Cambridge Checkpoint Cambridge Secondary 1
Overview
Cambridge Checkpoint tests are for use at the end of Cambridge Secondary 1. They are marked by CIE and provide schools with an external international benchmark for student performance. Cambridge Checkpoint enables feedback to be provided on a student's strengths and weaknesses in key curriculum areas. Feedback of this kind is an invaluable source of information. Schools and colleges will be able to make strategic decisions, drawing upon a pool of information and specialist reporting tools built into Cambridge Checkpoint. Learners at international schools will have a transferable indication of their academic progress.
What are the options?
Cambridge Checkpoint tests are available in English, Mathematics and Science and can be offered at two sessions during the year. The tests cover all major areas of learning required in the first years of an international secondary education. It is these topics/skills and sub-topics/skills that provide the framework for feedback on each learner.
| English | Mathematics | Science |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | Number | Biology |
| Explicit meaning | Properties | Cells and organisms |
| Select and summarise | Problem solving | Humans as organisms |
| Comment on character | Data handling | Plants |
| Implicit meaning | Variation and classification | |
| Use of language | Ecosystems | |
| Writing | Algebra | Chemistry |
| Structure | Manipulation | Materials |
| Style | Graphs | States of matter and physical change |
| Audience | Chemical change | |
| Content | Periodic table | |
| Usage | Space | Physics |
| Sentence Structure | Measure | Measurement and properties of matter |
| Punctuation | Geometry | Forces and motion |
| Vocabulary | Trigonometry | Energy |
| Spelling | Light | |
| Sound | ||
| Magnetism | ||
| Electricity |
Cambridge Checkpoint feedback documents
The diagnostic reports generated by Cambridge Checkpoint enable schools to:
- tailor individual learners' learning programmes
- monitor group and individual performance
- provide information for reporting to parents
- compare the performance of all learners taking tests in that session
- manage learning programmes within Centres as learners move between Centres
- predict performance in learners' formal examinations
The test feedback measures a learner’s performance against a number of variables including how a learner performed in relation to:
- the curriculum framework
- their teaching group
- a whole school cohort
- previous years' learners
The diagnostic reports come in four forms. The first three - reports to learners, reports on teaching groups, and the report on the school - will be sent within four weeks of the date when scripts are received at CIE. The fourth report - the end-of-session report on the entire cohort of candidates - will be issued after all of the learners' marks have been processed.
The report on a candidate gives:
- a Cambridge Checkpoint score for the whole subject
- a Cambridge Checkpoint score for each main topic/skill
- a list of the questions (and the sub-topics/skills) where the candidate's performance was particulary strong or particularly weak
- an attractively presented statement of achievement
The report on a teaching group gives:
- an average Cambridge Checkpoint score for the whole subject
- an average Cambridge Checkpoint score for each main topic/skill
- a list of sub-topics/skills with comments on the performance of the group
- the Cambridge Checkpoint scores of each candidate on the subject and on each main topic/skill
- the marks scored by each candidate on each question
The report on a school gives:
- an average Cambridge Checkpoint score for the whole subject
- an average Cambridge Checkpoint score for each main topic/skill
- a list of sub-topics/skills with comments on the performance of the learners
The end-of-session report gives the results of the whole cohort, from all schools, broken down by age and first language, so that schools may compare their own results with those of similar learners from elsewhere. The report will also give the examiner's comments on the test.
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