Founder · engineering & product
AlaaAbbadi
The engineer and technical developer behind Phloem. Alaa also founded Aceable.site and built the official websites for NXT MUN and BILLMUN.
Cambridge IGCSE · marking, not tutoring
You got 62.
Here are the 38.
Submit your exam attempt. Get back every mark you lost and exactly why. Phloem marks your working the way an examiner does — one criterion at a time — not one score for the whole answer.
Launching as an app. Join the waitlist for one email the day it’s ready.
The problem
Your practice paper comes back 64%. But which 36% did you lose?
A percentage is a verdict, not a diagnosis. It tells you that something went wrong thirty-six times and refuses to say what.
Every other tool marks your answer right or wrong. You get a tick, a cross, and a number — and none of it tells you whether you lost the mark because you misread the question, because you picked the wrong method, or because you divided 24 by 8 and wrote 4.
Those are three completely different problems. Two of them you fix in an afternoon. One of them you have been repeating since Year 9 and nobody has ever named it.
Phloem shows you the individual marks you dropped and the exact criterion each one failed — because that is the unit a real examiner works in.
Every other app
64%Try again — keep practising!
Phloem
- M1Cosine rule substitutionsign error on −2ab cos C
- A1Reverse percentageapplied % to the new price
- B1Similar solids, volumeused the length scale factor
…and every other mark, each named and tied to the mistake behind it.
The engine
Marking is a
procedure, not
an opinion.
A mark scheme is a sequence of independent decisions. Did the candidate choose a valid method? Did they carry it out? Is the value they produced correct, judged against the value they themselves arrived at earlier? Each of those is a separate question with a separate mark attached.
Phloem answers them one at a time, in the order the specification sets out, and records which criterion produced each mark. That is why it can tell you that you lost one accuracy mark and kept two method marks — instead of telling you that you got a question wrong.
No chat window, no open-ended tutoring, no score with a motivational message attached. A marker, and the reasoning it used.
How it works
Three steps, and the middle one is the whole product.
- 01
Upload your attempt
Photograph your working or type it in. Whole question, workings and all — not just the final answer, because the working is where the marks actually are.
- 02
It marks criterion by criterion
Phloem walks the mark scheme one criterion at a time, deciding each mark on its own evidence. Method marks are judged separately from accuracy marks.
- 03
See exactly where your marks went
Every mark you earned, every mark you dropped, and the named mistake behind each one — plus another question on the criterion you failed.
Watch it mark
One arithmetic slip. Most apps say zero. A Cambridge examiner says three.
This student got the final answer wrong. Their method was right, and their y follows correctly from their own x — so the two method marks are theirs, and follow-through gives them the second accuracy mark. Only the mark for x is lost.
Mathematics 0580 · Paper 4
Solve the simultaneous equations.
6x + 2y = 28 · 2x − 2y = −4
0 / 4
marks
- M1
M1
Adds the two equations to eliminate y
6x + 2y = 28 2x − 2y = −4 —————— 8x = 24
- A1
A1
Obtains x = 3
8x = 24 x = 4
- M1
M1
Substitutes their x into either equation
6(4) + 2y = 28 24 + 2y = 28 2y = 4
- A1 FT
A1 FTFT
Obtains y consistent with their x
2y = 4 y = 2
Marking one criterion at a time…
Method marks are separate
An M mark pays for choosing and carrying out the right method. It does not care whether the number that came out was right.
Follow-through is judged on their answer
Once the slip happens, later criteria are marked against the student's own earlier value — so one mistake costs one mark, not four.
This is how boards actually mark
None of this is generous. It is how a Cambridge mark scheme is applied consistently across scripts — separating method from accuracy, and letting one slip cost one mark rather than four.
Skeptical? Fair enough.
Don’t take our word for it.
When the app opens, send it one question you got wrong. Phloem marks it criterion by criterion and shows you every mark you dropped, and the mistake behind it. Join the waitlist and you’ll get one email the day it’s ready.
Launching as an app
On purpose
What makes this different.
Criterion marking
Each mark is decided on its own evidence, in the order the mark scheme sets out. You see the criterion, not a colour.
Follow-through marking
Slip early and the rest of your working is judged against your own answer. One mistake costs one mark, not the whole question.
Mark-scheme aligned
M, A and B marks behave the way the published specification says they behave — including which marks depend on which.
Instant feedback
Marked in seconds, with the misconception behind each lost mark named and another question on that criterion ready to go.
A plan that decays
Topics you stop practising fade, the way they actually do. Phloem resurfaces them before the exam, not after.
No streaks, no badges
No XP, no daily flame. You have an exam date — that's the motivation. Streaks just push people to redo easy topics.
Planned student plans
Start free. Pay weekly after.
When the app launches, every plan will start with a seven-day free trial. Pick the tier that fits how hard you're going, and cancel any week. Prices are planned and confirmed at launch.
Single
One subject, marked properly.
$5/ week
After the 7-day free trial
- Criterion-by-criterion marking
- Mistake explanations
- Study plan that decays
- One subject
Full
Most pickedEverything you're sitting.
$8/ week
After the 7-day free trial
- Everything in Single
- All subjects unlocked
- Photo marking
- Unlimited questions per day
Exam-run
For the last eight weeks.
$15/ week
After the 7-day free trial
- Everything in Full
- Priority marking queue
- Cross-paper pattern analysis
- Exam strategy insights
All plans will be weekly. Cancel any time — no contracts, no minimum term. No card is asked for while the app is still in build; join the waitlist and we’ll invite you when a real checkout is live.
Questions
The ones you're actually asking.
The founders
Two disciplines,
one marking standard.
A student-built marking engine, paired with the discipline to put it in front of the students who need it.
Founder · marketing & growth
MohammadYakob
The marketer behind Phloem's reach and growth. Mohammad keeps the product sharp in the market and turns daily progress into sustained attention, partnerships, and momentum.
Phloem marks against published Cambridge specification criteria and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Cambridge Assessment International Education. Every question was written for Phloem — no past paper or published mark scheme has been reproduced.
Find out what the 38 were.
Phloem is launching as an app. Join the waitlist and you’ll get one email the day it’s ready, then upload one question you got wrong and see every mark you dropped.
One confirmation email, one launch email. Nothing else.
I’m a teacher