Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics (0580) Complete Past Papers and Mark Schemes
Updated: Sep 7
Access Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics (0580) past papers and mark schemes for both Core and Extended. Core candidates take Papers 1 and 3 and can achieve up to grade C, while Extended candidates take Papers 2 and 4 and can achieve up to grade A*. Before starting, read our expert exam guidance to improve your performance.
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 May/June 2026 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2026 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 11 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 13 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 21 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 23 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 31 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 33 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2026 Paper 43 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2026 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2026 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2026 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2026 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2026 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2026 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 Oct/Nov 2025 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2025 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 11 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 13 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 21 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 23 (Variant 3) | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 31 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 33 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 41 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2025 Paper 43 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 May/June 2025 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2025 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 11 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Maths 0580 June 2025 Paper 13 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 21 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 23 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 31 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 33 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 41 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2025 Paper 43 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2025 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2025 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2025 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2025 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2025 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2025 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 Oct/Nov 2024 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2024 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 11 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 13 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 21 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 23 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 31 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 33 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 41 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2024 Paper 43 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2024 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 11 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 13 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 21 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 23 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 31 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 33 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 41 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 June 2024 Paper 43 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2024 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2024 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2024 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2024 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2024 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 March 2025 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 Oct/Nov 2023 Past Papers and Mark Schemes
2023 Cambridge IGCSE Maths | Downloads | |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 11 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 12 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 13 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 21 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 22 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 23 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 31 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 32 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 33 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 41 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 42 | ||
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 October November 2023 Paper 43 | ||
IGCSE Maths Tips, According To Cambridge Examiners
Our teachers have distilled 10 common mistakes most worth your attention before you sit the Cambridge IGCSE Maths exam.
1. Rounding Too Early
This is one of the most frustrating ways to lose marks — because the method is completely right, but the answer just falls outside the acceptable range. It happens when students round or trim numbers at intermediate stages of a calculation rather than waiting until the very end.
The fix is simple: trust your calculator. Let it hold the full number between steps, and only round your final answer to whatever precision the question asks for (typically 3 significant figures, or 1 decimal place for angles). If you need to write down a working value, aim for at least 4–5 significant figures to stay safe.
2. Mixing Up Scale Factors for Length, Area and Volume
Similar shapes trip a lot of students up here. It's tempting to think that if a length doubles, everything doubles — but that's only true for lengths. Areas and volumes play by different rules.
The key relationships to burn into memory are: the area scale factor is the linear scale factor squared, and the volumescale factor is the linear scale factor cubed. So if two similar shapes have a length ratio of 3, their areas are in the ratio 9, and their volumes in the ratio 27. Once that clicks, these questions become much more straightforward.
3. Getting Tripped Up by Negative Numbers
Negative numbers cause more dropped marks than almost anything else — and the errors tend to follow the same patterns. The biggest culprit is a minus sign sitting in front of a bracket. Many students only apply it to the first term, leaving the rest unchanged, when it actually needs to distribute across every term inside. The other classic slip is something like −8y − y: it's easy to instinctively write −7y, when the correct answer is −9y.
A helpful mindset shift is to stop seeing the minus sign as just a sign, and start treating it as a multiplier of −1. Every single term in the bracket gets multiplied by it — no exceptions. For students who find negative arithmetic particularly slippery, a number line is a genuinely useful tool, not a crutch. It makes the direction of the calculation visible and reduces careless reversals.
4. Forgetting Brackets at Critical Moments
Brackets might seem like a minor detail, but leaving them out at the wrong moment can completely change the meaning of an expression. A common example is expanding −(x + 1)². Students will often square the bracket correctly to get x² + 2x + 1, then forget that the negative applies to the whole result — not just the first term — giving −x² − 2x − 1, not −x² + 2x + 1. The same issue crops up when substituting negative values into formulas. There's a meaningful difference between (−5)² and −5², and confusing the two leads to a sign error that costs marks unnecessarily.
The habit to build is simple: when in doubt, add the brackets. Use them automatically when substituting any negative number into a formula, and during the first stage of any expansion or algebraic fraction. They take a second to write and can save an entire mark.
5. Treating Time Like Ordinary Arithmetic
This one catches students out more often than you'd expect. Because we're so used to working in base 10, it feels natural to subtract times the same way you'd subtract any other numbers. But time doesn't work that way — there are 60 minutes in an hour, not 100. So something like 11:17 minus 10:30 isn't 87 minutes; it's 47 minutes. The error is understandable, but it's also entirely avoidable.
Rather than trying to subtract times directly, use a counting-on approach. From 10:30, count forward to 11:00 — that's 30 minutes. Then from 11:00 to 11:17 is another 17 minutes. Add them together and you get 47 minutes. It takes an extra line of working, but it keeps you grounded in how time actually behaves and sidesteps the base-10 trap entirely.
6. Stopping One Step Too Early When Factorising
Partial factorisation is a quiet mark-loser. The working looks right, the method is right, but the answer isn't fully simplified — and in a two-mark question, that often means walking away with just one of them.
The most common version of this is pulling out a common factor correctly, then not noticing that what's left inside the bracket can be factorised further. This is especially true when a difference of two squares is lurking — expressions of the form a² − b², which factor neatly into (a − b)(a + b). It's easy to miss if you're not actively looking for it.
The habit to develop is treating your first factorisation as a checkpoint, not a finishing line. Once you've taken out the common factor, look at what remains with fresh eyes and ask: is there anything else here? Does this fit a known pattern? That extra few seconds of checking is often the difference between one mark and two.
7. Not Showing Your Working
It's a straightforward rule that's easy to overlook under exam pressure: examiners can only mark what they can see. If a final answer is wrong and there's no working on the page, there's nothing to award method marks on — and those marks exist precisely to reward correct thinking, even when the final answer goes astray. Scattering calculations randomly across the page causes the same problem; if the logical thread isn't clear, the examiner can't follow it.
The solution is to write mathematics the way you'd explain it to someone else — step by step, in order. Show the formula you're using, show the substitution, show the intermediate result. It doesn't need to be verbose, but it does need to be followable. "Show that" questions deserve particular care here: the working needs to be rigorous enough to arrive at a value more precise than the one given in the question, otherwise it reads as though you've reverse-engineered the answer rather than derived it.
8. Woolly Geometric Reasoning
Geometry mark schemes are less forgiving than students often expect. Phrases like "z-angles" or "it's a straight line" feel like they're in the right ballpark — and mathematically, the instinct behind them usually is — but they don't meet the standard required for a mark. Reasons need to be complete, precise, and drawn from proper geometric language.
The difference between a mark and no mark often comes down to a single word or phrase. "Angles on a straight line" becomes credit-worthy when you add "add to 180°". A quadrilateral isn't just opposite angles — it's a cyclic quadrilateral, and that word is doing essential work in the reason. The fix is to practise stating reasons in full during revision, so that the complete phrasing becomes automatic rather than something you have to reconstruct under pressure.
9. Not Reading the Question Carefully Enough
This is perhaps the most avoidable way to lose marks on the list — because the mathematics is often completely correct, and the only problem is that the answer isn't in the form the question asked for. Standard form when the question wanted an ordinary number. Two transformations described when the question specifically said single. Rounded to one decimal place when the instruction was to the nearest 10. The working tells the full story of a student who understood the topic, but the final answer doesn't match what was asked.
The habit to build is a quick re-read of the question after you've written your answer, not just before. Check that what you've produced actually responds to the specific wording. It takes ten seconds and it's one of the highest-value checks you can make.
10. Calculator Errors and Results That Don't Make Sense
Calculators are powerful tools, but they do exactly what you tell them to — which means a wrong input produces a wrong answer with complete confidence. Two errors come up again and again: the calculator being in radians or grads mode instead of degrees during trigonometry questions, and misreading the cube root function as a multiplication by 3. Both produce answers that are wrong in ways that aren't always obvious at a glance.
The defence against this is a habit of sense-checking results rather than accepting them automatically. A calculated mean that sits outside the range of the data is impossible — if that's what the calculator gives you, something has gone wrong. A trigonometric answer that seems wildly off is often a mode issue. Before starting any trigonometry question, check the mode. And after any calculation, pause for a moment and ask whether the answer is in the right ballpark. Developing that instinct is what separates students who catch their own mistakes from those who don't.
What Changed in IGCSE Maths 2026 and 2027 That You Should Take Note Of When Attempting Past Papers?
Four main changes were made. First, Papers 1 and 2 are now non-calculator exams, so older past papers that allowed a calculator will feel different. Second, the marks and duration were rebalanced — Papers 1 and 2 had their marks increased (to 80 and 100 respectively) while Papers 3 and 4 had theirs decreased, with all papers now carrying equal 50% weighting and running for either 1 hour 30 minutes or 2 hours. Third, all papers now include a List of Formulas on page 2, which older papers did not have. Fourth, papers now contain a mix of structured and unstructured questions rather than following the previous format.
Topic Changes You Have To Take Note
Several topics were added and removed for both Core and Extended. For Core, inequalities and the recall of specific squares, cubes, and roots were added, while adding/subtracting vectors, multiplying a vector by a scalar, and formal data collection were removed. For Extended, new topics include surds (with rationalising the denominator), domain and range for functions, exact trigonometric values for 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90°, recall of certain squares, cubes and roots, and graphs of the form axⁿ now extending to n = −½ and ½. Removed from Extended are proper subsets, linear programming, congruence criteria (though congruence as a concept remains), box-and-whisker plots, and formal data collection. This means past papers may contain questions on removed topics that are no longer assessed, and will not contain questions on the newly added topics.
Clarifications Specifically Made By Your Examiners
Three clarifications were made. First, the definition of a prism has been broadened to include any solid with a uniform cross-section, such as a cylindrical sector, so older papers may use the term more narrowly. Second, the word "random"has been added to the probability and statistics guidance, reflecting a more precise expectation in how sampling and data are discussed. Third, the expectations for drawing reciprocal and exponential graphs have been more clearly defined, meaning older past papers may not have tested these to the same level of precision now expected.
