Cambridge is withdrawing O Level Statistics (4040) and replacing it with IGCSE Statistics (0479). If you are studying 4040 now, teaching it, or simply searched for what happened to it, here is the short answer: the subject has barely changed. The content is almost the same. What changes is when you sit it, how it is graded, and how the papers are built.
Everything below comes from comparing the two Cambridge syllabus documents side by side.
The timeline
From 2028, the subject is sat only in June. As before, there is one sitting a year, so a resit is still a full year away. What moves is the month.
What changed, side by side
| O Level 4040 | IGCSE 0479 | |
|---|---|---|
| Sittings | November | June |
| Last or first exam | Last: November 2027 | First: June 2027 |
| Grades | A* to E | A* to G |
| Papers | Two, each 2 hours 15 minutes and 100 marks | The same |
| Question format | Short questions of up to 8 marks, plus four longer ones of about 15 marks | "A mixture of lengths and styles" |
| Marks for technique | 85 to 90% | 80 to 90% |
| Marks for interpretation | 10 to 15% | 10 to 20% |
| Command words | Not defined in the syllabus | 18 defined in the syllabus |
| Equipment | A calculator and the usual instruments; flexicurves allowed | A calculator (not graphical or algebraic), ruler, compasses and protractor; tracing paper on request |
| Teaching time | About 130 hours | About 130 hours |
| Private candidates | Accepted | Accepted |
Three of these changes matter more than the rest.
The June sitting. Students and schools used to planning around a November exam now plan around June. For anyone starting the subject this year, that opens up a June 2027 exam, five months before the last 4040 sitting.
The question format. 4040 promised a fixed pattern: a run of short questions, then four long ones. 0479 promises only "a mixture of lengths and styles". Cambridge's specimen papers show ten or eleven questions that start short and build to long questions of up to 16 marks, but the syllabus does not commit to that shape. Practise on the specimen papers so the format itself holds no surprises.
More weight on interpretation. Up to 20% of the marks now go to interpreting results, justifying methods and explaining conclusions, against 15% before. The syllabus also defines its command words for the first time, so "Interpret" formally means identifying meaning "in relation to the context". Explaining what a number means in the situation, not just calculating it, now counts for a little more.
What changed in the content
The twelve topics are the same, reorganised and described in more detail. The differences below are between the two syllabus documents. Where 0479 names something 4040 did not, that does not necessarily mean it never appeared on a 4040 paper; it means the syllabus now says so explicitly.
- Named in 0479: tree diagrams and conditional probability in simple cases.
- Described more fully in 0479:
- what happens to the median and interquartile range when data is transformed (4040 named only the mean and standard deviation)
- what happens to a measure when values are added or removed
- standardising data to a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1
- finding the percentile that corresponds to a given value
- Spelled out in 0479: frequency density for histograms with unequal class widths, quota sampling as the one method that needs no sampling frame, and using a crude rate to find a total number of events.
- Stated as not required in 0479: drawing pictograms, identifying outliers, permutations and combinations formulas, and the conditional probability formula.
- No longer named: variance, as a measure in its own right. Standard deviation remains.
What stayed the same
Almost everything a 4040 student has learned carries straight over:
- the same topics, including the parts unique to Statistics: crude and standardised rates, index numbers, the method of semi-averages, and moving averages with seasonal variation
- two papers of equal weight, a calculator on both, and marks that depend on showing your working
- about 130 hours of teaching
That also means 4040 past papers are still good practice for 0479, which matters because 0479 has no past papers of its own until after June 2027.
Which one should you sit?
If you are already studying 4040, you have two routes.
Stay with 4040 in November 2026 or November 2027. You can. The one thing to plan for is that November 2027 is the final 4040 sitting. If you need to resit after that, the resit has to be 0479, in June.
Switch to 0479 in June 2027. Your preparation carries over almost entirely. The adjustments are the ones above: the June date, the less predictable question format, the extra weight on interpretation, and the handful of topics described more fully.
Cambridge's rules only stop you taking two syllabuses with the same title in the same exam series. Because 4040 is sat in November and 0479 in June, the two never clash.
For every 0479 topic in detail, see the IGCSE Statistics (0479) syllabus, explained. If you are still deciding whether to take the subject at all, start with why you should take IGCSE Statistics.
Where to check
Cambridge's own pages are the final word on dates and availability: O Level Statistics (4040) and IGCSE Statistics (0479).
Our IGCSE Statistics course prepares students for the first 0479 exam in June 2027, and welcomes students switching over from 4040.