A private candidate is a student who enters Cambridge exams through an independent exam centre instead of through their own school. This checklist helps you prepare the questions for that centre. You tick each item yourself after you have confirmed it, so nothing is marked done on your behalf.
We teach the subject. Registration, entry and results are matters for the centre and Cambridge.
How do you use it?
- Tick the subjects you are considering. The list shows the subject and its code, for example Mathematics (0580) and Physics (0625).
- Pick your intended session: May/June, October/November, February/March (only if the centre offers it) or not decided yet.
- Tick any route questions that apply to you: practical, coursework or speaking components, access arrangements, unsure of the core or extended route, or a retake.
- Work down the checklist. Tick each item only after you have confirmed it with the centre or the official source.
- Use Download checklist to save a text copy to take into your conversation with the centre. Reset returns the defaults.
How do you read the result?
The heading shows your progress, for example “0 of 8 items confirmed by you. 8 still unresolved.” Items change as you change your choices, because each subject and each route question adds its own item.
Every subject item carries an Unresolved label until you tick it, then Confirmed by you. The tool never marks a subject as available. Whether a subject is open to private candidates depends on the centre and the session, so it stays your job to confirm.
Example walk-through
The tool opens with Mathematics (0580) and Physics (0625) selected, May/June and no route questions ticked. That gives eight items: find a centre, one item for each of the two subjects, the entry deadline, fees, identity documents, the current syllabus and how results are handled.
Suppose you phone a centre and it confirms it accepts private candidates for 0580 in May/June. Tick the 0580 item. Its label changes to “Confirmed by you”, and progress reads 1 of 8.
Physics stays unresolved because the centre did not confirm it.
Add the “practical components” route question, and a ninth item appears asking how practical work would be arranged and supervised. The count changes to 1 of 9.
Nothing on screen tells you Physics is fine. You still have to ask.
What are the assumptions and limits?
- No promise of entry. The checklist does not confirm availability for anyone.
- No fee quotation and no affiliation with any centre.
- No collection of ID. Keep identity documents between you and the centre.
- It cannot know your local deadlines. Check them against the official timetable and with the centre.
- Your ticks are stored in your own browser. Clearing site data removes them.
Which lessons explain the steps?
Read questions to ask an independent exam centre before registering first. Then tuition and examination registration are different services explains who does what.
For the paperwork, see check a statement of entry without uploading personal details and check local entry deadlines and available examination sessions. Two route topics are covered in discuss access arrangements with the responsible exam centre and check practical and coursework entry requirements before choosing resources. After the exam, where to direct result and review-of-marking questions tells you who to ask.
Three short guides go further: check whether a centre accepts the exact subject and route, prepare questions about statement-of-entry details and arrange study support separately from examination entry.
The wider picture is in the exams guidance. When the entry route is settled, you can ask about online one-to-one Mathematics tuition or your other subject. More tools are in the learning tools directory.