Send a full past paper you've already sat — your own working, photos of your handwriting are fine. You'll get it back with every mark accounted for, earned or lost, and what the mark scheme wanted instead of what you wrote. Not covered enough for a full paper yet? Send one question. The first five that reach me get marked, free.
I'm Rich. I marked A Level Physics (9702) and IGCSE Physics (0625) for Cambridge, and I've read every examiner report Cambridge published for both from 2021 to 2026. I'm not currently contracted as a Cambridge examiner. What I'm offering here is the marking itself, done the way I did it.
Ideally a full past paper you've attempted, with your working as you actually wrote it. If you've not covered enough of the syllabus yet, one question is fine. Not a blank paper, and not a tidied-up version. Most of the marks are in the working, so the messy original is the one I need.
0625 or 9702 · full paper preferred · photo or scan
Your answer marked against the published mark scheme, mark by mark. Where each one was earned, where it was lost, and in the lost cases what the scheme was actually looking for. Plus the single thing I'd fix first.
Written · within a week, usually sooner
Not a tutorial, not a worked solution, and not a re-teach of the topic. You can get the physics explained in a dozen places for free. This tells you what your answer was worth to the person marking it.
No lesson · your paper, not a model answer
A model answer marked out of 6 tells you nothing, because it gets 6. The reason marking is worth anything is that it finds the gap between what you meant and what you wrote down — and that gap is invisible to you, which is exactly why it keeps costing marks.
There are no places to claim and no form to fill in. The first five scripts I receive get marked. Marking properly, mark by mark against a real scheme, takes about an hour a script, so five is five hours, and five hours is what I can give this week. I'd rather promise five and do them properly than promise fifty and do them badly.
Free, because everything on this site so far describes what examiner marking is like, and describing it doesn't work. Doing it once, on your paper, does. If it turns out to be worth having, I'll work out how to offer it properly rather than five at a time. If nobody wants it, that's worth knowing too, and it cost me an evening to find out.
When the five are gone I'll say so on this page rather than quietly keep taking them.
If you send me work for free marking, you're agreeing that I can use it anonymised in a paid product later — retyped, so no handwriting, no name, no candidate number, no school. I'll still come back and check with you before I use your script specifically. If you would rather I didn't use your work at all, say so when you send it and I'll mark it anyway. That's the exchange: you get an hour of examiner marking, and I get to show other students where real answers lose marks.
Email it to rich@cieinsider.com with the subject “Mark my paper”. Attach photos or a scan of your attempt. Tell me which paper it is — 9702 Paper 4, June 2024, variant 1 — and if you're not sure, send it anyway and I'll work it out.
I mark it against the published scheme. Mark by mark, in writing, the same way a script came back when I was marking. If the examiner report for that series commented on your question, I'll tell you what it said.
It comes back within a week, usually sooner. One email, nothing you need special software to open, nothing you have to reply to.
Then you decide what to do with it. I'll tell you the one thing I'd work on next. If something I do would help with that, I'll say so, and you're free to ignore it.
Yes. No card, no trial that starts billing, no account to make. You email me an answer and I email you back a marked one.
A whole paper is better, because you usually lose marks the same way more than once, and one question isn't enough to show that. But a single question is genuinely useful too, and early in the course plenty of you'll not have covered enough of the syllabus for a full paper. Send what you have.
Then it's a more useful script to mark than a good one. I've marked thousands of these, plenty of them weak, and it's just the work. The only script I can't do anything with is a blank one.
Send it anyway. I'll tell you straight away rather than leaving you waiting, and if enough people ask I'll work out how to offer it properly. I'll not pretend a place is free when it's not.
Either. I marked both for Cambridge and have read every examiner report for both from 2021 to 2026. Say which one you're doing when you send it.
Yes, possibly, and that's the condition of the free marking — it's set out above. It would be anonymised: retyped, so no handwriting, no name, no candidate number and no school. I'll also come back and check with you before I use your script specifically. If you would rather I didn't use your work at all, say so when you send it and I'll still mark it; I'd just rather you told me than assumed.
It goes on my list, which is where I send physics emails roughly weekly, and there's an unsubscribe link on every one of them. I don't sell it and nobody else sees it.
A full past paper you've attempted, 0625 or 9702, or one question if you're not that far yet. Photos of your handwriting are fine. The first five that arrive get marked.
Email it to rich@cieinsider.com