Guidance on advance information for Cambridge Pre-U qualifications

Advance information, summarised and published below, is one of the measures being taken to help support teachers and students of Cambridge Pre-U for the June 2022 exam series ¹. For details of all the measures being taken, in addition to advance information, please see support for Cambridge Pre-U in June 2022.

What are the key principles behind advance information?

Advance information is intended to communicate, ahead of the examinations, the focus of the content of the exams or part of the exams that will be assessed in the examination papers. As stated by DfE, the purpose of advance information is to support revision. The following principles apply to every subject:

We have avoided providing so much detail that answers to likely questions could be pre-prepared and memorised.
We have made sure advance information does not:
- undermine the value of the qualification in supporting student progression,
- directly provide answers to other, potentially low tariff(mark), questions,
- compromise the capability of the examinations to sufficiently differentiate between students’ performances.

A consequence of the agreed principles for advance information is that it will not always be possible to detail everything that is in the examination. In some cases, this would risk undermining good education, progression, or fair results; in others it would be unhelpful to teachers and students, for example by listing all topics which could lead to excessive teaching or revision on areas that are worth few marks. This means that in some subjects, for instance, the advance information will not apply to certain papers or parts of papers.

The information will detail the focus of particular aspects of the examination; for example, the content, contexts, texts, topics, sub-topics, themes and skills that will be assessed in the 2022 exams. This may be different, depending on the nature and design of the subject and each syllabus’s assessment arrangements.

Key points to remember for advance information

It can be used flexibly by teachers to achieve their purpose of supporting revision.
Advance information should not, however, be used to narrow teaching and learning.
It can be referred to by students in their revision and final examination preparation.
It cannot be brought into the examinations.
It will not be at a level that allows questions to be predicted or answers prepared.

A good, broad understanding of all the content of the syllabus is always the best preparation for success in an examination. Teachers and students should bear in mind that prior learning in a key idea or topic area might provide useful knowledge and understanding and be required for students to be able to answer questions fully, for example, for synoptic questions. ²

Students’ preparation for examinations should continue to focus on knowledge and understanding that can be applied appropriately in the context of unseen examination questions.

If you have any queries on the information provided in this document, please contact us.

Subject with link to advance information where applicable	Syllabus	Level	Summary
Global Perspectives	1340	Pre-U:S	No advance information is provided for this syllabus.
Literature in English (PDF, 56KB)	9765	Pre-U:P	No advance information is provided for Components 01, 03 and 04. For Component 02, advance information is provided for the passage-based questions only. The advance information gives a reduced list of Acts which may form the focus of passage-based questions. (Please note text titles were added on 7 February)
Geography (PDF, 102KB)	9768	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 01, 02 and 03. For Components 01 and 02, the advance information specifies the topics that the questions will address. For Component 03, advance information is provided for Sections A and B only. For these sections, the advance information specifies the topics that the questions will address. No advance information is provided for Section C. No advance information is provided for Component 44.
History (PDF, 234KB)	9769	Pre-U:P	Advance information is given for History Outline Components 03-04, 11-13, and 21-23, and Special Subject Components 52-72. The advance information for these components specifies the topics that the questions will address. No advance information is provided for Component 06.
Business & Management (PDF, 50KB)	9771	Pre-U:P	For Component 01, advance information is provided for Sections 2 and 3 only. The advance information for these sections specifies the topics that the questions will address. No advance information is provided for Section 1 of this component. Advance information is provided for Component 02. The advance information specifies the topics that the questions will address. No advance information is provided for Component 03.
Economics (PDF, 29KB)	9772	Pre-U:P	For Component 01, advance information is provided for Sections B and C only. Advance information for these sections specifies the topics that the questions will address. No advance information is provided for Section A of this component. Advance information is provided for Component 02. The advance information specifies the topics that the questions will address. No advance information is provided for Component 03.
Psychology (PDF, 38KB)	9773	Pre-U:P	For Component 01, advance information is provided for Section B only. The advance information will specify syllabus topics which will not form the focus of the questions. No advance information is provided for Section A of this component. No advance information is provided for Component 02. Advance information is provided for Component 03. The advance information specifies the topics that the questions will address. No advance information is provided for Component 04.
Philosophy & Theology (PDF, 77KB)	9774	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for all components in this syllabus. The advance information for Component 01 specifies the topics that the questions will address. The advance information for Components 02 and 03 specifies the set texts that the Section A questions will address. No advance information is provided for Section B.
Global Perspectives & Independent Research	9777	Pre-U:P	No advance information is provided.
Mandarin Chinese (PDF, 78KB)	9778	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 02 and 03. For Component 02, the advance information specifies the topics addressed by the Section 1 reading texts, the Section 2 listening texts, and the Section 4 translation. No advance information is provided for Section 3 of this component. The advance information for Component 03 specifies the topic focus for Sections 2 and 3. No advance information is provided for Section 1 of this component. No advance information is provided for Components 01 and 04.
French (PDF, 34KB)	9779	Pre-U:P	For Component 01, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information specifies the topics that the articles will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. Advance information is provided for Component 02. The advance information for this component specifies the topics that the texts will address. For Component 03, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information for this section specifies the topic areas that the essay questions will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. No advance information is provided for Component 04.
German (PDF, 34KB)	9780	Pre-U:P	For Component 01, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information specifies the topics that the articles will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. Advance information is provided for Component 02. The advance information for this component specifies the topics that the texts will address. For Component 03, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information for this section specifies the topic areas that the essay questions will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. No advance information is provided for Component 04.
Spanish (PDF, 34KB)	9781	Pre-U:P	For Component 01, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information specifies the topics that the articles will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. Advance information is provided for Component 02. The advance information for this component specifies the topics that the texts will address. For Component 03, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information for this section specifies the topic areas that the essay questions will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. No advance information is provided for Component 04.
Russian (PDF, 82KB)	9782	Pre-U:P	For Component 01, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information specifies the topics that the articles will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. Advance information is provided for Component 02. The advance information for this component specifies the topics that the texts will address. For Component 03, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information for this section specifies the topic areas that the essay questions will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. No advance information is provided for Component 04.
Italian (PDF, 34KB)	9783	Pre-U:P	For Component 01, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information specifies the topics that the articles will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. Advance information is provided for Component 02. The advance information for this component specifies the topics that the texts will address. For Component 03, advance information is provided for Part I only. The advance information for this section specifies the topic areas that the essay questions will address. No advance information is provided for Part II of this component. No advance information is provided for Component 04.
Classical Greek (PDF, 112KB)	9787	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 01 and 02. The advance information indicates specific line ranges or sections from the prescribed texts which will form the focus of the questions. No advance information is provided for Components 03 and 04.
Latin (PDF, 111KB)	9788	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 01 and 02. The advance information indicates specific line ranges or sections from the prescribed texts which will form the focus of the questions. No advance information is provided for Components 03 and 04.
Biology (PDF, 34KB)	9790	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 01, 02 and 03. The advance information provides a list of topics that is the focus of the assessment. For Component 01, advance information is provided for Section B only. For Component 03, advance information is provided for Section A only. No advance information is provided for Component 04.
Chemistry (PDF, 82KB)	9791	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 02 and 03. The advance information provides a list of topics that will be the focus of the assessment. No advance information is provided for Components 01 and 04.
Physics (PDF, 114KB)	9792	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 02 and 03. The advance information provides a list of topics that will be the focus of the assessment. No advance information is provided for Components 01 and 04.
Mathematics (PDF, 78KB)	9794	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 01, 02, and 03. The advance information specifies the topics that the questions will address.
Further Mathematics (PDF, 76KB)	9795	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 01 and 02. The advance information specifies the topics that the questions will address.
Art History (PDF, 230KB)	9799	Pre-U:P	Advance information is provided for Components 01 and 02. For Component 01, the advance information specifies a reduced selection of works of art that may form the focus of questions. For Component 02, the advance information will provide a reduced selection of topic areas that the questions may address. No advance information is provided for Components 03 and 04.
Music (PDF, 82KB)	9800	Pre-U:P	Advance information will only be provided for Sections C and D of Paper 12. The advance information specifies topics that the questions will address.
Art & Design	9837	Pre-U:P	No advance information is provided.

Advance information is available for all Cambridge Pre-U qualifications except for Art & Design and Global Perspectives.
Synoptic questions are those that give students the opportunity to draw together knowledge, skills and understanding from across the full course of study.

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Guidance on advance information for Cambridge Pre-U qualifications

What are the key principles behind advance information?

Key points to remember for advance information