How hard is the CSCA? Difficulty data from 500+ real questions

We tagged the real past-paper questions in our bank by difficulty, subject by subject. In each science subject, most questions are at or below standard Chinese textbook level. International students find the CSCA hard mainly because its topics and question style come from the Chinese high-school curriculum, which differs from the curricula most of them studied.

Difficulty by subject

• Physics has the largest share of fundamentals: about two thirds of the questions. About one question in twenty is hard. Mechanics (Newton's laws, kinematics, work and energy, circular motion) and electrostatics are the most frequent topics.
• Mathematics: about half of the questions are fundamentals, about two in five are at standard level and about one in ten is hard. Functions and algebra make up about half of the paper.
• Chemistry has the largest share of standard-level questions: just over half. About two in five Chemistry questions use the form "which of the following", compared with about one in four in Mathematics and one in six in Physics. These questions require a careful reading of every option.

What makes the CSCA hard

For most candidates the main difficulty comes from the format and the curriculum:

• 75 seconds per question leaves little time to derive a formula during the exam.
• The phrasing and notation follow Chinese textbooks.
• Questions that ask which statement is correct cost marks when the options are read too quickly, especially in Chemistry.

All three improve with timed practice on real past papers.

A preparation plan

1. Starting point: take one full past paper per subject under real timing. Note your score and the questions that took the most time.
2. Weak topics: practise the two or three topics that cost you the most marks. The question bank filters by topic.
3. Exam format: in the final weeks, take full-length mocks with the same interface and timer as the real exam.

Every question on CSCA Start has a full worked solution.