A useful four-week Stage 9 plan with CoreMark Coach mixes learn-mode sessions, short topic tests, one full Checkpoint-style mock in week four, and paper practice from CoreMark PDF boosters. Keep sessions to 20 to 30 minutes on most days. The plan is an example, not a promise of any score, and this plan is written for a Stage 9 child.
CoreMark makes CoreMark Coach and the PDF boosters mentioned in this plan. The plan is an example, and a printed paper and your own timer can stand in for anything we sell.
What should a child actually do, day by day, with an AI tutor before an exam? This post gives one realistic answer. It is a calendar you can copy, shrink or stretch, with the reasons for each step.
The plan assumes your child already has a Stage 9 course and a Claude account set up in your name. If you have not set Coach up yet, the setup guide takes about ten minutes, and the Coach page lists what is included.
Before you start
- 01CoreMark Coach covers Cambridge Lower Secondary Stage 9 Maths, Science and Computing only.
- 02It runs only in Claude, from the parent's Claude account. Claude accounts are for users aged 18 and over.
- 03Coach costs ₹9,999 per stage per academic year, one payment, no subscription. Early bird ₹4,999 for the first 100 families (prices as of 20 October 2026).
- 04Boosters are a separate option from ₹249 per topic (prices as of 20 October 2026).
What the four weeks look like
Each week has one focus, one Coach mode, one paper task and one thing to review afterwards. The order matters more than the exact days. Weak topics come first, then teaching, then retesting, then a full mock.
| Week | Focus | Coach mode | Paper work | What to look at afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Find the 2 or 3 weakest topics | Short topic tests, then learn mode on the weakest topic | Handwritten working in one notebook, no booster yet | The topics Coach brings back for review, and the report grouped by idea |
| 2 | Teach the weakest two topics properly | Learn mode, one sub-concept at a time, with teach-it-back | One CoreMark booster on paper for the first weak topic, marked against its solutions | Where teach-it-back broke down, and the misconception that came up most |
| 3 | Retest, then widen to one new topic | Topic test on the week 1 and week 2 topics, then learn mode on one new topic | A timed paper, using your own timer and the time target Coach gives | Which idea groups still lose marks, and whether topic stars moved |
| 4 | Full mock, then a short fix list | Exam mode, one full Checkpoint-style mock, then the marked report | Handwritten working on the mock, with photos only if Coach asks for them | The first wrong step in each mistake, and the one idea group that cost the most marks |
After week 4, start again with a shorter cycle on the topics that are still shaky. Nothing in this table is a score target.
A 25-minute session, minute by minute (a suggestion)
This outline is a suggestion, not a rule. The Coach page says that twenty to thirty minutes on most days works better than one long weekend session, and a 25-minute slot is a sensible size for a learn-mode loop plus a short check.
- 0 to 2 minutes. Open a fresh chat in the Coach project, type "learn" and the topic, and start your own timer. A new chat each session keeps the history easy to scroll back through.
- 2 to 4 minutes. Coach opens with a map of the sub-concepts in the topic. Pick the one that matches what was on the last worksheet.
- 4 to 12 minutes. Work through one sub-concept: the diagram where one helps, an everyday example, the exam wording, and the misconception most students have.
- 12 to 17 minutes. Teach it back in your child's own words, then answer one apply question on paper and type the final answer.
- 17 to 21 minutes. Do the three-question mini-check. No marks are given, so the point is to notice what is still fuzzy.
- 21 to 24 minutes. Write two lines in the notebook: the misconception that caught you out, and the question you want to see again.
- 24 to 25 minutes. Stop. Do not start another sub-concept. The next session picks up from the notebook.
How do I pick the weak topics in week one?
Use two sources, and let the paper settle any disagreement. The first is what Coach brings back. Coach tracks weak topics and offers a quick review of them at the start of later sessions, so note which topics keep returning. The second is the end-of-exam report from any topic test, which is grouped by idea rather than by question number.
From those two lists, choose two or three topics that meet both tests. First, the idea group lost the most marks in the report. Second, the topic is used by later topics, so a gap here hurts every topic after it. A topic that is only a little shaky can wait.
- Two or three topics, not seven
- Each one has a clear idea group in the report that lost marks
- Each one is needed for later topics in the year
- Your child has been told which topic comes first and why
What do I do when a week goes wrong?
Most weeks will go wrong somewhere, usually because of a school test, an illness or a session that simply did not happen. Keep the sequence and move the calendar, rather than doubling up to catch up. The plan is designed to be flexible, and a missed day should not turn into a missed topic.
If your child says a paper is too hard, Coach is built to shrink it. Its own guidance has it move to a half-length paper or switch to teaching, on the principle that kindness beats coverage. That is a good moment to pause, not to push through. If a whole week is lost, carry the weakest topic into the next week and drop the newest topic from the plan.
How does exam date mode change the plan?
Exam date mode is a Coach feature you switch on by telling it the exam date. It then focuses on the weakest and highest-value topics first, which means the plan above should be re-ordered rather than followed line by line. Tell Coach what your child is studying this week too, because Coach does not follow your school's chapter order.
Exam date mode changes the priorities. It does not promise that a particular topic will appear on the paper, and nobody outside the exam board can tell you that.
Where do handwriting and timed paper practice fit?
Coach's exam mode asks for working on every question worth two or more marks, so handwriting is already part of the plan. Coach asks for photos only of written work or drawings, and only when it needs them. Paper practice is where the timing skill comes from, and that is what the CoreMark PDF boosters are for: fixed 20-question booster PDFs on a single topic, printed and done on paper.
Use your own timer in every paper, because Coach gives a time target but does not stop the clock. Expect no hints during a mock. Practice marks from Coach or a booster are not Cambridge Checkpoint scores, and the way Checkpoint results are scaled is explained in the Checkpoint grading system guide. Where to find official past papers is covered in this past papers guide.
What should we stop doing?
Stop re-reading notes as the main revision method. Re-reading feels productive because the material looks familiar, but familiarity is not recall. In a 2013 review of ten study techniques, the authors rated practice testing and spaced practice as high utility, and rereading as low utility, while noting that the evidence varies by learner, material and task (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
A 2006 lab study of prose passages found that students who took recall tests remembered more a week later than students who restudied, even though the restudy group felt more confident (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). Those were reading experiments, so treat them as a reason to test, not as proof of what happens in your child's maths class.
Replace the re-reading time with the teach-it-back loop and the short topic tests. Stop before the notes become the revision.
Ready to try the plan?
CoreMark Coach covers Cambridge Lower Secondary Stages 7, 8 and 9. Check the price and setup steps before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
The plan assumes most days, with sessions of 20 to 30 minutes, rather than one long weekend session. Five days a week is one reasonable starting point, but your child's pace should decide the number. Fewer days still works if you keep the order of the four weeks: find the weak topics, teach them, retest, then sit a full mock.
Compress the shape rather than dropping the steps. Week 1 can become a few days, the week 4 mock moves to the final days, and exam date mode in CoreMark Coach puts the weakest topics first. If time is very short, a topic test and a read of the report is better than a mock nobody has time to review.
Yes. CoreMark Coach covers Stage 9 Maths, Science and Computing, so you swap the maths topics for Science topics in week 1 and keep the same weekly structure. The paper weeks work the same way, using a Science booster on paper and a Science mock in exam mode.
Not strictly. Coach runs the learn and exam modes on its own, and it can set full papers in the chat. The boosters are a fixed 20-question PDF on one topic, from ₹249 per topic as of 20 October 2026, and they suit handwritten, timed work on paper. The plan uses Coach for teaching and the boosters for paper practice, but it is an example, not a requirement.
There is no guarantee. This is an example revision plan, and CoreMark makes no claim about score gains from following it. Coach practice marks are not Cambridge Checkpoint scores, and a Checkpoint result is a 0 to 50 scaled score in six bands, so use the plan to build a habit of testing and fixing mistakes, then judge the results on their own terms.
The parent sets up Coach from their own Claude account, because Claude accounts are for users aged 18 and over. Upload the Coach file for your child's stage to a Claude Project, then switch on Memory and Code execution and file creation in Claude's settings. The free Claude plan works, but it has a session-based usage limit that resets every five hours, and Claude Pro helps for long sessions.
Sources & further reading
- Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan & Willingham (2013), "Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques", psychologicalscience.org
- Roediger & Karpicke (2006), "Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention", doi.org
- Anthropic, Claude Help Centre, "Use Claude's chat search and memory to build on previous context", support.claude.com
- Anthropic, Claude Help Centre, "Minimum age requirement", support.claude.com
Last updated 20 October 2026. Details about other companies and research were checked against their own pages on 20 October 2026; check current terms, features and prices before you decide.
CoreMark Coach is an independent product that runs in Claude, made by Anthropic. CoreMark is not affiliated with Anthropic or with Cambridge Assessment International Education. AI can make mistakes: check important answers, and supervise your child's use.