Paper 1 · question 23
Open any Paper 1. Turn to the last question.
It is a travel graph.
Not most years. Every year we have on record. Don't take our word for it — the papers are free to open.
10papers out of 10, 2016 to 2025
A speed–time graph. Part (a) asked for the acceleration in all ten papers.
Go and check for yourselfPaper 1 · question 21
Question 21 has been linear programming ten papers running.
10 for 10Almost word for word each time: write the three inequalities that define the unshaded region R.
5 marks here — and 12 more in Section B. No topic pays more.Practise this →
Paper 1 · question 22
Question 22 has carried the quadratic graph in nine of ten.
9 of 10Where the curve cuts the x-axis, then its highest or lowest point.
2018 moved it — the only paper in ten that did.
6 marks.Practise this →
Your turn
Think we picked the easy ones? Call question 21.
Paper 1 · question 11
Earth geometry has sat at question 11 for seven straight papers.
7 of 10Latitude and longitude, distance along a circle of latitude.
Before 2019 it lived at question 9 — it moved once and stayed.
3 marks here, 12 in Section B when it takes the sixth seat.Practise this →
Paper 1 · questions 1–2
The paper opened with algebra and indices in nine of ten.
9 of 10Both, in either order — which one leads changes without warning.
2019 opened differently.
2 marks each — the cheapest marks in the paper, and the first you meet.
Paper 1 · what each question pays
The marks climb as you go. Question 1 pays 2. Question 23 pays 6.
Which means the back of the paper is not where the exam is won or lost — the arithmetic is friendlier than the fear:
Answer questions 1 to 19 perfectly, leave the last four blank, and you still have 59 out of 80. That is 74% — a distinction on Paper 1.
Counted off two real papers — the 2017 School Certificate and the 2024 GCE, seven years and two streams apart. Same ladder in both, adding to 80.
Paper 1 · the whole paper
Grade 12 work is five questions out of 23.
And the same five Grade-12 topics filled those five seats, year after year:
The rest of the paper spreads thin: about 22 topics for 23 questions, so nearly every topic gets exactly one. Only algebra, index notation, sets, coordinate geometry have regularly taken two.
Paper 1 · the shape of each topic
Every topic has a shape, and it barely moves.
A travel graph question has come in three parts — every single time, in twenty papers. Variation: three parts, always. Sequences: two. Knowing the shape before you start is knowing how long the question will take.
The percentage is how often the topic came in exactly that many parts, across both streams, 2016–2025. Index notation is the restless one — it has never settled.
Paper 2 · Section A
Construction and loci appeared in Section A every single year.
10 for 10Ruler and compasses, then shade the region that fits the rules.
About 8 marks every year — the biggest compulsory block on Paper 2, and it never appears on Paper 1.Practise this →
Paper 2 · Section B
You pick 4 of 6 — and the 6 barely change.
Every Section B question has been worth exactly 12 marks, in all ten papers. These are the topics that filled those seats:
Five of those six repeated every single year. Learn them and your Section B is chosen before the paper is opened.
Section A is the compulsory half — six questions, all of them answered, worth about 52 marks. These are the regulars it draws from.
The whole subject · in marks
You only get to choose 48 marks out of 180.
132marks you cannot avoid
A distinction is about 126 out of 180. The compulsory part of the exam is worth 132 — more than a distinction. So the patterns tell you where to aim first, never what to skip.
70% is the published distinction band. Grades are standardised each year, so treat 126 as the target to clear, not a line to land exactly on.
Where this leads
Our mock exams are built on these patterns
Same shape, same seats, same marks — with questions you have never seen. Sitting one is rehearsal for the real paper, not a guess at it.
Patterns are habits, not promises. ECZ can break one any year, which is why the winning play is patterns plus full coverage — never patterns instead of it.
Every strip on this page is counted from the G12 Titan question bank, which holds all ten years of ECZ Mathematics papers verbatim. A filled year means the pattern held in that paper; an empty one means it did not.