top of page
white-Photoroom-80_edited.png

Cambridge IGCSE Maths May/June 2026 Predictions (0580) – Paper 2 & Paper 4 Topics

Updated: Mar 19

After years of poring over past Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics past papers, examiner comments, and syllabus changes, I can tell you with confidence: certain topics come up almost every single paper, certain question types are as close to guaranteed as maths gets, and certain areas students spend hours revising have been quietly removed from the syllabus entirely. This guide exists to show you exactly which is which — and it's the only predictions resource you'll need for Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics in 2026.


At Kingsbridge Education, we've mapped every pattern across hundreds of exam questions so you don't have to. By the time you've read this, you'll know where the marks are, where your revision time is actually worth spending, and — just as importantly — what you can stop worrying about. That's worth more to your grade than any last-minute cramming session.


While this guide helps you identify the key topics and patterns, if you want the exact questions most likely to appear, our teachers have come together to create precise, exam-style predicted questions — complete with full mark schemes and detailed teacher insights for every question.




Click on the links below to jump straight to the section most relevant to your revision:




Topics That Will Appear With Near 100% Certainty for IGCSE Maths Paper 2 for 2026


The following topics show up in essentially every version of Paper 2, and because this is now a non-calculator paper, the questions are specifically designed to test whether you can work fluently and accurately by hand. There are no excuses for being underprepared here — this is your guaranteed scoring territory.


1. Algebraic Manipulation and Equations


Algebra is the backbone of this paper, and it typically carries more marks than any other area. Expect to meet it in several forms.


Simultaneous equations appear almost without fail. You'll be given two linear equations and asked to solve them — usually by elimination or substitution. The arithmetic is manageable, but setting out your working neatly and keeping track of signs is essential. Careless errors here are heartbreaking because the method is something every one of you can do.


Example: Solve the simultaneous equations: 4x−5y=13 and 3x−2y=8"


Factorising completely is another near-certainty. This might mean pulling out a common factor, factorising a quadratic of the form ax² + bx + c, or spotting a difference of two squares. The word "completely" in the question is your signal to check whether anything can be taken further — don't stop too early.


Rearranging formulas — making a specific variable the subject — comes up regularly and rewards students who are systematic. Work one step at a time, do the same thing to both sides, and don't rush. The trap is usually a square root or a squared term near the end.


Possible question here could be to rearrange p = 2(m + t − 1) to make t the subject


Solving quadratics ties in with factorising and appears in nearly every variant. Know your factorisation method inside out, and make sure you're comfortable writing both solutions clearly.


For example, a possible question could be to solve: 12x² + 17x − 5 = 0


2. Non-Calculator Arithmetic


This is the section that catches students who assumed a calculator would always be there for them. It won't be, so let's talk about what you need to be ready for.


Fractions with mixed numbers appear on every paper, and the key word here is show your working. The examiner wants to see each step — converting to improper fractions, finding common denominators, simplifying. Even if you can do it in your head, write it down. Marks are awarded for method, not just the answer.


Example: Work out: 1⁸⁄₃ ÷ 1⁵⁄₁₅. Give your answer as a mixed number in its simplest form.


Recurring decimals are a topic many students underestimate. Converting something like 0.2̄6̄ into a fraction is a specific algebraic technique — you set up an equation, multiply to shift the decimal, subtract, and simplify. It looks unusual the first time you see it, but once you've practised it five or six times, it's completely straightforward. Make sure you have.


Example: Write 0.32̇8̇ as a fraction in its simplest form


Standard form questions test both your ability to convert numbers and to calculate with them — multiplying, dividing, or adding values written as A × 10ⁿ. Keep a close eye on your powers of ten and always check that your final answer is properly written in standard form.


Example: Work out, giving your answer in standard form: (3.8 × 10²²) + (3.8 × 10²³)


3. Geometry and Trigonometry


Circle theorems are a firm favourite and you should know all of them cold — angle in a semicircle, angles in the same segment, angle at the centre, tangent-radius relationships, the alternate segment theorem, and cyclic quadrilaterals. The exam will almost certainly give you a diagram, ask you to find a missing angle, and then ask you to name the theorem you used. That second part matters. A correct answer with no reason stated can cost you a mark, so practise writing your justifications in clear, concise language.


Example: A, B, C and D are points on a circle. EF is a tangent to the circle at A. Find angle DCB, giving a geometrical reason


Angle geometry questions — involving parallel lines, triangles, and polygons — are reliable staples. These are often early in the paper and serve as a confidence-builder, but don't rush them. Alternate angles, corresponding angles, co-interior angles, interior and exterior angles of polygons — know them all, and again, always state your reasoning.

SOHCAHTOA and Pythagoras on a non-calculator paper means one thing: you need to be completely comfortable with the exact trigonometric values for 30°, 45°, and 60°. Know that sin 30° = ½, cos 60° = ½, tan 45° = 1, and so on — without hesitation.


Questions will often ask you to leave answers in surd form, so make sure you're equally comfortable simplifying surds as part of a trigonometry problem. This is where the non-calculator format genuinely raises the bar.


4. Sequences and Statistics


The nth term is about as reliable as it gets on this paper. You'll almost certainly be given a sequence and asked to find an expression for the nth term — and while linear sequences are the most common, don't be surprised if it's quadratic or even cubic. For linear sequences, the method is quick and clean. For quadratic ones, you need to work with second differences, so make sure you've practised that process until it flows naturally. The examiner isn't trying to trick you here — this is a straightforward marks opportunity if you've put the time in.


Probability of "not" an event is often a one-mark question near the start of a probability section, and it's essentially a gift. If the probability of something happening is P(A), then the probability of it not happening is simply 1 − P(A). Know this instinctively, pick up the mark, and move on.


Venn diagrams show up regularly in two flavours: either you're asked to shade a specific region — something like A ∩ B′, which means everything in A but not in B — or you're working with actual numbers and probabilities inside the diagram. Both are very manageable once you're fluent with the notation. If set notation still feels a little unfamiliar, now is the time to sort that out, because misreading the region they've asked for is an easy and unnecessary way to drop marks.


Stem-and-leaf diagrams and scatter graphs tend to appear as interpretation questions rather than heavy calculation. You might be asked to identify the type of correlation, draw a line of best fit, or read off an estimate from the graph. These are accessible marks, but do make sure you know what "no correlation," "positive correlation," and "negative correlation" actually look like, and that you can draw a line of best fit that genuinely passes through the middle of the data rather than connecting the first and last point.

5. Calculus and Functions

Differentiation is a topic that some students approach nervously, but the core skill being tested is usually very consistent: differentiate a polynomial function, find the derivative, and use it to locate turning points. The rule itself — bring the power down, reduce the power by one — is something you can absolutely drill to the point of automaticity. The slightly trickier part is finding turning points, where you set the derivative equal to zero and solve. If the question also asks you to determine whether a turning point is a maximum or minimum, you'll need the second derivative, so make sure that's in your toolkit too.


Inverse and composite functions appear with real regularity. Finding f⁻¹(x) means reversing the function — write it as y = ..., swap x and y, rearrange to make y the subject. Composite functions like gf(x) mean you apply f first, then feed that result into g. The most common mistake is doing it the wrong way around, so pay close attention to the order. These questions are very rewarding once the process clicks, and they click quickly with a bit of focused practice.


6. Vectors


Vector geometry questions follow a recognisable pattern: you're given a diagram — often a triangle or quadrilateral — with certain vectors labelled as a and b, and you're asked to express other vectors in terms of those two. The key skill is thinking carefully about the route you take from one point to another, and whether you're travelling in the positive or negative direction along each vector.


Finding the magnitude of a vector is essentially Pythagoras in disguise — square the components, add them, square root — so there's nothing conceptually new there, just make sure your arithmetic is tidy.


What students sometimes find tricky is the logical reasoning involved in more complex vector paths, particularly when the question involves midpoints or ratios along a line. The best way to build confidence here is to practise sketching the diagram clearly, labelling what you know, and then thinking step by step about how to get from A to B using the vectors available to you. Rushing this one tends to go badly — take your time and trust the process.


These topic predictions are based on clear patterns — but our full predicted papers take it one step further, turning those patterns into precise exam-style questions with complete mark schemes and examiner insights.



Topics That Don't Show Up As Often for Paper 2 — But Still Matter!


As your teacher, I want to be upfront with you: some topics in the IGCSE Maths syllabus are a little like buses — they don't come around very often, but when they do, you really want to be ready for them. Here are a few to keep on your radar.


1. Rationalizing Complex Denominators


With the non-calculator paper now a bigger part of your life, surds are more important than ever. Most of you are fine with the basics, but there's a specific skill that trips people up: rationalizing a denominator that has two terms in it, something like 1 + √2 at the bottom of a fraction. This one doesn't appear every single paper, but when it does, students who haven't practised it tend to freeze. A quick heads-up — the technique involves the difference of two squares, and once you've drilled it a few times, it's actually quite satisfying to do.


2. Conditional Probability


Tree diagrams and Venn diagrams are your bread and butter in probability, and most of you handle those really well. But there's a trickier version that occasionally shows up: conditional probability, and the most common disguise it wears is the phrase "without replacement."


Here's the situation — imagine you're picking counters from a bag. You pick one out, it's red, and you don't put it back. Now what's the probability the next one is yellow? The bag has changed. There's one fewer counter in there, and that changes every fraction you write down. It sounds simple when I explain it like that, but under exam pressure, students often forget to update the denominator for the second pick. That one small slip costs the mark. Practise these slowly and deliberately, and always ask yourself: has anything changed since the last pick?


3. Mensuration of Frustums and Compound Solids


Volume and surface area questions are very common, but they usually stick to one clean shape — a cylinder, a cone, a sphere. Occasionally though, the exam gets a bit more ambitious and hands you something like a frustum (imagine a cone with its top sliced off) or a compound solid (picture a cylinder with a hemisphere sitting on top of it).

These questions are rarer, but they have a reputation for being worth several marks, which makes them worth preparing for. The key mindset here is to break the shape apart. A frustum? Think of it as a big cone minus a small cone. A cylinder-hemisphere combo? Do each part separately, then add. The maths itself usually isn't beyond you — it's the multi-step thinking that catches people out. Stay organised, label your working clearly, and take it one piece at a time.


4. Vector Proofs — Collinearity and Parallelism


Most students are comfortable adding vectors and finding magnitudes, and that's a solid foundation. But vector proofs are a step up, and they don't appear all that often — which unfortunately means they tend to get under-revised.


The classic tasks are things like: prove that three points lie on the same straight line (collinearity), or show that a quadrilateral is a trapezium by proving two sides are parallel. The logic behind these is actually quite elegant once you see it — if one vector is a scalar multiple of another, they're parallel, and if they share a point, they're collinear. But writing that reasoning clearly and convincingly in an exam answer is a skill that needs practice. My advice? Don't just check you can do the calculation — make sure you can also explain your conclusion in a sentence. Examiners want to see that you understand what you've just shown.


5. Limits of Accuracy in Calculations


Finding the upper or lower bound of a single measurement is something most of you can do fairly comfortably — round a number, identify the bounds, done. But the exam occasionally takes this a step further and asks you to find the bound of a calculated result, and that's where things get more interesting.


Here's a typical scenario: you're told that an area and a length have both been rounded, and you need to find the upper bound of the width. Suddenly you're not just thinking about one bound in isolation — you have to think carefully about which combination of bounds gives you the largest or smallest possible answer. For an upper bound of a division, for instance, you want the biggest possible numerator and the smallest possible denominator. Getting that logic the wrong way round is an extremely common mistake, and it's the kind of error that's easy to make even when you understand the concept. Slow down on these, think it through, and double-check your reasoning before committing to an answer.


6. Direct and Inverse Proportion with Higher Powers


Basic proportion — y is directly proportional to x, or inversely proportional to x — comes up regularly and most students are fine with it. But the syllabus also includes trickier relationships, like y being inversely proportional to the square rootof x, or the cube of x, and these show up far less often.


The good news is the method is exactly the same as it always is with proportion questions: write the relationship, find the constant k, then use it. The only extra demand is that you're comfortable with the notation and don't panic when you see something like y ∝ 1/√x. If you've drilled the standard process until it's second nature, the higher power versions really aren't much harder — they just look more intimidating at first glance.


A Final Note — and an Important One


Everything I've described across these topics as "less common" comes with a caveat worth taking seriously. From 2025, Paper 2 has expanded to 100 marks over two hours — that's a significantly longer paper than before. More space in the exam means more room for the full range of the syllabus to show up, including the topics that used to appear only occasionally.



Topics That Will Appear With Near 100% Certainty for IGCSE Maths Paper 4 for 2026


After years of watching these papers, there are patterns that simply don't break. Statistics is one of them. Every single Paper 4 has a solid statistics section, and it always revolves around the same two things.


By now, you should have a clearer idea of what to focus on. If you want to go beyond topics and practise the exact types of questions most likely to appear, our full predicted papers include carefully constructed exam-style questions with detailed mark schemes.



1. Statistics and Data Representation


Histograms will be there. I'd be genuinely shocked if they weren't. The question will either give you a partially completed histogram and ask you to fill it in, or give you a frequency table and ask you to draw it from scratch. Either way, the key thing to burn into your memory is that the vertical axis is frequency density, not frequency — and frequency density is simply frequency divided by class width. Students who forget that and just plot raw frequencies throw away easy marks every single year. Don't be that student.


Example: Feb/March 2025 (Q15b) asked to draw a histogram using frequency density


Hand in hand with that comes estimating the mean from grouped data. The examiner loves pairing this with the histogram question. You'll be given grouped data — or you'll have just completed the frequency table from the histogram part — and then asked to estimate the mean. The method is always the same: use the midpoint of each class, multiply it by the frequency, add everything up, then divide by the total frequency. It's a reliable, repeatable process, and once you've practised it a few times it becomes second nature


Cumulative Frequency is another one I'd practically guarantee. You'll be given a frequency table and asked to draw a cumulative frequency curve — and then use it to find the median, the lower and upper quartiles, and the interquartile range. The curve itself is straightforward once you know that you always plot against the upper class boundary, not the midpoint. The marks that students lose here are almost always on the reading-off stage — they rush it, draw sloppy lines across to the curve and down to the axis, and misread the value. Take your time with that part. A sharp pencil and a ruler are your best friends.


2. Advanced Trigonometry and Bearings


Now, if Statistics is the topic I'd bet money on, Trigonometry is the one I'd bet my money on. It shows up in almost every Paper 4, and it's never just a simple "find this side" question — it's always multi-step, and it's designed to catch you out if you're not thinking carefully about which tool to reach for.


You need to be completely comfortable with the Sine and Cosine Rules. Not just knowing the formulas, but knowing when to use each one — because the exam won't tell you. As a rough guide: if you've got two sides and the angle between them, or all three sides, reach for the Cosine Rule. If you've got an angle opposite a known side, the Sine Rule is usually your friend. Hesitating on that decision costs time and confidence in the exam room.


Example: Feb/March 2025 (Q17b) uses the Cosine Rule to find length AB


The area formula — ½ab sinC — almost always makes an appearance too, either as a standalone part or tucked inside a bigger question. It's one of those formulas that's easy to memorise and easy to apply, so there's really no excuse for dropping those marks.


Bearings regularly get woven into trig questions, and this is where a lot of students come unstuck — not because the maths is harder, but because they haven't drawn a proper diagram. I cannot stress this enough: draw it out, label it carefully, mark your North lines. A good diagram basically solves half the problem for you. Bearings are always three figures — so 85° becomes 085° — and they're always measured clockwise from North. Get that locked in.


 Example: Feb/March 2025 (Q17c) asks for the bearing of B from A [362–363].


Then there's 3D Trigonometry — finding the angle between a line and a plane inside a cuboid, pyramid, or similar shape. This one intimidates students, but honestly the secret is simple: find the right-angled triangle hidden inside the 3D shape. Once you've identified it and sketched it separately as a 2D triangle, it becomes a completely standard trig problem. The 3D part is just about seeing clearly — so practise spotting that triangle until it jumps out at you naturally.


3. Functions and Calculus (Differentiation)


Algebra and Graphs covers a lot of ground but the examiners reliably return to the same things.


Simultaneous equations with one linear and one quadratic equation appear very consistently. The approach is always substitution — rearrange the linear equation and substitute into the quadratic. It's a multi-step question so write your working clearly, because method marks are available throughout and tidy working protects you even if something goes slightly wrong at the end.


The quadratic formula will be needed somewhere on the paper, so know it completely — and pay attention to whether the question wants exact values or decimal approximations, because that changes how you finish it.


Drawing non-linear graphs — cubics, reciprocals, exponentials — trips students up more than it should. Build your table of values carefully, plot accurately, and draw a smooth continuous curve. Don't connect points with straight lines — that immediately costs you marks. Once the curve is drawn, solving associated equations graphically just means drawing a straight line and reading off the intersections, which should feel straightforward if your graph is accurate.


Tangents also appear regularly. You'll be asked to draw one at a specific point on a curve and use it to estimate the gradient. The examiner knows it's an approximation, so don't panic about getting an exact answer — but make sure your tangent is genuinely touching the curve at the right point without cutting through it, then calculate rise over run carefully.


  1. Mensuration (Complex Solids)


Mensuration is an area where well-prepared students pick up marks very reliably, but underprepared students throw them away just as reliably.


Composite solids — think a cone on top of a cylinder, or a hemisphere attached to a cylinder — require you to be deliberate about two things: what contributes to the total volume, and which faces are actually exposed for the surface area. That second part is where people go wrong. When two shapes are joined, the faces at the joint are hidden — they don't count. Don't just add every surface area formula together without thinking about what's actually visible.


Frustums always require the same logical approach: reconstruct the original complete cone or pyramid first, work out what the removed top piece looks like, then subtract. You can't tackle a frustum directly — you have to think about what it used to be before it was cut.


Arc length and sector area are among the most reliable marks on the paper if you know your approach. They're simply fractions of a full circle — angle over 360, multiplied by the full circumference or full area. Clean, repeatable, and very learnable. There's no reason to drop marks here with a bit of practice.


6. Finance and Number


Compound interest and depreciation follow the same structure every time — you're either growing or shrinking a value repeatedly by a percentage. The formula is your friend here: multiply the original value by (1 + r/100)ⁿ for growth, or (1 − r/100)ⁿ for depreciation, where n is the number of years. Students who try to do this step by step year by year almost always make an error somewhere and waste time. Use the formula, trust it, and move on.


Reverse percentages catch people out more than they should. The classic mistake is taking a percentage off the final value — but that final value isn't the original, so that doesn't work. If something costs £680 after a 15% reduction, the original price isn't £680 + 15% of £680. You need to recognise that £680 represents 85% of the original, then divide by 0.85. Always ask yourself: what percentage does the value I've been given represent?


Upper and lower bounds require a specific kind of careful thinking. You need to know which combination of bounds gives you the largest or smallest possible answer — and that changes depending on whether you're adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing. For a fraction like speed = distance/time, the upper bound of speed comes from the upper bound of distance divided by the lower bound of time. That kind of reasoning is what the question is testing, so practise it deliberately.


7. Probability and Vectors


Probability and Vectors are two very different topics but both show up with real consistency.


Tree diagrams are usually the friendlier-looking probability question, but the trap is always the same: without replacement. The moment something is taken out and not put back, your denominators on the second branch have to change. Read the question carefully, adjust those denominators, and multiply along branches for "and", add between branches for "or." Get that logic solid and tree diagram questions become very manageable.


Vector geometry is the one that genuinely separates students. You'll be asked to express vectors in terms of a and b, find the vector for a particular path across a diagram, and then use that to prove two lines are parallel or that three points are collinear. The key insight for proofs is this: two lines are parallel if one vector is a scalar multiple of the other, and points are collinear if the vector between them is a scalar multiple of a vector you've already found — and they share a common point. Once that clicks, the proofs feel much more logical than they first appear.


Transformations is a topic where the marks are genuinely there for the taking — if you're precise.


Drawing transformations under reflection, rotation, translation, and enlargement is one thing. Describing them fully is where students consistently lose marks by being vague. A complete description of a reflection needs the mirror line. A rotation needs the centre, the angle, and the direction. A translation needs a vector. An enlargement needs the centre and the scale factor. Miss any one of those details and you won't get full marks, even if everything else is right. When you see "describe fully," treat it as a checklist.


Negative and fractional scale factors in enlargements are worth specific attention. A fractional scale factor produces a smaller image; a negative one flips it through the centre of enlargement. Practise these until they feel natural — they're the kind of thing examiners use to differentiate between good students and excellent ones.


One final but very important note for your 2026 exams.


Two newer topics have also entered the syllabus and are likely to appear: domain and range for functions, and exact trigonometric values like sin 60° = √3/2, cos 30° = √3/2, tan 45° = 1. These are the kind of values you need to know without a calculator giving them to you. Make a small table of the exact values for 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° and memorise it — it won't take long, and it could easily be the difference between dropping marks unnecessarily and picking them up with confidence.


Topics That Don't Show Up As Often for Paper 4— But Still Matter!


Now let's talk about the other end of the spectrum — the topics that are officially on the syllabus but rarely show up, and when they do, they're usually sitting at the end of a question specifically designed to separate the A* candidates from everyone else. You don't need to panic about these, but if you're chasing the very top grades, you should at least know they exist and have seen them before.


Knowing the topics is only half the strategy. Our teachers have translated these patterns into exact predicted questions — complete with full solutions and examiner-level insights for every mark.



Number and Finance


Rationalising the denominator is a newer addition to the syllabus and hasn't appeared heavily yet. The idea is to eliminate a surd from the bottom of a fraction — so something like 10/√5 becomes 2√5 by multiplying top and bottom by √5. It's not conceptually difficult once you've practised it, but it can feel unfamiliar under pressure if you've never drilled it.


Converting recurring decimals to fractions does appear, but usually as a small isolated question worth a couple of marks rather than anything extended. The algebraic method — multiplying by a power of 10 to shift the decimal and then subtracting — is the one to know. It looks impressive but it's actually very learnable.


Finding the number of years in a compound interest problem is the rarest version of that topic. Finding the rate is much more common. Finding n requires trial and improvement on your calculator since logarithms aren't part of this syllabus — so it's methodical rather than elegant, but you need to know that's the approach rather than looking for a direct formula.


Algebra and Graphs


Domain and range is new and will likely appear somewhere. It showed up in May/June 2025 — a question gave a domain of {−3, 0, 2} and asked for the range of g(x) = 5x − 2, meaning you simply substitute each value in and list the outputs. At its most basic it's very straightforward, but make sure you're comfortable with the language and what those words actually mean.


Completing the square to find turning points is one of those syllabus requirements that most students quietly replace with differentiation — which works perfectly well. But the examiner can specifically ask you to use completing the square, and if they do, you need to know how. The form a(x + p)² + q tells you the turning point is at (−p, q). Know it as an alternative method, not just a forgotten one.


Mapping diagrams for functions are listed in the syllabus but almost never appear in practice — papers stick almost exclusively to algebraic notation. It's worth knowing what one looks like, but don't spend significant revision time here.


Geometry and Trigonometry


The ambiguous case of the Sine Rule is genuinely rare and genuinely tricky. It arises when the given information could produce two different valid triangles. Most Sine Rule questions have one clean answer — this is the exception. If it appears, it will be near the end of a question and clearly signposted. Know that it exists and that the second possible angle is simply 180° minus the first one you find.


The Alternate Segment Theorem is the circle theorem that most students find hardest, and it's the least frequently examined — but it does appear. The angle between a tangent and a chord equals the inscribed angle in the alternate segment. If you can draw a clear diagram and identify which angle sits in which segment, it becomes more manageable. Don't neglect circle theorems entirely just because some appear more than others.


Proving similarity formally is different from just using similar triangles to find a length. You need to state clearly which angles are equal and why — using reasons like "common angle," "alternate angles," or "corresponding angles" — and conclude that the triangles are similar by AA. It's the geometric reasoning that's being tested, so vague statements won't earn full marks.


Symmetry of 3D solids — planes of symmetry, axes of symmetry — appears occasionally and mostly requires spatial reasoning rather than calculation. A cone has an infinite number of planes of symmetry through its apex, for example. These questions are usually short and worth only a few marks, but they can feel disorienting if you've never thought about 3D symmetry before.


Mensuration and Coordinate Geometry

Frustums made an appearance in May/June 2025 Paper 43, and they're the kind of question that looks intimidating but follows a completely logical method: reconstruct the original full cone, work out the small cone that was removed, and subtract. The challenge is usually finding the dimensions of the missing top cone using similar triangles before you can even start the volume calculation. It rewards students who stay calm and work step by step.


The perpendicular bisector is a multi-step coordinate geometry question that appeared in May/June 2024. You need to find the midpoint of two given points, find the gradient of the line joining them, then find the negative reciprocal for the perpendicular gradient, and finally write the equation of the line through the midpoint with that gradient. Each step is individually straightforward — the challenge is doing all of them in sequence without losing track. Write it out clearly and it becomes very manageable.

The honest truth about all of these topics is that none of them are beyond you — they're just unfamiliar to most students because they don't come up every year. If you're aiming for A*, spend an afternoon going through each one deliberately. Seeing them once in a focused way means you won't be caught off guard if one of them does show up on your paper.



Topics that have been removed from the IGCSE Maths syllabus — don't waste time on these


 Our teachers wanted to flag some really important changes to the IGCSE Cambridge Maths syllabus that affect what you should and shouldn't be spending your time on for the 2026 papers.


The biggest one is Linear Programming. If you've been using older past papers, you'll know this used to show up pretty regularly on Paper 4 — those questions where you'd shade regions, write inequalities from a word problem, and find optimal values. That whole topic is gone from the syllabus now, so skip those questions entirely when you're practising.


Box-and-Whisker Plots are also out for Extended content. You won't be asked to draw or interpret them anymore, so don't stress if you feel shaky on those.


For Congruence, the specific criteria — SSS, SAS, AAS, RHS and so on — have been removed from assessment. You should still understand what congruence means (that two shapes are identical in size and shape), but you won't be tested on naming or applying those formal criteria.


Furthermore, the concept of proper subsets (and its notation) has been dropped, so you don't need to worry about distinguishing proper subsets from regular subsets anymore.


Finally, Data Collection is no longer assessable, so any questions specifically testing that can be skipped.


A couple of other big changes to be aware of


These aren't removed topics, but they'll seriously affect how you prepare using your . Paper 2 is now a non-calculator paper, so make sure you're practising those skills — fractions, surds, standard form arithmetic, and so on — without reaching for your calculator. It's a significant shift if you're used to older papers where Paper 2 allowed one.


Also, the weighting has been updated: Paper 2 and Paper 4 are now equal in weight, each 2 hours long, worth 100 marks, and contributing 50% each to your final grade. So neither paper is a "lighter" one anymore — they deserve equal preparation time.


When you're going through past papers, be very selective with older papers and filtering out anything that falls into the removed topics above. You don't want to spend an hour perfecting linear programming only to find it won't appear on your actual exam!


bottom of page