Cambridge paper codes explained

This is how the code is printed on the front of the paper itself, and how Cambridge writes it in mark schemes and grade threshold tables. Five fields, separated by slashes:

So 0580/42/O/N/25 is IGCSE Mathematics, Paper 4 variant 2, October/November 2025 — and because 0580 Paper 4 is the Extended calculator paper, that one code tells you the tier and the calculator rule as well.

Past-paper sites name their PDFs with Cambridge’s own file convention, which reorders the same information and adds a document type. It is worth being able to read because it is what you will be searching and what your teacher’s folder is full of:

The session letters are the part nobody guesses: s is for “summer” (May/June) and w for “winter” (October/November), with m for the February/March series. They do not match the letters in the Cambridge form, which uses the month initials instead.

Cambridge is sat across every time zone, so most components exist in two or three variants, written for different administrative zones so that a paper sat in one region is not in circulation before another region sits it. Variant 1, 2 and 3 of a component are the same paper in every respect that matters: same syllabus content, same structure, same number of marks, same duration, same grading. Only the questions differ.

Three things follow, and they are what students actually ask:

• You do not choose your variant — your school’s zone does, and it is on your statement of entry. If you do not know it, ask your exams officer.
• Revising from another variant is fine, and is usually a good idea: it triples the number of past papers available for the same specification.
• Grade thresholds are set per variant, so a slightly harder variant can have a slightly lower boundary. You are not disadvantaged by getting the harder one.

• February/March (m, F/M) — a series run for India. Components are usually only variant 2, which is why you see 9709_m25_qp_12 but rarely m25_qp_11.
• May/June (s, M/J) — the main series, with all variants.
• October/November (w, O/N) — the second main series, with all variants.

A “series” and a “session” mean the same thing here. Results for each series are released roughly two months after the papers are sat, and grade thresholds are published with them.

All of these are published by Cambridge and distributed through schools; they are © Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Quanta’s pages describe the papers rather than reproduce them. What we do publish from the examiner reports is our own distillation of the patterns in them — see how Business essays are marked.

Quanta holds 143 papers across four syllabuses, 2020–2026, each broken down question by question. Every one has a page with its code in both forms and a breakdown of where its marks sit: