One tutor, one student, working from the papers your child will actually sit. We open with a marked paper so the tier question gets an answer with numbers behind it.
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 is a two year course assessed by two written papers. Core candidates sit Paper 1 and Paper 3 and can be awarded grades C to G. Extended candidates sit Paper 2 and Paper 4 and can be awarded A* to E. Since 2025 one paper in each tier bans the calculator.
Key Points
The exam is sat on paper, under time, with a calculator for half of it and none for the other half. Every format below is built backwards from that.
A tutor comes to you and works on paper, marking in the room so the reasoning is discussed while it is still warm.
Your child photographs the working, the tutor annotates it live, and the annotated page is saved where you can open it later.
Two learners entered for the same pair of papers share one tutor, which suits siblings and classmates at a similar mark.
Tiering is the single structural decision in 0580, and it is made by the school at entry. These are the routes it chooses between.
| Aspect | Core tier Paper 1 and Paper 3 | Extended tier Paper 2 and Paper 4 | The year before the entry Year 9 and early Year 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Description | Two papers of 1 hour 30 minutes, 80 marks apiece, weighted 50 percent each. Paper 1 is taken with no calculator; Paper 3 requires a scientific one. Candidates on this route are eligible for grades C to G, so a C is the highest outcome available to them. | Two papers of 2 hours, 100 marks apiece, weighted 50 percent each. Paper 2 bans the calculator; Paper 4 requires one. Candidates are eligible for A* to E, which is why a borderline student is often steadier here than on the capped route. | The stretch where the tier is still genuinely open. Work here is aimed at the Extended content, because the Extended list contains the Core list and adds to it, so aiming high costs a Core candidate nothing. |
| Subjects | NumberAlgebra and graphsCoordinate geometryGeometryMensurationTrigonometryTransformationsProbabilityStatistics | Surds and exponential growthAlgebraic fractions and proportionDifferentiation and turning pointsComposite and inverse functionsPerpendicular lines, length and midpointCircle theorems IIExact trigonometric values and non-right-angled trianglesVectors and vector geometryConditional probability, cumulative frequency and histograms | Fractions, indices and standard form by handRearranging and solving linear equationsAngle reasoning and basic circle workPythagoras and the three trigonometric ratiosArea, perimeter and volume of compound shapesReading and drawing statistical diagrams |
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The syllabus lists topics without a teaching order. These five blocks are how the content tends to fall across two years in a Bangkok classroom.
Topic names follow the nine content areas of the Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 syllabus for 2025, 2026 and 2027. The Extended content contains all of the Core content and adds to it, so moving up a tier is an addition, never a restart.
Content area 1, and the block that decides Paper 1 and Paper 2. Arithmetic that is merely slow starts reading like arithmetic that is wrong once the clock is running.
Content areas 2 and 3. Extended papers print the quadratic formula on page 2; Core papers print no algebra at all, and on neither tier do you get the gradient of a line or the equation you build from it.
Content areas 4, 5 and 6, where the printed formula page helps most and misleads most. Areas and volumes are given to you. Pythagoras, the trigonometric ratios, arc length and sector area are not.
Content area 7. Marks go missing in the describing rather than the drawing: a transformation named with two of its three required details earns nothing at all.
Content areas 8 and 9, usually taught last and forgotten first. An estimate of the mean from grouped data is examinable and its method is not printed anywhere on the paper.
Four situations, four different first sessions. The tier your child is entered for changes what the first hour is even for.
The tier is still open and every mark earned now is evidence for the entry decision that arrives next year. Work aims at the Extended content, because it carries the Core content inside it.
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The entry is usually made and the calendar is short. The work is triage: find the content areas losing the most marks per hour of study and repair those first.
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The mathematics travels well; the English of the questions does not. Command words, the phrasing of multi-step problems and the expectation of written reasoning are the real gap, and they are learnable.
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The most time-sensitive case on this page. Moving up adds content areas rather than replacing them, and it has to happen before the school submits the entry.
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No student records exist for Edulom in Thailand. What you see here is the template itself, carrying invented figures so you can tell where each number would sit. The layout is genuine; the child in it is not.
Sample Report
Tutor's Note: Surds and standard form now secure. Fraction arithmetic inside algebra is still where the time goes.
Next Target: Full Paper 2 under exam timingBefore the entry deadline
None of these are about ability. Each one is a decision or a habit that can be changed while there is still time to change it.
Why it happens
Core has a ceiling. A Core candidate sits Paper 1 and Paper 3 and is eligible for grades C to G, so a C is the best result that exists on that route. An Extended candidate sits Paper 2 and Paper 4 and is eligible for A* to E, which means a shaky Extended candidate can still land the same C. The tier is fixed when the school submits the entry, and work done afterwards cannot lift the ceiling.
How we fix it
We sit a full Paper 2 and a full Paper 4 under exam timing well before the deadline, then read the raw marks together. The recommendation goes to you in writing with the marks attached, so the conversation with the school is about evidence.
Why it happens
From 2025 each tier carries a dedicated non-calculator paper: Paper 1 on Core, Paper 2 on Extended. That is half the grade. A child who always reaches for the calculator usually can do the arithmetic, slowly, and slowness across a two hour paper produces the same blank spaces as not knowing.
How we fix it
Homework splits in two from the first week. One half is timed with the calculator in a drawer, the other half uses the scientific calculator the exam requires, and the two are marked separately so the gap between them is visible to everyone.
Why it happens
A List of formulas sits on page 2 of every paper, and the syllabus says in plain words that not all required formulas are given. Areas and volumes are printed on both tiers. The Extended list adds the quadratic formula, the sine rule and the cosine rule, and the Core list has none of those three. Neither list carries Pythagoras, the three trigonometric ratios, arc length, sector area, compound interest or the method for estimating a mean from grouped data.
How we fix it
In the first fortnight we build the list of what page 2 leaves out and test it cold until it is automatic. What is printed we practise locating fast, because a formula you cannot find in seconds may as well be missing.
Why it happens
The balance of the marks shifts. On Core, 60 to 70 percent of the marks reward recall and routine procedure. On Extended, 50 to 60 percent reward analysing the problem, choosing a strategy, connecting content areas and communicating the reasoning. A student who executes every method perfectly and writes nothing down can drop marks on questions they have already solved.
How we fix it
Sessions are marked with the official mark scheme open, so method marks get counted and named out loud. Written reasoning is practised as a skill in itself, on questions that deliberately join two content areas.
Why it happens
Papers 3 and 4 require a scientific calculator, and one with trigonometric functions is strongly recommended. Algebraic and graphical models are not permitted. A child who has worked all year on a graphical machine has to relearn keystrokes during the weeks when there is no room to relearn anything.
How we fix it
The calculator is checked in session one, not in the final term. If the model is not allowed we swap it immediately and rebuild the habits on the machine that will be on the desk in the hall.
Paper structure, grade ranges, the printed List of formulas and the assessment-objective weightings above are taken from the Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 syllabus for 2025, 2026 and 2027.
No student in Thailand has sat a paper with us, which means there is no results table to put in front of you. What follows are commitments about how the work runs, and every one of them is checkable from session one.
The first session produces evidence, in the form of a past paper attempted under time and marked against the official scheme. That is where the tier conversation starts.
Short and specific: which questions were attempted, where method marks were dropped, and the one content area to revisit before the next visit.
Our view on Core against Extended arrives in writing with the raw marks behind it, in a form you can take into a meeting with the school.
Tell us after the first visit that it is not working and the next tutor costs you nothing extra. Mathematics teaching is personal and the first match is a hypothesis.
You see the session figure, and what it includes, before a tutor is booked. Travel sits inside it, following the convention Thai families already know.
Everyone on the list has worked a full Extended Paper 2 and Paper 4 under exam timing, and we marked it before the conversation went any further.
No names and no photographs here, because Edulom has not yet placed a tutor with a family in Thailand. What we can show you is the screen itself.
Live sessions with the working photographed, annotated on screen and saved, so a page marked in October can be reopened in May.
Tutors travel to homes in Watthana, around Thonglor and Ekkamai, and down the Sathon and Silom corridor through Sathon, Bang Rak and riverside Bang Kho Laem. Also on the list: Huai Khwang along Rama IX and Ratchada, Bang Na in the south-east, Krungthep Kreetha in Saphan Sung, and Don Mueang in the north. Assignment runs along the BTS and MRT lines, because a long commute is what quietly kills a Tuesday evening lesson somewhere around week three. Households out in Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan are on the list as well.
The ones that come up before the first session, answered from the syllabus rather than from habit.
Other programs that might suit you
Tell us the school, the year group and which papers your child is currently entered for. What comes back first is a view on the tier, and how we would test it.