The launch of Cambridge Checkpoint, an innovative new diagnostic testing service, marked a major landmark in the development of assessment services for the international school.
A unique service and an invaluable tool for schools and colleges, it enables access to standardised tests that provide feedback on a student's strengths and weaknesses in key curriculum areas. Students will have a transferable indication of their academic progress.

Cambridge Checkpoint tests are available in English, Mathematics and Science. The service is aimed at students of approximately 14 years of age studying mid-secondary curriculums. The tests cover all major areas of learning required in the first years of an international secondary education. It is these topics and sub-topics which provide the framework for feedback on each student.

The Checkpoint curriculum is designed to cover core content necessary for study towards O'level.
Checkpoint scores are also useful predictors of future O'level grades in the same subject. Research has shown, not surprisingly, that candidates with a given Checkpoint score can go onto achieve a range of O'level results, depending on how well they prepared. The following table shows the O' grades at the centre of the range.

Checkpoint score Likely O'level Grades
0-1----------------- U
1-2----------------- E
2-3----------------- D
3-4-----------------C
4-5---------------- B
5-6---------------- A

Tests are set by experienced CIE examiners who are also involved in marking them. The tests are revised and vetted by an independant group of experienced CIE examiners.
All test items are pre-tested prior to being put into a live Checkpoint test to ensure that they are appropriate in terms of difficulty and discrimination for Checkpoint sudents.

Two papers are set for each subject in order to divide up the time a candidate needs to be in a formal examination situation. In the case of Science the two papers are equal in terms of demand on students. In English, papers are staged, with paper 1 containing lower level questions. In Mathematics papers are divided into calculator and non-calculator.