Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry Past Papers 2020–2025 (4CH1) with Mark Schemes
- Ava Turner
- Feb 19
- 11 min read
Updated: Mar 19
This page gives you all Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry (4CH1) past papers from 2020 to 2025, including official question papers and mark schemes for both June and November exam sessions. These papers are essential for exam practice, helping you understand common examiner expectations.
Before you start, click here to read What IGCSE Chemistry Examiners Actually Want You to Know — this can make a real difference to your score. You can also click here to check whether these 4CH1 papers are the correct ones for your course.
Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry 2025 Past Papers (4CH1) – November & June Question Papers and Mark Schemes PDF
2025 Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry | Downloads | |
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry November 2025 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry November 2025 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2025 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2025 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2025 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2025 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry 2024 Past Papers (4CH1) – November & June Question Papers and Mark Schemes
2024 Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry | Downloads | |
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry November 2024 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry November 2024 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2024 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2024 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2024 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2024 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry 2023 Past Papers (4CH1) – November, January & June Question Papers and Mark Schemes
2023 Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry | Downloads | |
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry November 2023 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry November 2023 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2023 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2023 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2023 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2023 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2023 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2023 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2023 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2023 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry 2022 Past Papers (4CH1) – January & June Question Papers and Mark Schemes
2022 Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry | Downloads | |
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2022 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2022 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2022 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2022 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2022 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2022 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2022 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2022 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry 2021 Past Papers (4CH1) – January & June Question Papers and Mark Schemes
2021 Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry | Downloads | |
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2021 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2021 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2021 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2021 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2021 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2021 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry 2020 Past Papers (4CH1) – June & January Question Papers and Mark Schemes
2020 Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry | Downloads | |
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2020 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2020 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2020 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry June 2020 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2020 Paper 1C (4CH1/1C) | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2020 Paper 2C (4CH1/2C) Past Paper | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2020 Paper 1C R (4CH1/1CR) Time Zone R | ||
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry January 2020 Paper 2C R (4CH1/2CR) Time Zone R | ||
What Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry Examiners Actually Want You to Know
Every examiner has a list of mistakes they see constantly — the same slips, from different students, year after year. This guide is precisely that list from your Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry examiners, along with exactly what to do about it.
1. Getting Your Terminology Right
This one catches out even well-prepared students. It's easy to slip up and use "halogen" when you mean "halide ion," or talk about intermolecular forces when you're actually describing covalent bonds — but examiners will notice. A couple of other classics: describing a flame test as "burning" (it isn't) and writing "clear" when you mean "colourless." Clear just means not cloudy — a bright blue solution is perfectly clear.
The fix is simpler than it sounds: slow down when writing your answers. Covalent bonds hold atoms together within a molecule; intermolecular forces act between molecules. A halogen is the element; a halide is its ion. Get those distinctions automatic and you'll stop dropping easy marks.
2. Don't Round Too Early in Calculations
This is one of the most frustrating ways to lose marks, because the method is usually completely correct. What happens is candidates round a number partway through a multi-step calculation, and that small rounding error snowballs into a wrong final answer. Truncating is just as bad — writing down 0.3 when your calculator clearly shows 0.364 is not rounding, it's just leaving digits out.
The rule is straightforward: keep everything on your calculator screen until you reach the very last step, then round to the appropriate number of significant figures. Let your calculator do its job.
3. Always Give Both a Method and a Result for Chemical Tests
A really common pattern in exam scripts is answers like "squeaky pop" with no mention of how you'd actually get there. Examiners want to know what you do as well as what you observe — and marks are typically split between the two.
So whenever you're describing a chemical test, think of it as a two-part answer: the method, then the result. Testing for pure water? You need to say you're measuring the boiling point and that it comes out at exactly 100 °C. One without the other usually isn't enough.
4. Remember the Ratio
Molar ratios are one of those things that students know perfectly well in theory but forget to apply under pressure. The scenario usually goes like this: you correctly calculate the moles of one substance, then jump straight to the answer — completely skipping the 2:1 (or whatever) ratio the balanced equation is telling you to use. In "excess" questions especially, that missing step changes everything.
Before you start any stoichiometry calculation, look at the coefficients in the balanced equation and write the ratio down explicitly in your working. It takes five seconds and it makes it almost impossible to skip. If your ratio step is sitting there on the page, you'll use it.
5. Rate and Equilibrium Are Not the Same Thing
This mix-up tends to surface when students know both topics well individually but blur them together under pressure. The tell-tale sign is an answer that talks about equilibrium shifting when the question is about rate of reaction, or one that says a reaction "speeds up" when asked about yield.
A useful mental checkpoint: is the reaction reversible and is the question asking about yield or proportion of products? If yes, that's Le Chatelier's Principle territory — you're talking about where the equilibrium position sits. If the question is about how quickly products form, reach for Collision Theory — frequency of successful collisions. Keep the two frameworks separate and resist the urge to let them bleed into each other.
6. State Symbols and Formulas — The Details That Cost You
These errors are small but they add up. Writing (l) instead of (aq) might seem like a minor slip, but they mean genuinely different things — liquid water and dissolved aqueous solution are not the same. Similarly, substituting SO₄²⁻ with S²⁻ gives you an entirely different ion with different chemistry.
The good news is that the question itself usually gives you what you need. Read the stem carefully — physical states are often mentioned directly. When constructing ionic formulas, work methodically: identify each ion, note its charge, and make sure the overall charge balances to zero. Group ions like sulfate have fixed charges that are worth committing to memory, because they appear constantly.
7. Dot-and-Cross Diagrams — Check Every Electron
These diagrams are unforgiving because every electron is visible, so any mistake is obvious to whoever's marking. The two most common problems are double bonds drawn with only two shared electrons instead of four, and molecules that end up with unpaired electrons sitting awkwardly on their own — almost always a sign that something has gone wrong earlier in the diagram.
The habit that makes this much easier is using dots for one atom's electrons and crosses for the other's, consistently throughout. It sounds simple, but it lets you trace exactly where each electron came from and spot imbalances immediately. For double bonds, make sure two electrons from each atom sit in the overlap region — four shared electrons total. If you end up with an unpaired electron in a molecule that shouldn't have one, don't move on. Go back and find the error.
8. Graphing — Precision Matters More Than You Think
A surprisingly large number of marks are lost on graphs through habits that are easy to fix. Drawing a smooth curve through points that should form two intersecting straight lines is a classic one — always read what the question is actually asking for before you put pen to paper. And if it asks for straight lines, use a ruler. A wobbly freehand line through a scatter of points is not a line of best fit.
Anomalous results are their own challenge. Vague answers like "it was an error" won't get marks. You need to say whether the result was too high or too low, and offer a specific, practical reason — something like "the precipitate hadn't fully settled, so the reading was taken too soon." Concrete and directional is what examiners are looking for.
9. Organic Structures — Carbon Always Has Four Bonds
This is one of those checks that takes two seconds and saves you from errors that are hard to recover from. Every carbon atom in every structure you draw must have exactly four bonds. If you count five, something is wrong — find it before you move on.
The other area that trips people up is polymer repeat units. The bonds need to extend through the brackets to show that the unit repeats — leaving them inside the brackets is a common slip that suggests you haven't quite shown a continuous chain. It's also worth keeping empirical, molecular, and displayed formulas clearly distinguished in your mind: they're related but they answer different questions, and mixing them up in an answer tends to cost marks quickly.
10. Extended Writing — Use the Marks as Your Checklist
When a question is worth four or five marks, a one-sentence answer is almost never going to cut it. The most common pattern here is answering part of the question well and not realising the rest is missing — explaining what "unsaturated" means, for instance, without ever defining "hydrocarbon," when the question asked for both.
A practical approach: look at the number of marks and treat it as a rough guide to how many distinct points you need to make. Bullet points are absolutely fine for this style of question and often help you stay organised and make sure you've covered everything. Before you move on, reread the question and ask yourself whether you've actually answered all of it — not just the part you found most straightforward.
Are These the Correct IGCSE Chemistry Past Papers for My Course?
It’s completely normal to feel a bit 'chemically imbalanced' looking at the list of past question. If you’re looking at past papers and unsure whether 4CH1 matches what your school is teaching, first check your subject name and exam entry details from Pearson Edexcel. If your timetable lists Chemistry as a separate subject and you are working towards a standalone IGCSE grade in Chemistry (often called Triple Science), then 4CH1 is correct for you — and you should be revising both Paper 1C and Paper 2C.
If your subject is called Combined Science (Double Award)and you receive two overall grades covering Biology, Chemistry and Physics together, then your official code is 4SD0, and you should not be using Paper 2C, as that is only for Separate Chemistry students - so please check the papers properly.
Note also that when you see 1CR or 2CR, the “R” simply means it is a regional (Time Zone R) version of the same paper — the syllabus and difficulty are the same, but the questions differ slightly for exam security.
What are the key structural changes to the 2026 Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry exams that differ from past papers?
Two structural changes stand out. First, a Modular route (4XCH1) has been introduced as an alternative to the traditional Linear route (4CH1). The Linear route remains the same — all exams taken at the end of the course — while the Modular route allows exams to be sat at different times across the year, though it is only available to schools outside the UK. Importantly, the actual chemistry content is almost identical for both routes. Second, the Periodic Table is no longer printed at the back of the exam booklet — it is now provided as a separate detached insert, so you no longer need to flip to the back of the paper during the exam.
What content and question trends should you prepare for in the 2026 exams that may not be reflected in older past papers?
Three areas are flagged as high-stakes. First, Quality of Written Communication (QWC) — questions marked with an asterisk (*) are graded on your use of precise scientific terminology and logical structure, so practise writing answers clearly using the correct terms. Second, calculations remain heavily tested, particularly mole calculations, percentage yield, and gas volumes — always show your working and include correct units. Third, mathematical skills are increasingly expected, including calculating the gradient of a tangent on rate-of-reaction graphs, which older past papers may not have emphasised as strongly.
How many marks do I need for a Grade 9 in Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry?
For Edexcel (Pearson) IGCSE Chemistry, a Grade 9 usually requires around 140 to 155 marks out of 180, depending on the exam session and difficulty of the paper. Unlike GCSE, IGCSE exams run in January, June, and November, so boundaries can vary more across the year.
Here’s a breakdown from recent exam series for Grade 9
2020: 137–162 marks
2021: 136–148 marks
2022: 136–140 marks
2023: 142–147 marks
2024: 146–155 marks
2025: 151–154 marks
This means most students should aim for 150+ marks to be safely on track for a Grade 9.
Insider examiner tip: many Grade 8 students miss a Grade 9 by only 5–10 marks, often due to errors in chemical calculations and moles.
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