Past papers

Margin keeps an index of the past papers Cambridge International publishes for its courses. The papers themselves stay on Cambridge's website. Margin links to them and shows them inside the app, but never hosts, copies or changes them.

The printable index#

Past papers on the public site lists every question paper, mark scheme, insert, confidential instructions document and examiner report that Cambridge offers on its website for Mathematics 9709, Physics 9702, Chemistry 9701, Biology 9700 and Computer Science 9618. Entries are grouped by subject, then by exam series (February/March, May/June, October/November, or specimen), then by paper and variant, so 9709/61 is Paper 6, variant 1.

Each link opens the PDF from cambridgeinternational.org. Choose Print this list for a paper copy: the print layout drops the site's header and footer and writes out each address under its link.

Cambridge makes only some papers public: usually the most recent May/June series for each syllabus, plus the specimen papers written for the current syllabus. Older series are on Cambridge's School Support Hub, which needs a login from a registered school, so they are not in the index. The page says when the links were last checked.

Practising by topic#

Open Past papers from the sidebar, the home page or the console (⌘ K, then type a topic, for example papers: hypothesis tests). Every question in the index appears as a row with its number, its marks and the topics it tests.

Narrow the list with the filters along the top:

Switch to Papers to see the documents behind the filtered questions, with the mark scheme and any insert alongside each question paper.

Each note that has tagged questions shows Past paper questions on this topic under its title. Choose it to open the list beside the note, filtered to that note.

The paper viewer#

Choose a question to open its paper in a tab, at the page where the question starts. The PDF is embedded directly from Cambridge's site, so it loads from Cambridge and your browser's own PDF viewer shows it. Beside it is the paper's question list: choose a question to jump to its page, and use the pills at the top to switch to the mark scheme or examiner report.

Phones and some browsers can't show a PDF inside a page. There the viewer shows Open on Cambridge's site instead, which opens the file in a new tab. The same button is always at the top of the viewer.

Tracking questions#

Tick the box beside a question when you have done it. Choose the calendar button to add it to today in your planner; ticking the task in the planner also marks the question done, and choosing the task opens the paper at that question. Progress is stored like the rest of your study data: in this browser when you are signed out, and in your account when you are signed in.

How questions are tagged#

Margin stores only facts about each paper: the syllabus, paper and variant, series and year, the official link and the date it was checked, and for each question its number, its marks and the page it starts on. No question wording is stored.

Question numbers, marks and start pages are found automatically from each paper's layout, and the marks are checked against the total printed on the cover. Topics are then assigned by hand against Margin's courses: each question is linked to the units and notes it tests, up to three per question, most important first. Questions are tagged against the course for their paper:

Practical papers (3 and 5) are tagged to the practical skills units and, where a question centres on a topic, to that topic too. If a tag looks wrong, open an issue or a pull request on GitHub: the index lives in content/papers/, one file per syllabus, and pnpm papers:check validates it.

Attribution#

Past papers, mark schemes, inserts and examiner reports are © UCLES (Cambridge University Press & Assessment) and are published by Cambridge International at cambridgeinternational.org. Margin links to them and does not host them. Margin is not affiliated with or endorsed by Cambridge.