What's the right GCSE maths tier for your students?

Deciding which GCSE maths tier - Higher or Foundation - is the correct one your students is an important consideration. Understanding your students' strengths and weaknesses and how they might perform in an exam are important factors in determining the right tier for your students but discovering these can sometimes be a complex and time consuming task. 

An adaptive baseline assessment can help you understand the current ability level of your students and also develop predictions of students’ future exam results

OCR maths centres can now get Yellis for only 25% of the cost

We’re supporting schools with an absence of SATs data, by offering Cambridge CEM's Key Stage 4 baseline assessment, Yellis, at only 25% of the cost. If you’re an existing OCR maths centre – or interested in becoming one – you can now access this offer for the 2024/25 academic year!

Find out more


Yellis for GCSE Maths 

Cambridge CEM’s adaptive baseline assessment, Yellis, is designed to help you understand the full potential of your Key Stage 4 students.

The maths section in Yellis covers logical thinking, manipulating numbers and numerical concepts. The adaptive nature of the exam means that if a student is consistently answering questions incorrectly, the algorithm will adjust to provide them with questions suited to their ability level. This provides you with a more accurate picture of your student's ability while saving you time. 

Once the student has completed the assessment you are provided with reports that show the existing baseline ability level of the student and their potential, including their predictions for GCSE performance. This makes it easier and quicker for you to: 

  • See what ability level their students currently have and how they could be stretched
  • Determine which GCSE maths tier would be more suitable, whether that’s the Foundation or Higher, based on their baseline ability level 
  • Measure the added value once the GCSE final subject exam has been taken

Why choose Cambridge CEM baseline assessments?

Yellis has the best standardisation of any baseline and cognitive abilities assessment provider, standardised using over 650,000 student assessments from over 9,500 school cohorts from a period of six academic years. 

Developed using a rigorous quality control formula, the assessments can provide a clear picture of what your students know and valuable predictions of their likely GCSE outcomes with reports showing: 

  • How your students have scored compared to others who have taken the same test 
  • Predictions and chances graphs showing the probability of a student achieving the range of final subject exam grades 
  • Value-added data when final subject exams have been taken. If your student has achieved a better grade than predicted based on your intervention and development plan, this impact will be highlighted 

Want to find out more?

Interested in teaching our GCSE (9-1) maths or purchasing CEM Yellis? Get in touch with our team who are on hand to get you started: partnerships@cambridge.org

Keep up-to-date

Sign up for email updates and keep up-to-date with the latest news about all our maths qualifications.