Track your confidence level (1–5) for each topic, when you last reviewed it, and when to review next. Aligned to the CIE IGCSE Sociology 0495 syllabus for 2026 exams.
0
confident (4–5)
0
need work (1–3)
37
not started
| Topic | Sub-Topic | Resources | Assessments | Confidence (1–5) | Last Reviewed | Next Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Theory and methods | Positivism vs interpretivism: assumptions and methods | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 1. Theory and methods | Primary research: questionnaires, interviews, observation, experiments | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 1. Theory and methods | Secondary research: official statistics, documents, historical sources | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 1. Theory and methods | Sampling techniques: random, stratified, snowball, convenience | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 1. Theory and methods | Reliability, validity and representativeness | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 1. Theory and methods | Ethical issues in sociological research | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 1. Theory and methods | Triangulation and mixed methods | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 2. Culture, identity and socialisation | Norms, values and beliefs | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 2. Culture, identity and socialisation | Primary socialisation (family) vs secondary socialisation (school, peer group, media) | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 2. Culture, identity and socialisation | Agencies of socialisation and their roles | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 2. Culture, identity and socialisation | Formation of identity: gender, class, ethnicity, nationality | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 2. Culture, identity and socialisation | Subcultures and counter-cultures | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 2. Culture, identity and socialisation | Conformity and deviance in everyday life | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 3. Family | Family diversity: nuclear, extended, single-parent, reconstituted | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 3. Family | Marriage trends: cohabitation, divorce rates, civil partnerships | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 3. Family | Changing gender roles within the family | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 3. Family | Conjugal roles: segregated vs joint, symmetrical family | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 3. Family | Childhood: changing experiences and child-centred families | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 3. Family | Functions of the family: functionalist, Marxist, feminist views | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 4. Education | Functions of education: socialisation, sifting, social mobility | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 4. Education | Differential achievement: gender, ethnicity, social class | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 4. Education | Within-school factors: labelling, teacher expectations, subcultures | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 4. Education | Outside-school factors: cultural capital, material deprivation | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 4. Education | Formal and informal curriculum; hidden curriculum | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 4. Education | Educational reform and policies | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 5. Crime, deviance and social control | Defining crime and deviance; cross-cultural variation | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 5. Crime, deviance and social control | Theories of crime: functionalist, Marxist, interactionist, feminist | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 5. Crime, deviance and social control | Patterns of crime: age, gender, class, ethnicity | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 5. Crime, deviance and social control | Types of crime: white-collar, corporate, juvenile, organised | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 5. Crime, deviance and social control | Social control: formal (police, courts) and informal (family, peers) | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 5. Crime, deviance and social control | Measuring crime: official statistics, victim surveys, self-report studies | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 6. Media | Mass media: traditional vs new media | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 6. Media | Influence of media on behaviour and attitudes (hypodermic, two-step flow) | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 6. Media | Representation in media: gender, ethnicity, age, class | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 6. Media | Media ownership and control: pluralist vs Marxist views | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 6. Media | Globalisation and the new media age | LearnOpens subject resources | — | |||
| 6. Media | Effects of media on socialisation and identity | LearnOpens subject resources | — |
Use this checklist with our Past Paper Finder to practise weak topics. Confidence: 1 = very low, 5 = confident.
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 Sociology 0495 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 Sociology 0495 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.