The IGCSE Maths Marking Guide
How Cambridge examiners actually award marks — and the habits that stop your child losing them.
Based on Cambridge IGCSE™ Mathematics (0580) published mark-scheme conventions.
1 · The three kinds of marks
M
Method marks
Awarded for a correct method — even if the final answer is wrong. This is why "show your working" isn't teacher nagging: with no working, a wrong answer scores zero; with working, it can still collect most of the marks.
A
Accuracy marks
For the correct answer or value — but usually only available after the matching method mark. Right answer from wrong working often earns nothing.
B
Independent marks
For a correct statement or value on its own — no method required. These are the "free" marks weaker students leave blank. Write something sensible.
FT
Follow-through
Made an error early in a multi-part question? Later parts can still score full marks if your method is right using your earlier answer. Never abandon a question because part (a) went wrong.
2 · Command words — what the examiner expects
| When it says… | It means… |
|---|
| Write down | No working needed — the answer should be immediate. Don't burn time. |
| Work out / Calculate | Working is expected. A bare answer risks losing method marks if it's wrong. |
| Show that | The answer is given — every step of reasoning must be on paper. You're being marked on the journey, not the destination. |
| Hence | Use the previous part's result. Starting from scratch may score zero even if correct. |
| Sketch | Shape and key features (intercepts, turning points) — not a plotted graph. |
| Give your answer to… | An accuracy instruction — the final mark often depends on exactly this. |
3 · The five classic mark-losers
✗Premature rounding. Rounding mid-calculation poisons the final answer. Keep full calculator values through the working; round only at the end.
✗Ignoring the 3-significant-figure rule. Unless told otherwise, non-exact answers go to 3 s.f. — and angles to 1 d.p. Writing 5.7 when 5.74 was required costs the accuracy mark.
✗No working shown. One transcription slip with no working = all marks gone. Working shown = M marks survive the slip.
✗Missing or wrong units. cm vs cm² vs cm³ — checked, and penalised where the question asks for units.
✗Calculator in the wrong mode. IGCSE trigonometry is in degrees. A calculator left in radians turns every trig answer wrong — and it looks like method failure, not a settings slip.
The 4 habits that bank marks
- Write the formula or rule before substituting numbers — that line alone often carries the M mark.
- One step per line, working down the page. Examiners award what they can find.
- After every answer: does it need rounding, units, or a sense-check ("can a ladder be 240 m long?").
- Practise with the mark scheme open. Students who mark their own work learn where marks live — that's the single biggest score-mover we see.