year in spring and in October. From 2026 the spring option has widened: schools can choose a March or a May series. In practice most schools in Europe sit one spring series at the end of Stage 6 and one at the end of Stage 9, and use the October series for children who join late or for internal reasons. Ask your school which series it has registered for; the practice timetable depends on it.

How it is scored: the 0 to 50 scale and performance bands

Since the May 2023 series every Checkpoint report shows, for each subject, a score on a 0 to 50 scale and a performance band with a short descriptor. The score is not a raw mark or a percentage; it is a scaled score that lets Cambridge compare children across different series and years.

Two things follow. First, do not compare your child's score with an older sibling's 0 to 6 result; that scale was retired in 2023 and the numbers do not convert. Second, ignore any practice book or website that still explains Checkpoint in terms of "a 5.5 is excellent". The band descriptor on the report is the thing to read, and the school will show you where the child sits against the cohort.

What is tested in maths

Primary Checkpoint (Stage 6): number and place value including decimals and fractions, calculation with all four operations, ratio and simple proportion, algebra as missing numbers and simple formulas, geometry (angles, 2D and 3D shape, coordinates, transformations), measure (length, mass, capacity, time, area and perimeter), and statistics and probability (tables, charts, mode, median, mean, likelihood). Two papers, one without a calculator and one with.

Lower Secondary Checkpoint (Stage 9): everything from KS3 in our KS2 and KS3 guide, assessed at Stage 9 level: indices and standard form, algebra including expanding, factorising, linear and simultaneous equations, sequences and graphs, geometry including Pythagoras and angle reasoning, transformations and constructions, measure including compound units, and a substantial statistics and probability strand. Again two papers, non-calculator and calculator. The questions are set in contexts and reward method; a correct answer with no working scores less than a clear method with a slip.

What is tested in science

Biology, chemistry and physics, plus Earth and space, and a strand Cambridge calls "thinking and working scientifically": planning investigations, handling data, evaluating results, using models. That last strand is where children from India lose most marks, because it is asked as "describe how you would test", "what is the independent variable", "explain why the results are not reliable", questions that a content-heavy Indian science course rarely asks. Stage 9 science is a single paper set with a heavy weighting on this scientific-method material.

How schools actually use the result

At Stage 6 the report is mainly used to set the child in Year 7 and to flag gaps.

At Stage 9 it matters more. Many schools use the Checkpoint result, together with the year's internal results, to decide the IGCSE set and, in maths, whether a child will sit the Extended or Core paper. Extended gives access to the top grades and to A-Level maths; Core caps the grade. That decision is often made in the summer after Stage 9 and it is hard to reverse in Year 10. So the Stage 9 Checkpoint is, in effect, the entrance test for IGCSE Extended, and it is worth preparing for as such.

A preparation plan

Stage 6 and Stage 9, September to December. Cover the stage's content in the school's order, one topic ahead. Fix the working: every answer with a method, every science answer with the scientific-method vocabulary. This is the term to close gaps, not the spring.

January to the test. Past papers from Cambridge, timed, one paper a week per subject, marked against the published mark schemes, then the mistakes reworked. Learn the command words (calculate, show that, explain, describe, compare) and what each one earns. Practise the non-calculator paper separately; children from CBSE are usually fast on it but lose marks by skipping working.

The week before. Nothing new. Sleep, one light paper, and a look at the formulas and the command words.

Children who have done a weekly routine since September do not need the frantic month that many families arrange in April, and they walk into IGCSE Extended with the algebra and the habits that the course assumes.

What we do

Our Cambridge students in the Netherlands, the UAE and India follow the stage content a topic ahead in weekly 1-on-1 classes, with the method and command-word habits built in from the first session. From January we run Cambridge past papers under time, mark them to the scheme and rework the errors, in maths and in science. For Stage 9 we also look ahead to the IGCSE Extended syllabus, so the decision in the summer is made from strength. Our IGCSE Mathematics page covers what comes next.

If your child is in Stage 6 or Stage 9 this year, the free placement demo shows in 30 minutes which strands are secure and which will cost marks in the spring.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →