Latest AQA GCSE Maths Past Papers 2020–2025 (8300) – All Papers, Foundation & Higher, Non-Calculator & Calculator
- Jack Wilson
- Feb 18
- 9 min read
Updated: Mar 1
You'll find all the latest AQA GCSE Maths past papers right here — covering 2020 to 2025 (8300), across both Foundation and Higher tier, including Non-Calculator and Calculator papers. Past papers are one of the most effective revision tools you have. They get you comfortable with the question styles that keep appearing.
Before you dive in, it's well worth taking a few minutes to read the examiner advice by clicking here or scrolling below. It's the kind of insider guidance most students never see — covering the mistakes that come up year after year. A little time spent here before you start practising could save you a lot of marks when it matters most.
AQA GCSE Maths Past Papers June 2025 (8300) – Foundation & Higher Question Papers, Non-Calculator & Calculator
2025 AQA GCSE Maths | Downloads | |
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2025 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2025 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2025 Paper 2 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2025 Paper 2 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2025 Paper 3 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2025 Paper 3 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths Past Papers June 2024 (8300) – Foundation & Higher Question Papers, Non-Calculator & Calculator
2024 AQA GCSE Maths | Downloads | |
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2024 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2024 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2024 Paper 2 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2024 Paper 2 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2024 Paper 3 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2024 Paper 3 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths Past Papers June 2023 (8300) – Foundation & Higher Question Papers, Non-Calculator & Calculator
2023 AQA GCSE Maths | Downloads | |
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2023 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2023 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2023 Paper 2 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2023 Paper 2 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2023 Paper 3 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2023 Paper 3 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths Past Papers June 2022 (8300) – Foundation & Higher Question Papers, Non-Calculator & Calculator
2022 AQA GCSE Maths | Downloads | |
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2022 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2022 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2022 Paper 2 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2022 Paper 2 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2022 Paper 3 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2022 Paper 3 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2022 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2022 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2022 Paper 2 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2022 Paper 2 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2022 Paper 3 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 June 2022 Paper 3 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths Past Papers June 2021 (8300) – Foundation & Higher Question Papers, Non-Calculator & Calculator
2021 AQA GCSE Maths | Downloads | |
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2021 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2021 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2021 Paper 2 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2021 Paper 2 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2021 Paper 3 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2021 Paper 3 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths Past Papers June 2020 (8300) – Foundation & Higher Question Papers, Non-Calculator & Calculator
2020 AQA GCSE Maths | Downloads | |
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2020 Paper 1 Non-Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2020 Paper 2 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2020 Paper 2 Calculator Higher | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2020 Paper 3 Calculator Foundation | ||
AQA GCSE Maths 8300 November 2020 Paper 3 Calculator Higher | ||
What AQA Maths Examiners Wish Every Student Knew Before Sitting the Exam
Here's something that might surprise you — plenty of students put in hours of past paper practice and still walk out of the exam having lost marks on the exact same avoidable mistakes. To avoid that, pay close attention to the below guidance from AQA GCSE Maths examiners.
1. Messy Digits That Trip You Up
This one comes up constantly across all papers — handwriting so rushed that a 4 looks like a 9, or a 1 looks like a 7. The tricky part? It's not just the examiner who struggles to read it. Students regularly miscopy their own numbers when moving between steps, which means a silly mistake early on can quietly unravel an entire calculation.
Slow down just a little and make sure each digit is clearly formed. Work downwards in a logical order rather than scattering working all over the page — it makes your own life so much easier when you need to check back.
2. Not Showing Your Working
This is one of the most frustrating ways to lose marks — and it's completely avoidable. If you only write down a final answer and it happens to be wrong, there's nothing an examiner can do for you. But if you've shown your method clearly, they can still award marks even if a small arithmetic error crept in somewhere along the way.
Get into the habit of writing down every step, even when it feels obvious. And if a question specifically tells you to "show your working" — treat that as a direct instruction, not a suggestion.
3. Avoiding the Calculator — on a Calculator Paper
It sounds almost too simple, but AQA examiners flagged this every year: students working through Papers 2 and 3 using long-hand methods when there's a perfectly good calculator sitting right in front of them. Unnecessary mental arithmetic means unnecessary mistakes.
Use your calculator for everything on Papers 2 and 3 — yes, even the stuff that feels easy. There are no bonus points for doing it in your head, and it only takes one small slip to cost you marks.
4. Dropping Marks on Negative Signs
Negative signs in algebra catch so many students out, particularly with double negatives in bracket expansion. Something like −2(x−2) regularly gets written as −2x−2, when the correct answer is −2x+4. It's an easy mistake to make when you're moving quickly.
Any time you spot a negative outside a bracket, slow down and be deliberate. Remind yourself that a negative multiplied by a negative gives a positive — it's a simple rule, but easy to forget under exam pressure.
5. Vague Explanations That Don't Score Marks
When a question asks you to explain or critique something, writing things like "it shrinks" or "it's not enough" won't cut it. Examiners are looking for precise mathematical language, and answers that are too wordy or informal often end up containing contradictory statements — which can actually cost you marks you'd otherwise have earned.
Train yourself to reach for the correct mathematical term. "Enlargement" instead of "gets bigger." "The mean is greater than the median" instead of "the average seems high." Keep it clear, concise, and mathematical.
6. Mixing Up Area, Perimeter, and Volume
This is a really common one. Students regularly confuse area with perimeter, or surface area with volume — and a surprisingly common mistake is forgetting to include all faces of a shape, like the flat circular face of a hemisphere when calculating total surface area.*
Let the units guide you. cm means perimeter, cm² means area, cm³ means volume. If you're unsure, sketch the shape out and tick off each face or dimension as you go — it only takes a moment and can save you from a frustrating error.
7. Treating Time Like a Decimal
This trips up more students than you might expect. Time doesn't work in base 10, but many students treat it as if it does — converting 3.6 hours into 3 hours 60 minutes, or 7.5 hours into 7 hours 50 minutes, for example.*
Always remember there are 60 minutes in an hour, not 100. So if you have 0.6 hours, multiply by 60 to get 36 minutes — not 60. It's a small thing to remember, but it comes up regularly.
8. Misreading What "Estimate" Actually Means
When students see the word "estimate" in a statistics question, many assume it means "round everything to 1 significant figure and approximate." It doesn't. In a statistical context, "estimate" means something much more specific — like using midpoints to calculate an estimated mean from grouped data.
Pay attention to the context. A statistical estimate requires a proper method, not a shortcut. If you're working with grouped data, use the midpoints — don't start rounding the numbers you've been given.
9. Fraction Errors That Are Easy to Fix
Fractions are an area where small habits make a big difference. Dividing by a fraction and forgetting to flip it, struggling with mixed numbers, or writing fractions with a diagonal slash that makes the numerator and denominator hard to tell apart — these all crop up regularly.
Always write fractions with a clear horizontal line, not a diagonal one. When dividing by a fraction, invert and multiply. And before you do any calculation involving mixed numbers, convert them to improper fractions first — it makes everything much cleaner.
10. Describing More Than One Transformation
When a question asks you to describe a single transformation, it means exactly that — one. Writing "a rotation and an enlargement" will lose you all the marks, even if both parts are correct individually.
Read the question carefully and commit to one transformation only. If the shape has changed size, that's an enlargement — even if it's got smaller. Just make sure you include the scale factor and the centre of enlargement, and you're good.
Are there any changes to the 2026 AQA GCSE Maths exams that you need to be aware of when using past papers?
The core syllabus and exam structure are unchanged — the same six topic areas (Number, Algebra, Ratio & Proportion, Geometry & Measures, Probability, and Statistics) are tested across three papers, each 1 hour 30 minutes, just as in previous years. Past papers are therefore still very relevant. The one important change to note is that formula sheets are continuing into 2026 and 2027, as confirmed by Ofqual. This means you no longer need to memorise complex formulae such as the quadratic formula or volume of a sphere. Older past papers did not include this sheet, so when practising with them, be aware that the current exam provides these — but you still need to understand how and when to apply them, as the focus has shifted from recall to application.
How many marks do I need for a Grade 9 in AQA GCSE Maths Higher Tier?
For AQA GCSE Maths Higher Tier (Papers 1, 2 and 3, max 240 marks), a Grade 9 has typically required around 192 to 219 marks out of 240 between 2018 and 2025, depending on the difficulty of the exam.
Here are the Grade 9 boundaries for the above papers from 2020-2025:
2020 (Nov): 194 / 240
2021 (Nov): 192 / 240
2022 (Jun): 214 / 240
2023 (Jun): 214 / 240
2024 (Jun): 219 / 240
2025 (Jun): 219 / 240
We recommend that you aim for 210+ marks to be comfortably on track for a Grade 9.
In easier exam years, the boundary can rise sharply (for example 2024–2025), which shows why students should build a strong margin rather than rely on past minimum scores.
Our insider examiner tip:Many of our Grade 8 students lose the final few marks in multi-step problem-solving questions at the end of the paper, Securing method marks and showing clear working is often the key difference between Grades 8 and 9.
What about AQA GCSE Maths Foundation Tier?
For Foundation Tier, the highest possible grade is Grade 5, meaning students cannot achieve Grades 6–9.
In recent years, the Grade 5 boundary has ranged from 145 to 189 marks out of 240:
2020 (Nov): 146 / 240
2021 (Nov): 145 / 240
2022 (Jun): 172 / 240
2023 (Jun): 189 / 240
2024 (Jun): 186 / 240
2025 (Jun): 188 / 240
Aim for 180+ marks to secure a strong Grade 5.
Our insider examiner tip: Foundation students aiming for Grade 5 should focus on securing full marks in the first half of each paper and avoiding careless errors in ratio, percentages, and multi-step arithmetic.
