Cambridge O Level Global Perspectives Tutors Online

Cambridge O Level Global Perspectives is syllabus 2069. This page works from the syllabus for exams in 2025, 2026 and 2027, version 2. One detail is easy to miss and matters more than any other for planning: exams are available in the June series only. There is no November sitting for this subject.

All candidates take three components, and all candidates are eligible for grades A* to E. That is more components than most O Level courses, and the balance between them is unusual because two of the three are produced work rather than timed exams.

Component 1 is the Written Exam. It lasts 1 hour 25 minutes, carries 70 marks and is worth 35%. It consists of four compulsory questions based on a range of sources provided with the question paper. The sources present an issue of global significance from different perspectives, being personal, local and national, and global perspectives, and the issue comes from the topic list. The exam is externally set and marked by Cambridge International.

Component 2 is the Individual Report. It carries 60 marks and is worth 30%. Candidates research a significant global issue of their own choice from the topic list, research a range of different perspectives on it, and reflect on their own personal perspective. They devise their own title and write a report of 1500 to 2000 words in continuous text. This component is internally set and externally marked by Cambridge International.

Component 3 is the Team Project. It carries 70 marks and is worth 35%. Candidates work in teams, choose from the topic list, identify a local issue and devise and develop a collaborative project on an aspect of that issue considered from a range of perspectives. This is also internally set and externally marked.

So the 30% report and the 35% team project together make nearly two thirds of the qualification, produced work that a student builds over the course, while the remaining 35% is a single written exam lasting under an hour and a half. That is worth understanding early, because a student who leaves the Individual Report and the Team Project to the last term is attempting to build most of their grade in a hurry.

The most surprising line in the syllabus is this: knowledge of content is not assessed. The topic list exists to give candidates a context in which to develop and demonstrate skills, not to be learned as a body of content. No candidate is examined on facts about the topics themselves.

Those skills are research, analysis, evaluation, reflection, communication and collaboration. The syllabus defines its key terms carefully, and the definitions are worth knowing because they drive what the reports are marked for. An issue is an important subject or problem for discussion. A perspective is a viewpoint on an issue based on evidence and reasoning. Research is the systematic study of a global issue to find evidence and develop understanding. Evidence is information about a global issue that helps to develop understanding or prove that something is true or false. An argument is a series of statements containing reasons and evidence which support a claim about a global issue.

The topic list is deliberately broad and the syllabus states it applies to all three components. Every topic named in the syllabus is on the list: arts in society, change in culture and communities, climate change, energy and resources, conflict and peace, development, trade and aid, the digital world, education for all, employment, environment, pollution and conservation, globalisation, health and wellbeing, law and criminality, media and communication, migration and urbanisation, political power and action, poverty and inequality, social identity and inclusion, sport and recreation, technology, industry and innovation, transport, travel and tourism, values and beliefs, and water, food and agriculture.

Students and teachers choose from that list rather than being assigned a topic, and the syllabus says students are not expected to have experience of each topic. Teachers are advised to look at several topics during the course to help develop skills, with the intention of giving students scope to discuss and agree their own paths of enquiry with their teacher.

Sustainability is flagged as a lens rather than a separate topic. The syllabus states that how to drive sustainable change is part of this complex world, that sustainability is a global issue, and that any of the topics can be considered with a focus on sustainability.

The Individual Report has criteria that are easy to misread. The global issue a candidate chooses should be one that divides opinion, so the report is not a description of a problem but an exploration of disagreement about it. Candidates devise a global research question based on initial research and use that question as the title of the report. The perspectives presented must include local and, or national perspectives and also global perspectives. At each level different perspectives could be included, so a report could contrast the different perspectives of local farmers and local politicians.

Candidates must do more than list those perspectives. They must engage with them and show that they understand the arguments, reasoning or claims on which each perspective is based, and also show that they understand why different people have different perspectives. That last requirement is the one most often missed, because explaining why people disagree is harder than describing that they do.

The Team Project has the same structure in miniature and is the part families understand least well, so it is worth spelling out. The team selects a topic and identifies a relevant local issue, researches the topic and the issue and different perspectives on it, and each member researches a different aspect such as a different perspective. The team then decides, through discussion, on a course of action they might take to address the issue, plans and carries out that action, and measures the success of their action in addressing the issue.

The Team Project is assessed in two parts, a Team Element and a Personal Element. The Team Element is a collaborative Explanation of Research and Planning, one per team, which explains the decisions and planned actions, plus the Evidence of Action. The Personal Element is a Reflective Paper produced by each individual candidate, reflecting on the whole project, their experiences and learning, and evaluating their teamwork and the action taken.

The assessment objectives are three. AO1 is research, analysis and evaluation. AO2 is reflection. AO3 is communication and collaboration.

Overall, AO1 is worth 68 per cent of the qualification, AO2 is worth 15 per cent and AO3 is worth 17 per cent. Research, analysis and evaluation dominate the grade, and collaboration, despite being the most distinctive feature of the course, carries less than a fifth.

The per component weightings are strikingly uneven. Component 1 is 100 per cent AO1, with nothing at all on reflection, communication or collaboration. Component 2 is 67 per cent AO1, 8 per cent AO2 and 25 per cent AO3. Component 3 is 36 per cent AO1, 36 per cent AO2 and 28 per cent AO3.

The practical consequence is that the written exam is purely a research, analysis and evaluation paper, while reflection and collaboration are assessed only in the two pieces of produced work. A candidate who is good at reading sources and arguing from them must also build a case in the Individual Report and a working team project, and those two pieces together carry nearly two thirds of the grade.

The syllabus also notes that candidates should engage with material that is contrasting in breadth and depth, and that the types of evidence they use might include articles from the media, data sets and personal testimony.

The qualification is graded A*, A, B, C, D or E.