Most students waste past papers by doing them once and checking the score. Here is how to mark, review and reuse them so every lost mark becomes revision.
A past paper is a tool for finding out why you lose marks, not a way of predicting your grade. Do questions by topic first and full timed papers later. Mark strictly with the official mark scheme, sort every lost mark into a cause, fix the cause, and redo the same questions a week later. The review should take at least as long as the paper did.
What is the most common mistake with past papers?
The usual routine is: do the paper, add up the marks, feel pleased or miserable for a few minutes, and move on to the next one. That uses the paper as a thermometer. You learn your temperature and nothing about how to change it. The value of a paper is in the questions you got wrong and what you do about them afterwards. Answering exam questions is also a form of practice testing, which the psychologist John Dunlosky describes as one of the most effective study strategies there is, partly because it shows you exactly where your gaps are. A student who does five papers and reviews each one properly will usually improve more than a student who races through fifteen.
When should you start doing past papers?
Start with past-paper questions much earlier than full past papers. As soon as you have finished a topic in class, you can answer real exam questions on it. This shows you early how the exam words things and how the mark scheme expects answers to be phrased. Save complete, timed papers for when you have covered most of the course, which for most students is from around the mock exams onwards. There is a limited supply of papers for the current specifications, so do not burn through them in the autumn when half the content is still untaught.
How do you sit a paper so the result means something?
Make sure it is the right paper: your exam board, your specification code, your tier and the correct paper number. A Higher paper tells a Foundation student very little, and a paper from a different board may test content you have never been taught.
- Set a timer for the real length of the paper and stop when it ends.
- Put your notes and phone out of reach. Use only what is allowed in the exam, such as a calculator where permitted and any formula sheet or data sheet your board provides.
- Write in pen, show working, and answer on paper rather than in your head. “I would have got that” is not a mark.
- If you are stuck, make your best attempt and put a star next to the question. Stars are valuable during review.
How do you mark it properly?
Use the official mark scheme for that exact paper, and be stricter than you want to be. If the mark scheme needs a particular word or idea and you wrote something vaguer, do not give yourself the mark. Examiners can only credit what is on the page. Read the mark scheme as a document, not only as an answer key. Notice which points earn marks, which alternatives are accepted, and what is listed as not acceptable. In science and maths, look at how marks are split between the method and the final answer. In longer written answers, look at what separates a middle-level response from a top one. Exam boards also produce examiner reports. OCR, for example, says each of its reports includes commentary on how candidates performed, highlights good performance and suggests where performance could be improved. Some reports are easy to find online and others are released through teacher websites, so ask your teacher for the report that matches a paper you have just sat. It is one of the quickest ways to see what your answers are missing.
What should you do with the marks you lost?
Go through every lost mark and give it one of four labels. This takes ten minutes and turns a score into a plan.
- Knowledge: you did not know the fact, definition or method. Fix: relearn the topic from your notes, then test yourself on it.
- Application: you knew the content but could not see how to use it in an unfamiliar context. Fix: do more questions of that type, mixed in with other topics.
- Exam technique: you misread the command word, described when asked to explain, gave one point for a three-mark question, or ran out of time. Fix: practise that question style and check the command word every time.
- Slip: a copying error, a missed unit, a calculator mistake. Fix: build a checking habit, such as rereading the question after answering it.
Why should you redo the same questions?
Keep a simple mistakes log: the paper, the question number, the label and one line on what the right answer needed. A week later, redo only those questions from a blank page without looking at your corrections. If you get them right, the repair worked. If not, the topic goes back into your timetable. This is the step almost everyone skips, and it is where the improvement happens. Reading a correct answer and nodding is recognition. Producing it yourself a week later is recall, and recall is what the exam asks for.
What can past papers not tell you?
Be careful about turning a past-paper score into a grade. Ofqual explains that new grade boundaries are set each year to reflect the difficulty of each paper, so the mark that earned a grade 6 on one year's paper may not earn it on another. Old boundaries are a rough guide at best. Past papers also cannot predict questions. Boards deliberately vary the contexts they use, which is why understanding a topic beats memorising last year's mark scheme. Use papers to practise thinking, not to guess what will come up.
Sources
John Dunlosky, “Strengthening the Student Toolbox”, American Educator (2013): A cognitive psychologist's review of which study strategies work: practice testing, distributed practice and interleaving, and why rereading and highlighting do less than students expect. Ofqual: GCSE 9 to 1 grade scale explained: How the numbered grades work and why grade boundaries are set fresh each year. OCR: examiners' reports: What examiner reports contain and when OCR releases them. AQA: command words used in GCSE science exams: AQA's own definitions of describe, explain, evaluate, compare, suggest and the other command words.
Frequently asked questions
How many past papers should I do for each subject?
There is no magic number. A handful of papers per subject, each fully reviewed and with the missed questions redone, is worth more than every available paper done once. If you run out, use topic questions or papers from an older specification for the content that still overlaps, and ask your teacher what has changed.
Should I do past papers open book?
Early in the course, attempting topic questions with notes nearby is fine as a way of learning how questions are worded. Once you are revising, close the notes. The point is to find out what you can produce without help.
Is it cheating to look at the mark scheme?
No. Mark schemes are published so that students and teachers can use them. Look after you have made a real attempt, not before. Studying how marks are awarded is one of the best uses of your time.
What if I have done all the past papers?
Redo the questions you got wrong on earlier papers, use specimen papers from your board, and try questions from other boards on topics you know overlap. Your teacher may also have papers that are not publicly available.