Working with the subject syllabus documentation

Just like with your appliances there is a handbook explaining how the appliance works and what you should do or shouldn't do with the appliance, so the British International examination boards issue subject syllabi which gives incredibly useful information to guide the student, tutor and parent through the process of preparing for the exams.

In this article, I discuss the information that can be gleaned from the Cambridge International Education subject syllabus.

It is very important when preparing for the Cambridge International Education exams, whether at IG level or AS/A-Level, that you download the syllabus for each subject which you are studying, as the syllabus has very important information that will help you with your planning and preparation for that exam. The syllabi are available on the Cambridge International Education website.

The front cover of a syllabus will give you the name of the subject, level of the subject (IG, AS/A-Level) as well as the course code (a four digit number). The code will become important when registering for the exam.

The front cover will also state when the particular syllabus will be examined. This is where you will see which exam sessions this particular syllabus will be examined in.Remember that Cambridge International Education offers two exam session each year - the May/June exam session also known as the summer exam session (The UK is in the northern hemisphere and this is their summer season although it is winter in South Africa), and the October/November exam session. also known as the winter exam session. Some subjects are examined in both sessions, while others are only examined in the May/June exam session and yet others are only examined in the October/November exam sessions. Some subjects are offered in March in India only.

Some syllabi are only relevant for one year, while others for two or even three years. This allows Cambridge International to keep their courses on the cutting edge of teaching/learning and assessment. All subjects are regularly reviewed to make sure that they are meeting international standards and requirements.  It is very important to download the syllabus for the year that you will actually write the exam. For example, if you are planning to write IG Afrikaans (code:0548) in 2025, then you would download the syllabus for 2025-2027, even if you are starting to prepare for the exam in 2024.

The first page of the syllabus will give you changes that have been made to the syllabus. Some of these can be minor, like a word change to make something clearer; but some changes are more significant, where content is added to or removed from the syllabus. This does mean that when you are practicing past papers, you may come across some questions that are no longer relevant to the syllabus and also not cover questions on new sections that have been added to the syllabus.

To find out whether a particular subject is available to private candidates, look under the heading 'What else you need to know' which is usually towards the end of the syllabus. In some syllabi, your will find it under "Availability" which is a sub-heading under section 1 'Syllabus overview'. Cambridge International Education and Pearson Edexcel usually work in partnership with associated schools that offer teaching in the subjects as well as the exam venue. Both exam boards do allow private candidates to write the exams. As homeschoolers, we fall into the category of private candidates.

Other important information that you will find in the syllabus includes:

• information about Cambridge International Education
• content to be covered in the course - will indicate core and supplementary content where applicable for IG subjects
• assessment
  • aims and objectives
  • what papers to write and a brief description of the structure, marks, time, and weighting of each paper
  • what assessment objectives will be examined in each paper and to what extent
• prior knowledge needed
• useful information for each subject (such as formulae to be used in the subject)
• a description of what is expected at the different grades
• a glossary of exam terms (where applicable)

It is important to take note of the assessment objectives as these will determine how exam questions are structured and the type of answers that will be required. The glossary of exam terms is also very important as the terms indicate how a student is to answer the question. For example, in the sciences there is a different requirement for a question asking the student to describe something versus a questions asking the student to explain something.

It is useful to use the content to be covered as a checklist to make sure that the student has covered all the content. But the content must be understood and the student must be able to apply his/her knowledge to new and novel situations presented in the exam papers. Rote learning will not help the student in the exams.

Whether you are teaching your child yourself, or sending them to a tutor or even a Cambridge school, it is a good idea to download the subject syllabus and keep checking that your child is on track in their preparation.