Non-calculator paper
O Level Maths Paper 1
“Paper 1” is not one exam. On 4024 it is the non-calculator paper for every candidate. On 0580, from the 2028 syllabus, Paper 1 is the Core paper. Extended candidates do not sit it.
Check the code before you open a paper
4024/11 or /12
Your Paper 1
2 hours, 100 marks, 50% of the syllabus. No calculator. All questions. Any topic except the “using a calculator” section. A ruler is listed. Tracing paper can be requested in the exam. You cannot bring your own.
0580 Paper 1
Core only
1 hour 30 minutes, 80 marks, 50% of the Core qualification. No calculator. Core content only. Grades C to G. If your entry says Extended, this is the wrong paper.
0580 Paper 2
Extended, no calculator
2 hours, 100 marks, 50%. This is the Extended paper that feels like 4024 Paper 1. The Extended calculator paper is Paper 4, not Paper 2.
A long run of short questions
Recent 4024/12 papers are a sequence of short questions rather than a few long ones. May/June 2024 runs to question 25. May/June 2025 and October/November 2025 run to question 23. May/June 2026 runs to question 24. The number moves. The shape does not: you will change topic every few minutes.
- First pass: every question you can finish exactly, in order. A 2-mark fraction does not deserve ten minutes while a later 2-mark question is still unread.
- Second pass: the questions you marked. Stop a 2-mark question at about two minutes if nothing has started. Bank the method line if you have one, then move.
- Answers want simplest form. 11/12 stays as 11/12. A decimal you cannot justify without a calculator is a worse answer.
- Constructions and graphs need a sharp pencil and the instruments the syllabus allows. A sketch is not a construction when the command word is “construct”.
- The formula list is in the syllabus. Memorise the ones Paper 1 keeps using: areas, volumes, Pythagoras, the sine and cosine rules. Looking for a formula you do not know costs a whole short question.
Worked example
Add 3/4 + 1/6 without a calculator
- The lowest common denominator is 12.
- 3/4 = 9/12 and 1/6 = 2/12.
- 9/12 + 2/12 = 11/12.
- 11/12 is already in simplest form. Stop.
This is an original drill, not a past-paper question. The same pattern covers subtraction and a fraction of an amount. If the answer is a top-heavy fraction, simplify it or write the mixed number the question asked for. Do not leave 14/12.
A week of Paper 1, after the code is certain
- Two evenings of number with the calculator in another room: fractions, ratio, standard form, bounds, squares and cubes up to the teens.
- Two evenings of algebra that factorises in your head or on the page: linear equations, simple quadratics, changing the subject.
- One evening of geometry and measures: a construction, a circle theorem in one line of reason, a volume from the formula you were supposed to know.
- Then one past Paper 1 in two hours. Mark it with the matching scheme the same day. The yearly Paper 1 page is the stack to use for 4024.
- If the entry is 0580 Extended, do this week on Paper 2, not Paper 1. The 0580 hub and the Extended Paper 2 yearly page are the matching stack.