A mastered task is one you can do on a fresh question, without notes, after a gap. Tracking mastered tasks shows progress honestly, and it avoids the temptation to turn a percentage into a grade. It is the evidence side of 0653 revision and route planning.
How do you track mastery?
Use a table with one row per task and four columns.
- Task: one skill, such as “read a gradient from a rate graph”.
- First attempt: date and result.
- Retest: a different question on the same skill, at least a few days later.
- Mastered? Yes only if the retest was correct without notes.
The mistake log and retest queue handles the retest dates for you, and the notes stay on your own device.
Worked example
This is an invented log. A student has 18 tasks on her list across the three sciences.
Week 1: she has 11 tasks marked mastered after retests. That is 11/18 = 0.611, so 61%.
Week 2: four more tasks pass their retests. Now 15/18 = 0.833, so 83%.
Read this as: “15 of my 18 listed tasks are secure. Three are not.” Then list the three, and revise those.
What is the mistake to watch for?
Counting finished work as mastered work, then reading the percentage as a grade.
Mistaken log: “I have done 18 worksheets, so I have mastered 18 tasks, so I am at a high grade.”
Two errors: a finished worksheet is not a retested skill, and a task count cannot predict a grade.
The correction is to count only tasks with a passed retest, and to describe the result as “tasks secure”, never as a grade. Grade thresholds are set by Cambridge for each exam series, so they are not available in advance.
Check yourself
1. A list has 24 tasks and 15 are mastered. What percentage is mastered?
Show answer
15/24 = 0.625, so 62.5%, or 63% to the nearest whole number.
2. A list has 20 tasks, 16 mastered. What is the percentage, and how many remain?
Show answer
16/20 = 80%. Remaining tasks: 20 − 16 = 4.
3. A student reaches 90% and says, “So I will get a high grade.” How would you respond?
Show answer
The percentage counts the student’s own tasks. It does not show how Cambridge will set grade thresholds for that exam series. It says which tasks are secure, so the useful step is to revise the remaining ones.
Where this leads next
Bring your tracker to prepare linked difficulties for a one-hour trial. The mixed practice set gives fresh questions for retests.
If you would like a teacher to set fresh retest questions, see online one-to-one Combined Science tuition.