Medly Updates

We've added colourful, engaging and clearly labelled diagrams throughout all of our STEM textbooks to help you visualise complex concepts and boost your understanding.

Subjects Updated

Diagrams have been added across both A Level and GCSE science subjects for AQA, Edexcel and OCR:

• A Level Biology
• A Level Chemistry
• A Level Physics
• GCSE Biology
• GCSE Chemistry
• GCSE Physics

What's Next

This is part of our ongoing effort to make Medly the most effective study tool possible. We'll continue adding visual content and improving our materials based on your feedback.

– Paul and Kavi from Medly

We're launching something new to make Medly more accessible for everyone: Medly Mondays.

How It Works

Every Monday, one of our subjects will be completely unlocked — free, with unlimited practice access for the entire day. The subject will rotate each week, giving you the chance to benefit across different areas of your revision.

This first week's free subject is Biology.

Why We're Doing This

As a social enterprise, we want to make sure every student has access to high-quality learning tools, regardless of your background. Many of you have shared how helpful Medly has been, and we know that not everyone is in a position to upgrade.

Medly Mondays is our way of giving you more flexibility and supporting your revision outside of school.

What This Means For You

If you're on the free version of Medly, you'll now have one day each week where you can use the practice mode in that week's subject without limits. Use it to catch up on topics you've been wanting to explore, or dive deep into practice questions before an upcoming test.

We'd love to hear what you think, if you have any feedback, just reply to any of our emails or reach out to us directly.

– Paul and Kavi from Medly

We've updated several models across our platform to improve the general reliability of marking across subjects and question types.

Stepwise Improvement in Reliability

You should see a stepwise increase in reliability and accuracy, particularly in:

• Longer English Essay marking – more consistent evaluation of extended responses
• Maths questions – improved recognition of working and method marks
• Science questions - improved recognition of both misconceptions and correct understanding but missing keywords or phrases leading to marks being dropped

These improvements build on our previous updates and represent a significant upgrade to our core marking infrastructure.

Better Handling of Edge Cases

This update is particularly helpful against edge-case marking criteria. Previously, answers that were partially correct or marked incorrect—but demonstrated good understanding of a topic or concept weren't always recognised appropriately.

Now, our models better identify when a student:

• Shows solid conceptual understanding but has a small misconception leading to an incorrect final answer
• Demonstrates correct methodology but makes a minor error in execution
• Partially addresses marking criteria while missing other elements

Why This Matters

We know it can be frustrating when you understand a concept but lose marks due to a small mistake or misconception. Our updated models now provide more nuanced feedback in these situations, helping you understand exactly where your reasoning was strong and where the gap in understanding occurred.

Continuous Improvement

We're committed to making Medly's marking as accurate and helpful as possible. These model upgrades are just the start of an ongoing process of improvement as the technology and our understanding of how to solve these problems improve.

– Paul and Kavi from Medly

We've improved marking for English essays and practice questions.

Some users found that Medly was marking some English essays inconsistently or not quite right.

Essay marking is a difficult challenge that teachers and exam boards have to deal with. According to Ofqual research, English grades are significantly less reliable than other subjects - with around 1 in 4 grades potentially changing if remarked by a different examiner.

Just like teachers sometimes mark essays differently, Medly won't always be perfect - but our team is working hard to ensure that we mark in a fair and accurate way.

Marking inconsistencies were a frustrating aspect of our own experiences of GCSE English - we didn't have private tutoring so we weren't able to get regular personalised feedback on our essays.

We're committed to being transparent about how Medly marks your work and continuously improving our marking accuracy, so that Medly becomes the thing we wish we'd had when we were preparing for GCSEs.

Here are the updates we've been working on for the past few weeks.

More Consistent Marking

We've reduced variation in marking, particularly for longer essay questions. While some natural variation exists (just like with teachers), you'll now get more reliable and consistent feedback across similar responses.

More Nuanced Marking

Medly now better recognises subtle inaccuracies in your answers, giving you more accurate feedback on your work.

Previously, marking could sometimes be too lenient or too strict.

Now, it evaluates answers with greater precision, helping you understand exactly where you can improve.

Better Recognition of Off-Topic Responses

Medly now better identifies when answers don't address the question, even if they're on a related topic.

This means you'll get more accurate feedback when your response doesn't fully engage with what's being asked, helping you develop stronger exam technique.

Marking and feedback

These marks are just an indication of where you stand - what really matters is understanding how to strengthen your essays.

Use Medly to refine your work and develop your skills, then if you're unsure about anything, ask your teacher for guidance after you've improved your essays with Medly's feedback.

– Paul and Kavi from Medly

We've improved handwriting recognition for maths.

Some users found that Medly was sometimes marking handwritten maths incorrectly.

We looked into the issue and identified that this was caused by Medly incorrectly recognising handwriting, so we've pushed updates to handle ambiguous shapes and lines better.

How to Check Your Work

The default maths handwriting mode on Medly shows you what Medly "sees" on the right side of each line of working, so you can check that Medly is reading your work correctly.

A Technical Challenge

This is a hard technical challenge. Just like teachers sometimes misread handwritten work, it won't always be perfect - but we'll keep actively working on this and improving it.

– Paul and Kavi from Medly

Based on your feedback, we've made proof questions smarter and more accurate.

Previously, some users found that Medly was marking proof questions too generously - sometimes awarding marks even when answers were simply copied without proper working.

Now, our marking system carefully evaluates each step of your proof, ensuring you receive marks for demonstrating genuine mathematical reasoning rather than just stating the final result.

– Paul and Kavi from Medly

Environmental responsibility matters to us. As an AI-powered education platform, we're committed to transparency about our environmental impact so here's what we've done so far and how we'll be further improving our emissions.

This is our complete emissions breakdown, honest comparisons to the platforms you use every day, and concrete action plans for the future.

Where We Stand Today

A student using Medly for an entire year generates just 667 grams of CO₂e.

That's less than 0.05% of a single return flight from London to New York—or about 0.3% of a short-haul return flight within the UK. It's the same as a 45-minute car journey. Less than one tank of petrol spread across a full year of personalized AI tutoring.

Compare that to the apps you use every day:

• TikTok scrolling: About 2.9g CO₂e per minute[3]. An hour a day for a year equals roughly a London to Barcelona return flight per user—77x more than using Medly for a year
• Instagram: Roughly half of TikTok's per-minute emissions[3]
• YouTube/Netflix streaming: 50-60g CO₂e per hour depending on quality and device

Annual per-user emissions for major platforms:

• Google services (Search, YouTube, Gmail, etc.): Equivalent to about five London to Edinburgh flights per user[4]
• Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp): Equivalent to about two London to Edinburgh flights per user[5]
• Netflix: Equivalent to about four London to Edinburgh flights per user[6]

Using Medly for an entire year generates less emissions than scrolling TikTok for 17 minutes total.

Medly's total annual emissions: Roughly equivalent to 40 people getting return flights from London to New York[1], or about 200 short-haul flights within the UK—for an entire year running an AI tutoring platform serving 90,000 students monthly.

For context, the average EU small-to-medium enterprise emits around 75 tonnes of CO₂ annually[2]—equivalent to about 50 return London to New York flights. By building efficiency into our AI infrastructure from day one, we've achieved emissions below typical SME levels—while serving 90,000 students monthly with an adaptive AI tutoring engine that personalizes in real-time.

How We Achieved These Low Emissions

Responsible Infrastructure Partners: From day one, we've chosen hosting and AI API providers that operate data centers with strong environmental credentials. Google's data centers, for example, achieve an average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.09 compared to the industry average of 1.56—meaning they use about 84% less overhead energy for every unit of computing power[7]. They've also matched 100% of their annual electricity consumption with renewable energy since 2017[7].

Smart Technical Architecture: We've built specialized model router techniques to intelligently reduce the number of large language model calls, routing requests to smaller, more efficient models wherever appropriate. This architectural choice means we achieve the same educational outcomes with significantly lower computational overhead.

As we scale, our per-user emissions continue to decrease—and we're committed to making them even lower as we grow.

Our Efficiency-First Design

AI-Powered Platform: Our proprietary multi-model architecture uses specialized smaller models purpose-built for education rather than one massive general-purpose model. This makes us more efficient than standard AI systems while delivering better educational outcomes.

Lean, High-Impact Team: We're delivering significant educational impact to 90,000 monthly active users with a focused team, maximizing our positive impact per person on the team.

Cloud-Native Operations: We've built smart from the start—no owned data centers, vehicles, or manufacturing facilities. This enables us to scale efficiently while partnering with providers who share our environmental values.

Our Complete Emissions Breakdown

Here's our detailed emissions breakdown for the past year:

AI & Cloud Computing: 47.4%

• Platform infrastructure, databases, and AI tutoring engine

Office Equipment & Leased Workspace: 34.8%

• Laptops, monitors, desks, and office space we rent

Team Commuting & Remote Work: 14.1%

• Travel to work and home office electricity

Office Waste & Utilities: 1.2%

• Rubbish disposal and office utilities

Direct Company Emissions: 2.5%

• Minimal direct emissions from our operations

Our Commitment to Carbon Neutrality

Immediate Actions (0-6 Months)

We're actively:

• Migrating more of our compute workloads to data centers with the strongest environmental credentials and renewable energy commitments
• Refining our specialized model router techniques to further reduce large language model calls
• Expanding use of smaller, more efficient models where they maintain educational quality
• Establishing internal metrics for tracking emissions per user
• Optimizing our AI architecture to eliminate unnecessary compute

Medium-Term Commitments (6-18 Months)

Carbon Offsetting with Student Input: We'll begin offsetting our emissions through Gold Standard accredited carbon removal projects—and we're doing it with your input. We're involving our students directly in choosing which verified offsetting projects we invest in, giving you a voice in shaping our environmental impact.

We're also:

• Setting per-user emissions targets as we scale
• Continuing infrastructure optimization to reduce emissions at source
• Partnering with additional renewable energy-focused providers

Long-Term Vision (18+ Months)

Net Zero Commitment: Our ultimate goal is achieving net-zero emissions across our operations. As we expand globally and add new qualifications, we're building this commitment into everything we do.

How we'll get there:

• Building efficiency into every new market and qualification launch
• Exploring and implementing emerging green AI technologies
• Integrating sustainability into our product development lifecycle
• Maintaining per-user emissions well below industry benchmarks as we scale
• Working toward complete carbon neutrality through verified offsets and emission reductions

Transparency First

We're committed to sharing:

• Infrastructure optimization results
• Carbon offset investments and their impact
• Honest reporting if we fall short

Complete transparency is how we hold ourselves accountable. As we grow, we're committed to sharing our progress, celebrating our wins, and being honest about where we can improve.

We welcome your questions and suggestions about our environmental efforts—your input makes us better.

To our students: we're building this together. Your future matters, and we're committed to protecting it while helping you achieve your potential.

— The Medly Team

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References

[1] Flight emissions based on average return economy flight London to New York: ~1.5 tonnes CO₂e per passenger. UK Government GHG conversion factors for company reporting.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting

[2] EU SME emissions: EU SMEs emit on average 75 tonnes of CO₂ annually. Green.earth SME Carbon Footprints Guide.
https://www.green.earth/blog/sme-carbon-footprints-a-practical-guide

[3] TikTok per-minute emissions: Greenly carbon accounting study, December 2024. "TikTok's carbon footprint as big as Greece, study claims." The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/12/tiktok-carbon-footprint

[4] Google services per-user annual emissions: Estimated from Google's 2023 Environmental Report divided by global active users across Search, YouTube, Gmail, and other services.
https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2023-environmental-report.pdf

[5] Meta platforms per-user annual emissions: Estimated from Meta's 2023 Sustainability Report divided by global active users across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
https://sustainability.fb.com/reports/

[6] Netflix per-user annual emissions: Estimated from Netflix's 2023 Environmental Social Governance Report divided by global subscriber base.
https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-2023-environmental-social-governance-report

[7] Google data center efficiency and renewable energy: Google Data Centers - Operating Sustainably. Data center PUE of 1.09 vs industry average of 1.56, and 100% renewable energy match since 2017.
https://datacenters.google/operating-sustainably/

All flight and travel comparisons use standard UK short-haul (London-Edinburgh) and long-haul (London-New York) economy class emissions factors. Car journey comparisons based on average UK petrol car emissions of 180g CO₂/km.

Results Day has arrived! Your 2025 Back to School Medly Mocks results are now live.

Congratulations again on completing your 2025 Back to School Medly Mocks!

Your results are waiting for you. Log in now to see your performance and start improving.

The 2025 Back To School Medly Mocks have officially started!

You can now log into your Medly account and begin taking your registered exams anytime over the next two weeks.

Ready to Get Started?

• Log into your Medly account and navigate to your registered exams
• Choose when to take each exam - you have full flexibility during the 2-week window
• Remember: The Back to School Medly Mocks are designed to help you understand where you stand at the start of the year and identify your strengths and areas for growth. So don't stress if you can't answer everything. Just do your best on what you know!

What to Expect

• Instant feedback after completing each exam
• Realistic exam conditions that mirror actual GCSE/A-Level papers
• Nationwide comparisons on Results Day to see exactly where you stand

Need Help? If you have any technical issues accessing your exams or questions about the process, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team.

We're excited to share some exciting updates - here's what's new: thousands of new practice questions, faster AI marking and easier subject navigation. And by popular demand, GCSE Foundation and Combined Sciences are now available!

Build exam confidence from day one

Why wait until exam day to face real exam questions? Work with realistic, exam-style questions from day one, supported by AI tutoring and instant feedback.

A cleaner, simpler interface

We've completely redesigned the Medly interface to make studying simpler. Move between subjects effortlessly, find topics faster, and spend more time learning - not navigating.

Advanced Teaching

With new teaching tools, our AI Tutor can now highlight key parts of each question as it guides you, while tracking your working to give live, tailored feedback.

GCSE Foundation and Combined Sciences

You can now switch your subjects in the sidebar to access GCSE Foundation and Combined Sciences, with content tailored to your exact course.

We've also improved question quality across all subjects—working with teachers to ensure every corner of your specification is covered and matches what you'll see in real exams.