Our teachers push precision, a wide accurate vocabulary and tightly controlled informal and formal writing. You reach it by writing independently for any audience and self-correcting before we do.
What a Grade A* means in 0510
Cambridge International 0510 is graded on the A*–G scale, and A* is the top grade on it. A* is the top grade 0510 awards, reserved for the strongest second-language users in the entry. In English as a Second Language it signals a candidate who handles the language with real confidence.
Such a candidate is accurate, controlled and versatile across reading, writing and listening. Speaking is reported separately, as an endorsement graded 1 to 5. Because it is the ceiling, the gap between A* and A is about consistency, precision and finish, not a new skill.
An A* candidate does everything an A candidate does, but does it reliably everywhere.
A note on grade boundaries. The mark needed for each grade is a threshold. The board sets it afresh for every exam series, so it is never fixed and we never predict it.
For past thresholds, check the official tables on the board's website. You can also use our grade-threshold lookup for past Cambridge series.
What a Grade A* student shows
Below is our teaching team's view of typical work at this grade. It is not an official descriptor.
In our teachers' experience, an A* candidate reads quickly and precisely. They pick out exactly the detail a question needs for short answers and notes, match opinions and attitudes across several short texts, and catch implied meaning in the multiple-choice items. In listening they hold the thread of an interview or talk and tell opinion from fact.
In both 120–160 word writing tasks, the informal email and the formal article, report, essay or review, every prompt is covered and ideas are developed. Register, tone and format are judged well and held throughout. Language is the clearest marker.
The candidate uses a wide vocabulary accurately and controls a range of tenses and complex structures. Errors are so rare they never touch meaning. Above all, they draft and self-correct independently, spotting their own slips before a teacher does.
Aiming for a Grade A* in 0510 English as a Second Language? The paid trial shows the teacher exactly where your child is losing marks.
A 12-week plan toward Grade A*
Our teachers adapt this outline to each student after seeing a sample of their writing:
- Weeks 1-2: Mark a full past paper together to map the last few marks that separate A from A*. These are usually precision on the harder reading and listening items, register control and rare but recurring errors. Then set individual accuracy targets.
- Weeks 3-4: Reading: short answers and notes. Pick out exactly the detail a question needs, in a word or short phrase, and avoid copying more than is required. Work through multiple matching and multiple choice with close attention to the distractors.
- Weeks 5-6: Writing for audience: the informal email, then the formal or semi-formal article, report, essay or review. Fine-tune register, tone and format and cover every prompt within 120–160 words so the reader's needs shape every choice.
- Weeks 7-8: Language range and accuracy: varied sentence openings, ambitious but accurate vocabulary, linking devices and clean organisation. Language carries 9 of the 15 marks in each writing task.
- Weeks 9-10: Reading and listening for nuance: implied meaning, attitudes and opinions, and the connections between what different speakers say, alongside the exact-answer discipline that protects the easy marks.
- Weeks 11-12: Independent timed practice with self-correction. The student marks their own script first, then we compare. This builds the habit of catching slips before the examiner does.
How we help
Your child works one-to-one with an experienced English teacher. The teacher marks your child's own writing against the criteria and targets the skills that separate them from a Grade A*.
Lessons are online, from RM70/hr. See English as a Second Language tuition.