We provide qualifications to nearly one million students a year in 10,000 schools across 160 countries. We are working closely with teachers, learners, and schools around the world to develop digital exams that improve the exam experience for students and provide an opportunity to assess more of the skills and knowledge that students are learning in the classroom. We are responsible in our approach and every step in our journey is based on research, feedback, and testing.
Our first digital exams will be based on current paper-based exams but will offer additional benefits for students. For example, students will have more control during the exam, such as the ability to change the background colour, highlight questions or sections of their answers for review, and they will also be able to easily navigate between questions. The summary section allows students to review their progress and ensure they have answered all questions. These features are designed to give students a more flexible and personalised exam experience.
We are working towards developing digital exams that offer new possibilities for the way we assess. This includes the assessment of skills that students can only demonstrate on-screen – such as working with data sets. This will allow us to assess a wider range of skills that students learn in the classroom.
We recognise the importance of working at a pace that considers the readiness and needs of our schools, so we are taking a responsible and phased approach.
Our Digital Mocks Service is available now and provides a like-for-like experience of a digital exam in a practice setting, so teachers and learners can build confidence.
We have established the Cambridge Early Adopter Programme (EAP) which develops a partnership between Cambridge and its schools to support in the transition to digital exams.
The EAP ensures we are considering the needs of our community whilst incorporating feedback to enhance the digital exam development programme. Schools who are part of this programme will be the first to take digital exams in June 2026 – ahead of digital exams being available worldwide from June 2027 onwards.
By 2033, our goal is for 85% of Cambridge’s IGCSE and International A & AS Level qualifications to be available in both digital and paper formats.
If you would like your students to experience digital exams in a practice setting now, you can participate in our Digital Mocks Service.