Covers all three ESL syllabus variants — content is identical, only grading and Speaking weighting differ. 0510 = Speaking Endorsement (separate), 0511 = Count-in Speaking, 0991 = 9–1 Count-in Speaking. Aligned to the 2024 / 2025 / 2026 syllabus.
| Topic | Sub-Topic | Confidence (1–5) | Last Reviewed | Next Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Reading skills | Identifying specific factual information in a text | |||
| 1. Reading skills | Understanding ideas, opinions and attitudes | |||
| 1. Reading skills | Recognising connections between ideas (referencing, linking words) | |||
| 1. Reading skills | Inferring implied meaning and writer's tone | |||
| 1. Reading skills | Skimming, scanning and reading for detail | |||
| 2. Reading exercise types (Paper 1) | Short-answer comprehension questions | |||
| 2. Reading exercise types (Paper 1) | Multiple matching across linked texts | |||
| 2. Reading exercise types (Paper 1) | Note completion from a longer text | |||
| 2. Reading exercise types (Paper 1) | Multiple-choice with attitudes / opinions | |||
| 2. Reading exercise types (Paper 1) | Deducing meaning of unfamiliar words from context | |||
| 3. Writing skills | Clear communication of facts, ideas and opinions | |||
| 3. Writing skills | Grammatical range: verb forms, tenses, conditionals, sentence structures | |||
| 3. Writing skills | Vocabulary range: set phrases, phrasal verbs, collocations, idioms | |||
| 3. Writing skills | Linking devices: cause/effect, addition, contrast, sequence | |||
| 3. Writing skills | Punctuation, spelling and proofreading | |||
| 4. Writing tasks (Paper 1, Exercises 5–6) | Informal email — to friend or relative (120–160 words) | |||
| 4. Writing tasks (Paper 1, Exercises 5–6) | Formal article — for magazine or newspaper | |||
| 4. Writing tasks (Paper 1, Exercises 5–6) | Report — to a teacher, head or organiser | |||
| 4. Writing tasks (Paper 1, Exercises 5–6) | Essay — discursive / argumentative / persuasive | |||
| 4. Writing tasks (Paper 1, Exercises 5–6) | Review — of an event, place, film or experience | |||
| 4. Writing tasks (Paper 1, Exercises 5–6) | Matching register and style to purpose and audience | |||
| 5. Listening skills (Paper 2) | Identifying specific factual information from audio | |||
| 5. Listening skills (Paper 2) | Understanding speakers' ideas, opinions and feelings | |||
| 5. Listening skills (Paper 2) | Following connections and arguments in extended audio | |||
| 5. Listening skills (Paper 2) | Inferring implied meaning, attitude and intention | |||
| 5. Listening skills (Paper 2) | Predicting content from context cues | |||
| 6. Speaking skills (Paper 3) | Communicating facts, ideas and opinions with expansion | |||
| 6. Speaking skills (Paper 3) | Engaging in conversation, short talk and interview formats | |||
| 6. Speaking skills (Paper 3) | Interactive skills: initiating, responding, turn-taking, clarifying | |||
| 6. Speaking skills (Paper 3) | Discourse markers and connectives in spoken English | |||
| 6. Speaking skills (Paper 3) | Pronunciation, intonation and stress patterns | |||
| 7. Grammar and vocabulary | Verb tenses: present, past, future, perfect, continuous | |||
| 7. Grammar and vocabulary | Conditionals and modal verbs | |||
| 7. Grammar and vocabulary | Phrasal verbs and collocations | |||
| 7. Grammar and vocabulary | Idioms and figurative expressions | |||
| 7. Grammar and vocabulary | Synonyms, antonyms and avoiding repetition | |||
| 8. Text types and conventions | Articles, blogs, reviews and reports | |||
| 8. Text types and conventions | Emails and letters (formal vs informal) | |||
| 8. Text types and conventions | Notices, leaflets, advertisements and instructions | |||
| 8. Text types and conventions | Essays, dialogues and monologues | |||
| 9. Exam technique | Time management across exercises and papers | |||
| 9. Exam technique | Word counts (120–160 words for writing tasks) | |||
| 9. Exam technique | Planning and structuring written responses | |||
| 9. Exam technique | Paraphrasing and synonyms to avoid repetition | |||
| 9. Exam technique | Avoiding common errors (register mismatch, off-topic answers) |
Use with our Past Paper Finder for Cambridge IGCSE ESL past papers (Paper 1 Reading & Writing, Paper 2 Listening, Paper 3 Speaking).
Quick answers about this free revision checklist, how to use it for exam prep, and how it relates to the official syllabus.
This revision checklist mirrors the official Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language 0510 / 0511 / 0991 syllabus for the 2026 examination series. Every topic and sub-topic on the page is taken from the published syllabus document, so working through the list in order gives you full coverage of what your exam can assess. It covers the Extended tier; Core tier students can use the same checklist and skip Extended-only sub-topics. For the authoritative version, always cross-check with the latest syllabus PDF on your exam board's website before your final revision push.
The number of top-level topic groups varies by subject, but you can see the exact count on this page — each major heading in the checklist corresponds to one syllabus topic group, and each row below it is a syllabus-level sub-topic. Use the confidence column (1–5) to flag which sub-topics need more work, and re-score yourself weekly to track real progress instead of guessing.
8–12 weeks of focused revision, covering 1–2 topic groups per week with weekly past-paper practice, is realistic for most GCSE / IGCSE students. Use this checklist to plan your weeks: filter by topics you have rated 1–3 and spend your first revision block there. Subjects with heavy practical or extended-writing components (e.g. sciences, English) need more past-paper time in the final block than the topic-by-topic phase.
Revise in roughly the order the syllabus lists the topics — exam boards build later topics on earlier ones, so taking them in syllabus order avoids gaps. Once you have rated every topic, switch to weakest-first: filter the checklist by confidence ≤ 2 and prioritise those topics in your next study block. This is more effective than re-revising topics you already score 4–5 on.
You can find past papers and mark schemes via Tutopiya's Past Paper Finder and on your exam board's official site. Once you have rated each sub-topic on this checklist, attempt past-paper questions on your weakest topics first — practising under timed conditions is the single best predictor of exam performance, more so than re-reading notes.
Use the Download CSV or Print PDF button at the bottom of the checklist. CSV opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets so you can sort by confidence and re-arrange revision order. The PDF is print-ready for offline use. A free Tutopiya account is required for download — this also unlocks the matching topic resources, notes and worked examples on the Learning Portal.
Yes, the checklist itself is free — you can view, score and re-score every topic on this page without an account. The CSV / PDF downloads and access to matching Tutopiya Learning Portal resources require a free account. There is no payment required at any point; teachers and parents can also use this checklist freely with their students.
Yes. The topics and sub-topics on this page are drawn from the current 2026 Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language 0510 / 0511 / 0991 specification published by Cambridge. Exam boards occasionally tweak weighting or assessment structure mid-cycle, so do a quick sanity-check against the official syllabus PDF when you start your revision and again 4 weeks before the exam.