Save My Exams Alternatives for IGCSE (2026): Free and Paid Options Compared

Most people searching for a Save My Exams alternative are not looking for "a different website." They are looking for a fix to one specific problem — usually the subscription cost, occasionally the fact that reading notes stopped working for them.

Those two problems have completely different answers. So rather than a ranked list pretending one site is universally best, this guide sorts the alternatives by why you are leaving.

First, be honest about why you are switching

Save My Exams is a genuinely good product. Its notes are the most polished in the space, its board coverage is broad, and it is well organised. If someone tells you it is bad, they are selling something.

So the useful question is not "what is better." It is "what was not working." In our experience there are four reasons, and each has a different answer.

If you are leaving because of the cost

ZNotes — free, and written for Cambridge

What it is: community-written revision notes covering Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A Level, organised by syllabus code, free with no account required.

Where it wins: it is the closest free equivalent to Save My Exams for Cambridge students specifically. The notes are concise, syllabus-mapped and cover the subjects most IGCSE students take. If cost is your only reason for switching, start here.

Where it falls short: being community-written, quality varies between subjects and contributors. Some notes are outstanding; some are thin. Always cross-check against your actual syllabus document, especially for topics that have changed recently.

Physics & Maths Tutor — free, and unusually deep

What it is: a large free library of notes, topic-sorted questions and past papers, strongest in maths and the sciences.

Where it wins: the topic-sorted question banks are excellent and free, which is rare. For maths and physics in particular the depth is hard to beat at any price.

Where it falls short: it is built primarily around UK GCSE and A Level. Cambridge IGCSE coverage exists but is not the main focus, so check that what you are reading matches your syllabus code before relying on it.

If you are leaving because your grade has not moved

This is the more interesting case, and the switch most likely to actually help.

If you have read the notes carefully, you understand the content, and your grade is stuck — the problem is almost certainly not your notes. It is that reading is not the same activity as being examined, and no amount of better reading closes that gap.

Recognition feels like knowledge. You read an explanation of osmosis, it makes sense, and your brain files that as "I know osmosis." Then the exam asks you to explain, in six marks, why a plant cell in a concentrated solution becomes plasmolysed — and you discover that recognising an explanation and producing one are different skills with different training.

What fixes this is marked practice: answering real exam questions, finding out precisely which marking points you missed, and re-testing that topic. Not reading the notes again.

What to switch to

Whatever you choose, the requirement is that it tells you what you got wrong and why, against the actual mark scheme. Options:

• Past papers plus mark schemes, marked by hand — free, and genuinely works if you are disciplined. The catch is that marking your own work honestly is difficult; almost everyone awards themselves marks for "I basically said that." See our guide on using mark schemes properly.
• Your teacher — the highest quality feedback available to you, and free. Hand in more than you are asked to.
• PapaMarks — our own platform, built specifically for this gap: answer real Cambridge and Edexcel questions online, get them marked instantly against the scheme, and see which topics are actually weak rather than which ones feel weak. There is a free tier covering the first topic of every subject if you want to test whether marked practice changes anything for you before paying.

If you need Cambridge-specific content

A quiet issue with the broader revision-notes market: much of it is written for UK GCSE first and adapted for IGCSE afterwards. Usually that is fine. Occasionally it is not — content that is on AQA but not on Cambridge 0620, or Cambridge terminology that differs from the UK equivalent.

For Cambridge students the safest sources are ones organised by syllabus code from the start: ZNotes for notes, PapaCambridge or GCE Guide for papers, and the Cambridge syllabus document itself as the final authority on any disagreement.

If you just need past papers

Notes sites are the wrong tool entirely for this. Use a dedicated archive:

• PapaCambridge — enormous free archive of Cambridge papers, mark schemes and examiner reports, going back many years.
• GCE Guide — similar depth, often cleaner to navigate.
• Physics & Maths Tutor — good for topic-sorted questions rather than whole papers.

All free. See our past papers guide for how to actually use them, and how many you should be doing.

The comparison table

What we would actually do

1. Download your syllabus first
   Free, authoritative, and it settles every disagreement between revision sites. Do this before spending anything.
2. Pick one free notes source and stop shopping
   ZNotes if you are Cambridge, Physics & Maths Tutor if you are maths or physics heavy. Site-hopping is procrastination that feels like preparation.
3. Add one practice source, and make it the one you spend time on
   Past papers marked honestly, or a platform that marks for you. This is where grades actually move, so it should get most of your hours — not your reading.
4. Only pay once you know which gap you are filling
   If you cannot say in one sentence what a subscription fixes that a free option does not, you are not ready to buy it yet.

Common questions

The one-line version

If you are leaving over price, ZNotes is the closest free equivalent for Cambridge. If you are leaving because your grade is stuck, no notes site will fix that — you need marked practice, and that is a change of activity rather than a change of subscription.

For a wider comparison including sites not covered here, see the best IGCSE revision websites, or our honest take on whether Save My Exams is worth paying for.