- Why Past Papers Work (When You Use Them Well)
- Where to Get IB Past Papers and Markschemes
- Which Past Papers to Use: Check for Syllabus Changes
- A Phased Plan: From Topic Questions to Full Mocks
- How to Do One Past Paper Properly
- How to Read IB Markschemes
- Spotting Question Patterns
- Timed Practice and Time per Mark
- Past Papers for Essay Subjects
- Tracking Your Progress with an Error Log
- Learning from Mistakes
Quick Answer
Use IB past papers in stages: single questions by topic with the markscheme open, then timed sections, then full papers under exam conditions in the final weeks. Mark every attempt strictly against the official markscheme, log each lost mark as a knowledge, technique or careless error, and fix the cause before your next paper. Analysis, not volume, is what raises your marks.
What You'll Learn
- Work in stages: topic questions, then timed sections, then full papers
- Mark strictly with the official markscheme and log every lost mark by cause
- Use papers from your current syllabus first and check older ones before using them
- Keep two or three recent papers unseen for final timed practice
- Get papers legally from your school or the official IB store
Why Past Papers Work (When You Use Them Well)
IB Diploma exams are sat at the end of the two-year programme, in the May session at most schools and in November at others. Past papers are the closest thing you have to those exams: they show the question styles, command terms and level of detail expected, and the markschemes show exactly how marks are awarded. They also make you retrieve knowledge under pressure, which builds memory far better than rereading notes. The catch is that doing papers without marking and analysing them teaches you very little.
Pro Tip
Treat each paper as a diagnosis, not a score. The goal is a list of specific things to fix.
Where to Get IB Past Papers and Markschemes
IB past papers and markschemes are copyrighted, so use official copies. That way you also know you have the right version and the matching markscheme.
- Your school: teachers and IB coordinators have access to past papers, markschemes and subject reports for the courses they teach. Ask what they can share
- The official IB store: individual papers, exam packs and the IB Questionbank are sold through the IB's own store and its authorised distributor
- Specimen papers: when a course gets a new guide, the IB publishes specimen papers to show the new format before any real exams exist
- Textbooks and revision question banks: useful for extra topic practice, but written by publishers rather than the IB, so check them against real papers
Watch Out
Websites offering free downloads of every IB paper are usually sharing them without permission. Apart from the legal issue, the files are often mislabelled, paired with the wrong markscheme, or from an old syllabus.
Which Past Papers to Use: Check for Syllabus Changes
Papers from your current guide are the most valuable. Older papers can still train skills, but check first whether the course changed. Recent and upcoming changes include:
- Biology, chemistry and physics: new guides from May 2025, so earlier papers follow the old syllabus and paper structure
- Environmental systems and societies, global politics, and sports, exercise and health science: new guides from May 2026
- English A and the other Language A courses: Paper 2 has new marking criteria from May 2026, but the task is the same, so older Paper 2 questions are still good practice
- Psychology: new guide from May 2027
- Computer science and design technology: new guides from May 2027, so papers from November 2026 and earlier follow the old guide and paper structure
- History: new guide from May 2028, so students sitting exams in 2026 and 2027 should keep using current papers
- Mathematics: analysis and approaches, and applications and interpretation: new guides from May 2029, so current papers remain right for exams up to 2028
- Language B and language ab initio: new guides from May 2029, but the IB says Paper 1 and Paper 2 do not change, so current past papers stay relevant
Pro Tip
In many subjects, May papers are set in more than one time-zone version with different questions, which gives you more practice material per session.
A Phased Plan: From Topic Questions to Full Mocks
How you use past papers should change as the exams get closer:
- 1Months before: read through papers to learn the question types and command terms. Answer single questions on topics you have just finished, with the markscheme open
- 28 to 10 weeks before: do questions by topic without the markscheme, then mark them strictly. Start timing individual questions
- 34 to 8 weeks before: do full sections and then full papers under timed conditions, focusing on time management and question choice
- 4Final 2 weeks: sit your saved recent papers under full exam conditions, then spend most of your time fixing what they reveal
Pro Tip
Save two or three recent papers for full timed practice near the end. Do not use up your best material too early.
How to Do One Past Paper Properly
This is the routine that turns a past paper into real progress:
- 1Set up exam conditions: a timer, only the equipment and booklets the exam allows, and your phone in another room
- 2Sit the paper in the real time. When time runs out, draw a line and finish any remaining questions in a different colour, so you see both your exam score and what you can do with more time
- 3Mark it strictly with the official markscheme, as an examiner would, giving no credit for what you meant
- 4Record your mark for each question, not just the total
- 5Log every lost mark with its cause: knowledge, technique or careless error
- 6Fix the causes: revise the content, rewrite the answer to markscheme standard, or add a checking step
- 7Two or three days later, redo the questions you lost marks on, from memory, without looking at your corrections
Watch Out
Generous self-marking is the quickest way to waste a past paper. If an answer is not in the markscheme and you are not sure it is a valid alternative, give yourself 0 and ask your teacher.
How to Read IB Markschemes
The markscheme is where most of the learning happens. Read it for patterns, not just answers.
- Identify the exact points that earn marks, and the wording examiners accept
- Compare mark allocation with length: what does a 2-mark answer contain compared with a 6-mark one?
- Learn the notation your subject uses. Maths markschemes, for example, award method marks separately from answer marks, so correct working can earn marks even with a wrong final answer
- Look for notes on accepted alternative wording and on carrying forward an earlier error, which show where examiners allow flexibility
- Notice what is listed as not acceptable: these are the common near-misses
- For essay questions, read the markbands or criteria alongside the suggested content, which offers likely points but is not a checklist
- Read the subject report for each session, where senior examiners describe common mistakes and what strong answers did
Spotting Question Patterns
IB papers are not predictable enough to guess topics, but they are consistent in style. After five or six papers in a subject, look for:
- Which topics appear most often and carry the most marks
- Repeated question structures, and how each command term relates to the marks available
- Which skills are tested in data-based or unseen questions
- Which topics tend to be combined in extended responses
- How each paper differs in style, such as short answers, data analysis or essays
Timed Practice and Time per Mark
Work out your time per mark for each paper by dividing the time allowed by the total marks. For example, a 90-minute paper worth 80 marks gives you just over a minute per mark, so a 6-mark question deserves about 7 minutes. Use this to decide when to move on.
- Practise starting and stopping exactly on time, even if a question is unfinished
- Decide in advance how you will handle a question you are stuck on: mark it, move on, come back
- For papers with a choice of questions, practise choosing in under two minutes
- Notice your personal pattern: do you overspend early, rush the end, or overwrite low-mark questions?
Pro Tip
Time pressure affects everyone differently. Knowing your own tendency, and practising against it, is worth more than another untimed paper.
Past Papers for Essay Subjects
In essay-based subjects such as English A, history or economics, you cannot write a full answer to every past question, and you do not need to.
- Write 10-minute plans for many questions: a thesis, three main points and the evidence for each
- Write a few full answers under timed conditions and mark them against the criteria or markbands
- Build a bank of evidence, such as quotations, case studies and data, that you can adapt to different questions
- Compare your plans with the markscheme's suggested content to check you answered the actual question
Tracking Your Progress with an Error Log
A simple error log turns past papers into a revision plan. For each lost mark, record:
- The paper, question number and topic
- Marks lost and the cause: knowledge, technique or careless
- What the markscheme wanted, in one line
- Your fix: what you will revise, practise or check differently
- Whether you got it right on the retest
Pro Tip
Review the log weekly. The topics and error types that keep appearing are where your next revision hours should go.
Learning from Mistakes
Each type of error needs a different fix:
- 1Knowledge gaps: return to your notes or textbook, then answer a new question on the same topic
- 2Technique gaps: rewrite your answer to markscheme standard and study how the command term was answered
- 3Careless errors: add a specific check to your routine, such as units, significant figures or rereading the question
- 4Timing problems: practise that question type under a stricter time limit
Watch Out
Do not just redo papers you scored poorly on. Understand why you lost the marks, fix the underlying issue, then test yourself again.