C Reviews 37

A-levels(OCR A BioChemPhysics)Do not even bother for the student books, absolute waste of money. You'd be better off putting your money elsewhere. OK kinda for understanding topics but the giant book that breaks your back carrying it around/digital copy that takes ten light years to load does not "cover everything you need" on the spec. It is ridiculous to even try revise from these books. They'd at best be good for pre-lesson learning and understanding concepts before you do any real learning/revision. Utter waste of space and paper; it doesnt go into concepts in detail, definitions aren't whats on mark schemes, things like DNA replication (which are multi-step and are REALLY specific, needing the correct terminology and such to even have hopes of a mark) are missing!It's only roughly about three steps in the book and doesnt even cover Okazaki fragments.. I could write my own book with how much is missing..Everyone knows how stingy OCR is with marks, especially at A-level, and considering how dumbed down things are and how lacking it is you'd wonder HOW the book is so large. Utter disappointment its like the authors wrote the book just looking at the spec without the marks scheme in mind at all! Now I have these massive books hogging up space that I spent way too much money on and now instead i use free online resources that are much more concise and cover everything!!

Ordered two books. It said next day delivery, which is just a lie, and have received no reply after emailing customer service.

I totally agree with the other review about the small print licence agreements for digital books. I’m a tutor and use the same books for more than three years and my licence just expires. What a rip off. They don’t take your physical books away so how can they be allowed to take your digital copy away. They are the same price! Is this even legal? Had the same experience as the other review…unhelpful customer service on this point. Online tuition is such a big thing now and CGP are not helping customer confidence in the purchase of products which just get taken away from you!
** CGP Customer Service contacted me and were helpful and understanding. The issue still remains but I received a more helpful response than previously. I also wanted to add that I do actually love their books which is why I am so infuriated when they expire!!

I reached out to customer service regarding my delayed order, which was supposed to arrive the next day but arrived four days later. The representative I spoke with was unprofessional and raised her voice when I asked for an explanation. She simply said that I would receive my order on Wednesday, without offering any real help, apology, or compensation. This level of service is unacceptable.

You can’t really write answers on gcse Maths Higher Workbook but you can write answers in Foundation GCSE maths book. Overall it’s not a bad experience with customer service team.

Why can’t they make some space to write out my workings and answers down? This way it would be more enjoyable.

Thank you,

Corben

The definitions in the books do not align with any of the mark schemes in any of the tests you'll ever take. Informal too. Terrible, and a waste of your time and money.

Very poor customer service and dishonest. They do not like to help their customers.? They say they will send you sample books but then they lie about it and don’t send you the book. Most dishonest book company. Avoid at all costs.

So glitchy all the TIME don’t waste ur time on this but the books are fine I guess DO BETTER

What a horrible website .it disapointed us a lot .it is always down ,we paid to get subscription but we couldn't use it much as it is down most of the time. Please don't waste your money on this website.

Great experience with the platform, very useful for 11 plus exams.

This company really needs to improve.
Their books are way to hard and it looks like your studying for college.
I know that children need to learn about complex things but don't you think it's going to far?
But, it is also very educational and good for kids.
It makes children learn about many different things.
That's all I can say!
Byee

My children have benefited immensely from these collections. The delivery is also fast and the quality is all good. The only small grip I have is with the website. Navigating the collections can be confusing sometimes. Other than that the service is great.

Books are great but they use FedEx as their delivery service… had I known this before ordering I’d have never purchased. I work full time and am not home when they try to deliver the package, I just assumed they’d leave with a neighbour or leave it on my doorstep (which is not unreasonable as EVERY other courier service does). Absolutely no option to change the delivery address and now Monday will be the third attempt so I’m almost certain they will return my delivery of revision books for my son. Very very annoyed.

amazing customer service - they will bend over backwards to help

Cheap and useful books. Only complaint is that their website is somewhat old and sometimes break. Otherwise, brilliant.

Was not good customer service as we were asking for answers but they did not give digital answer sheet but the books are okay they have nice 11+ verbal reasoning books. Would buy but not use the customer service!

I spent a fortune buying online products from CGP and didn't know there was a three year access limit. They have now revoked my access and I can no longer access my books.

they took all my books away cause they put 3year time limit. it is ridiculous. avoid

great books!

CGP books are widely used across schools and educational institutions and I'm not surprised. The purple physical books (all-in-one subject-specific books) are extremely well-presented, funny, and a pleasure to learn from. All content is structured nicely and in subjects like science and mathematics, I find the videos very useful.

I also really appreciate the digital services which are free with the physical copies. The quizzes, practice questions and explanations are very useful. I've never tried it although have also seen a popup asking if you'd like to email a question to a tutor, which is outstanding baring in mind these books are under £10 each.

Sure, they aren't completely affordable for everyone. If you purchase a book for each of your child's GCSE subjects, it can easily reach £100, although they are very much worth it.

The only request is that there were more books in a clearer format for English, as there are only specific books and it would be easy to create one for AQA English Language. I'd also appreciate a few more practice questions which would work well, instead of just a few small ones and full exam papers.

I purchased these books from Waterstones and Amazon so can't rate customer service or orders direct from CGP, although the only build issue is that the film they are covered in can wear away over time, and is quite difficult to remove.

Outstanding books with outstanding value!