Guides for parents

Thirteen guides on where exam marks actually go, written for parents rather than for pupils. No study tips and no motivation — just how a paper is marked, why marks go missing, and what can be done about each kind of loss before the next one.

Last updated 13 September 2026

Start here

Exam Diagnostics ZA is a South African service that marks a full Grade 10–12 mock exam paper mark by mark and reports every lost mark, with a strategy report and a video walkthrough, within 24 hours. If you read one guide, read the first. It sets out the five reasons a mark is lost, which is the vocabulary the rest of the site and every report uses.

Every guide, in reading order.
Guide	What it covers
The last three weeks before finals	The finals start on 13 October. What can still move, week by week.
Why your child loses marks in exams	The five reasons a mark leaves a paper, and the two that come back.
Mock exam or past paper at home?	What a marked mock exam shows that a downloaded past paper cannot.
Case study: 46% on paper, 72% in reach	One real Grade 12 Mathematics paper, taken apart mark by mark.
Tutor, or exam technique?	Two different problems, two different fixes. How to tell which you have.
Running a timed exam at home	Setting up a paper at home that actually measures something.
Knows the work, runs out of time	Questions never reached, and working never written down.
Misreads and slips: marks lost early	Small errors that cost whole questions, and a ten-minute routine.
CAPS or IEB: what it means for exams	What the two curricula mean for the paper your child sits.
Grade 11: the year universities see	Why Grade 11 marks reach a university a year before matric does.
Bachelor pass and APS, explained	Pass levels and admission points, in plain language.
How to read a school report card	What the numbers on a report card measure, and what they cannot.
June, prelims, finals: a parent’s plan	A term-by-term plan for the exam year, Grades 10 to 12.

If your child is losing marks

Three of these guides deal with the losses that come back: time, slips and working that was never written down. They are the ones worth reading first if the mark and the effort do not match.

Why your child loses marks in exams — the five reasons, and which two are recoverable.
Knows the work, runs out of time — questions never reached, and method marks never claimed.
Misreads and slips: marks lost early — units, signs, rounding, and a checking routine.

If you are deciding what to spend on

A tutor, extra lessons and a diagnostic paper answer different questions. These three guides work through what each one is for, so the money goes where the marks actually are.

Tutor, or exam technique? — how to tell a knowledge problem from a technique one.
Mock exam or past paper at home? — when free is enough, and when it is not.
Case study: 46% on paper, 72% in reach — one paper, accounted for mark by mark.

If you are planning the year

The last four guides deal with the school year itself: what the curricula mean, why Grade 11 matters more than parents expect, how pass levels and admission points work, and where a diagnostic fits in each term.

Diagnose a paperFrom R299. Report in 24 hours.