Welcome back, all!

It is officially September, which means about a month until the October-November 2026 exams, the final exams on the 2024-2026 syllabus before all subsequent exams transition to the 2027-2029 syllabus.

There is a peculiar thing that happens as an examination approaches: revision seems to expand.

One more video. One more set of notes. One more past paper opened in a new tab and never quite completed. Before long, you are extremely busy—but not entirely sure whether any of this activity is improving your performance even as all the other exams loom, one after another!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all these years, it is this: Panic is very good at producing activity. It is less good at producing marks.

Your task during the final sprint is not to become a completely different reader or writer. It is to make the skills you already possess more reliable under examination conditions.

This checklist, available for our Premium Members, will help you identify what is still costing you marks, choose the right kind of practice and arrive at the examination with a clear plan. If you do not have a premium membership but you would like to purchase the checklist nonetheless, you may do so here.

It is meant to make you brutally honest with yourself, identify where you are going wrong, and become honest with where you are with your preparations.

Let’s get into it!

Begin with a 90-second diagnosis.

Before completing another paper, tick the statements that genuinely describe your recent work:

Your final practical checks

During the final week:

• Confirm your component, variant, examination date, AM/PM session, venue and reporting time with your centre.
• Prepare several black or dark-blue pens.
• Remember that dictionaries, erasable pens and correction fluid are not permitted.
• Rehearse your timing checkpoints.
• Complete your last full mock early in the week.
• Reduce the volume of practice as the examination approaches.
• Protect your sleep and normal routine.

During the examination:

• Check the component and variant on the front cover.
• Read the instructions and mark allocations carefully.
• Answer every required question.
• Follow your rehearsed clock rather than perfecting one answer.
• Label any work on additional pages clearly.
• Use the final minutes to complete missing sections and correct avoidable errors.

After Paper 1, resist the temptation to conduct a lengthy post-mortem with friends. Paper 1 is finished. Your attention now belongs to Paper 2.

One final 2026 note: papers from March 2026 may look visually different from some older past papers. Cambridge has changed aspects of the presentation for accessibility, but states that the content, demand and question types remain unchanged. You can find official papers and updates on the Cambridge 0500 past-papers page.

A final word

The last days before an examination are not the time to reinvent yourself as a writer.

They are the time to become more consistent: to read the exact question, make deliberate choices, finish what you begin and remove the errors you already know you make.

A checklist cannot write the paper for you. What it can do is turn a cloud of anxiety into a sequence of decisions.

You do not need to feel perfectly ready. You need to know what to do next.

Choose one weakness. Complete one useful piece of practice today. Return tomorrow and do the next thing.

If you would like worked responses and a regular feedback loop rather than revising in the dark, you can explore EnglishFirstLanguage.net Premium membership. Premium members can also use the IGCSE Essay Marker for up to 20 eligible submissions each month.

Just want to purchase the checklist? That’s ok! You’ll find it here.

All the best with your preparations!

V.