Learning feedback tells you what is weak and why, then leaves the improving to you. Completing assessed work means someone else supplies the content, wording or solution that gets marked as yours.
The first helps you learn. The second can put your result at risk.
The rules differ by subject and by task. This page helps you recognise the difference; your school and Cambridge decide what is allowed for your assessed work.
How do I tell feedback from completion?
Ask three questions about any help you are given.
- Who produced the idea? If you did, the help is feedback. If someone handed you the idea, it is closer to completion.
- Who produced the wording or working? Your own sentences, steps and calculations should come from you.
- Could you reproduce it alone tomorrow? If the help made you able to do it again yourself, it taught you something.
Worked example
Practice task (not an assessed task): “Explain one benefit and one drawback of a city building more cycle lanes.”
A student writes: “Cycle lanes are good because they are good for people. They are bad because they cost money.”
Feedback that teaches:
- “Your benefit has no reason. Who benefits, and how?”
- “Your drawback names cost, but to whom, and compared to what?”
- “Add one piece of evidence for each side. Where could you find some?”
The student then rewrites: “Cycle lanes can reduce short car journeys, which lowers traffic near schools. They cost public money that could fund other transport, so a council must decide what to prioritise.”
Completion, for contrast: the helper writes the two improved sentences and the student pastes them in. The student cannot explain why they work, and the ideas are not theirs.
The answer-evidence planner gives you a structure of claim, evidence and explanation to check your own draft against. It does not mark your work or write your answer.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is asking for “just an example of a good paragraph” on the exact task being assessed, then reshaping it slightly. It feels like learning because you read and understood it.
The problem is that the reasoning you needed to practise was done by someone else. The fix is to ask for an example on a different topic, then apply the same structure to your own task.
Self-check
Decide whether each is feedback or completion.
- “Your conclusion repeats the introduction. What new point could it make?”
Show answer
Feedback. It identifies a weakness and leaves the new point to you.- The helper types a new conclusion and you save it into your file.
Show answer
Completion. The wording and idea are not yours, so they should not be submitted as yours.- “Here is how a claim, evidence and explanation fit together in a practice paragraph about recycling.”
Show answer
Feedback and teaching. It is a model on a different topic, and you then build your own from scratch.When might one-to-one tuition be worth considering?
Self-study is enough if you can get clear comments from your subject teacher and act on them. Individual tuition may be worth considering when comments like “needs more analysis” do not tell you what to do next.
A teacher can work on practice pieces, explain what a stronger answer does, and let you write the next attempt yourself. See the rules check before using AI, the guide on recording real observations, and the Global Perspectives tuition page.