How Cambridge marks Paper 1

Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 · Paper 1 Structured Questions Syllabus: 2027 and 2028

This page is not about a topic. It is about the marking, and it applies to every question on Paper 1: both Core Content options, all six Key Questions in each, and all five Depth Studies. The topic notes on this site name it rather than repeat it, so that when Cambridge changes a mark scheme there is one page to correct instead of twelve.

Read it once, early. Most of what separates a Level 2 answer from a Level 4 answer on this paper is not knowing more history. It is knowing what the mark scheme is counting.

One warning before anything else. Cambridge changed the marking of parts (a) and (c) for the 2024 series, and both changes are invisible from the syllabus. If you are working from a textbook, an older revision guide or a teacher's handout written before 2024, two of the rules below are the opposite of what you have been told. Sections 3 and 5 give the old wording and the new one side by side.

1. The shape of the paper

Paper 1 is 2 hours, 60 marks, and 40 per cent of the qualification.

Within Section A, four questions are set from the nineteenth century content in Option A and four from the twentieth century content in Option B. In each option, two questions come from Key Questions 1 to 3 and two from Key Questions 4 to 6. That spread is guaranteed by the syllabus, which means revising only the first half of an option leaves you choosing between two questions rather than four.

Every question on the paper, in both sections, is a structured essay in three parts. The marks are always the same:

Two thirds of this paper is explanation

The assessment objective weighting for Paper 1 is printed in the syllabus:

Two consequences, and both change how you revise.

Recall is a third of the paper and it is capped. Everything above part (a) is AO2. You cannot reach a high mark by knowing more facts, because after part (a) there is nowhere for extra facts to go except inside an explanation.

Paper 1 carries no source marks at all. Source skills are Paper 2's entire business and they earn nothing here. If a Paper 1 question mentions a speech or a treaty, it is asking what it caused, not how reliable it is.

2. Where each Key Question is set

Cambridge does not publish this and it is not in any syllabus. It comes from reading the question stems in all 48 Paper 1 mark schemes from 2018 to 2024 and counting which Key Question was set at which question number.

The answer is that the paper is far more predictable than it looks. Every one of the eight slots below accounts for exactly 48 papers, which is what tells you the count is right: a single miscount anywhere would break the arithmetic.

What this is worth to you

Some questions never move. Causes of the First World War was Question 4 in all 31 papers that set it. Hitler's foreign policy was Question 6 in all 30. Cold War origins was Question 7 in all 25. If you are revising one of those, you know where to look before you open the paper.

Some topics are commoner than they look. The League appears on 30 of 48 papers, not the 12 you would guess from Q5 alone, because it also takes Q6 in 18 more. Italian unification appears on 34, the highest of any Option A Key Question. Neither is a topic to skip.

No paper sets two questions on one Key Question, and Q5 and Q6 always take their pair from Key Questions 1 to 3, which is the rule the syllabus does print.

Section B: which Depth Study is set where

Section B is headed "SECTION B: DEPTH STUDIES" and begins at Question 9. Each Depth Study gets two consecutive questions, in syllabus order.

You answer one question from this section, so you need one Depth Study, not five. Your school chooses it.

Within a Depth Study, Cambridge does not tie a Key Question to a slot, and the pattern broke in the 2024 series in several papers. Do not revise one Key Question because you expect it at a particular question number.

What the two slots DO tend to follow is chronology: the earlier period takes the earlier number. In Depth Study C that held in all 48 papers read, with the earlier Key Question always at Q13. In Depth Studies A and B the same skew is heavy but not invariable, so it is a tendency and not a rule you can revise against.

Section B was longer until 2024, and three Depth Studies are gone. Papers from 2018 to 2023 ran to Q22, because there were then seven Depth Studies: the five above plus China, South Africa, and the Israelis and Palestinians. Those three are withdrawn, and the Second World War is new in their place. If you are working through past papers, everything from the old Q17 onward is on content that can no longer be set, and the Second World War Depth Study has almost no past-paper record at all.

Depth Study A was also reorganised. Up to 2023 it carried three Key Questions and "other fronts" absorbed the Empire, Africa, Japan and the Arab Revolt. From 2024 that material is its own Key Question, "To what extent was it a world war?", which was set in five of the seven papers in its first examinable year and in none before. It is new content Cambridge is examining hard, and you cannot practise it on an old paper.

Depth Studies are examined on Paper 4 as well

If your school enters you for Paper 4, the Alternative to Coursework, rather than the coursework component, your Depth Study is examined there too, and Paper 4 changed format for 2024: one 40-mark essay became (a) 15 marks, "Write an account of", plus (b) 25 marks, "Discuss the importance of". Depth Study B sits at Questions 3 and 4 on every Paper 4 read.

Paper 2 never examines a Depth Study. Its prescribed topic is always taken from Core Content, so source skills and your Depth Study never meet.

The one place this will change, and why

The 24 Q8 slots above marked "a withdrawn question" belonged to a seventh Option B Key Question on Iran and Iraq. The 2027 syllabus deletes it: Saddam, Iran, Iraq and the Gulf appear nowhere in the current content.

So from 2024 onwards, Questions 7 and 8 have to share three Key Questions between two slots, which means one of Cold War origins, US containment and Eastern Europe is missing from every paper. Treat the Q7 and Q8 rows as a tendency rather than a rule, and do not revise two of those three and gamble on the third being absent.

The same caution applies in a smaller way to a past-paper session. Old papers were set against an older version of this syllabus, so some of what they ask can no longer be set. Your topic notes say where that bites hardest.

3. Part (a): four marks, and the rule that changed in 2024

This is the single most important marking change in the whole 0470 corpus, and a candidate who has not been told about it will lose marks while writing well.

Up to and including the 2023 series, the mark scheme read:

One mark for each relevant point; additional mark for supporting detail

From the 2024 series, the same part of the same paper reads:

One mark for each relevant point.

The supporting-detail clause is gone.

1. before 2024: two points, each developed, could reach 4
2. from 2024: developing a point earns nothing extra
3. four separate points are now the only route to 4

So on a 2027 paper, an (a) answer needs four distinct facts. Two facts elaborated beautifully now cap at 2. This is one of the rare cases where the right technique is to write less about more.

What a point looks like

A point is a statement that could be marked right or wrong on its own. "They lost a lot of land" is not one, because there is nothing in it to mark. "Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France" is.

Four short sentences. Then stop, and go to part (b). Examiner reports name overwriting part (a) as a recurring time-waster in its own right, and section 7 covers why.

4. Part (b): six marks, and where the fifth mark comes from

Level 3 splits on one printed sentence:

Four marks for one explanation, five marks for explanation supported by specific contextual knowledge.

That is where a date, a figure or a named place earns its keep, and it is worth exactly one mark, only when it sits inside an explanation. A paragraph of dates with no explanation attached does not reach Level 3 at all. It stays at Level 2, however accurate every date is.

The ceiling is reached by explaining two reasons, not by explaining one reason at length. If you have written one very good reason and the clock is fine, the next mark is in a second reason, not in more of the first.

5. Part (c): ten marks, and the rule that changed in 2024

The table used from the 2024 series onwards:

Compare the table used from 2018 to 2023, where Level 4 required:

a minimum of three explanations (2 on one side; 1 on the other). This will be worth a mark of 7.

1. 2018 to 2023: three explanations were needed for 7
2. from 2024: one explanation on each side is enough for 7
3. the barrier moved from volume to balance

Two things follow, and they are the whole technique for this part.

One explained point on each side now guarantees 7 out of 10. Balance beats volume. Three paragraphs on one side and nothing on the other is capped at Level 3, which is 6, no matter how good they are. Two short balanced paragraphs beat one brilliant one-sided page, and they take less time to write.

The tenth mark is a separate act. Level 5 is Level 4 plus a supported judgement. Not a summary of what you just said, and not a restatement of the question. A sentence that answers the exact question asked and attaches a reason for coming down that way. Section 6 gives the shapes.

6. What an explanation looks like on the page

Cambridge's mark schemes are unusually explicit about the difference between an identification and an explanation, and the difference is not the fact. The same fact can sit in a Level 2 answer and a Level 4 answer. What changes is whether a chain is attached to it.

The part (b) shape

Level 2, one mark. Germany had to pay reparations.

Level 3 or 4. Germany had to pay reparations of £6,600 million, fixed in 1921. That caused real difficulty because the same Treaty had taken the Saar coalfields, Upper Silesian industry and the colonies, which were the assets that would have earned the money. Germans could therefore argue they were being punished twice, and the government could only meet the bill by printing money, which destroyed the currency in 1923.

The pattern underneath it:

1. name the thing
2. say the mechanism it worked through
3. state the consequence
4. attach one specific detail

That last step is the fifth mark from section 4. Two of these in one answer is 6.

The worked example above comes from one Key Question, the Treaty of Versailles, because an example has to be about something. The shape is the part that transfers.

The part (c) shape

Cambridge's own exemplars are shorter than most candidates expect. The structure that reaches the top band is:

1. One side, explained, with a term or figure attached.
2. A signposted turn, then the other side, explained.
3. A judgement that answers the exact question asked and gives a reason for choosing.

You do not need four paragraphs. You need one explanation on each side for 7, additional explanations for 8 and 9, and a supported judgement for 10.

Judgement sentences that reach Level 5

Never write that there are arguments on both sides. That is a description of your own essay, not a judgement. Each of these states a position and attaches a reason, which is all Level 5 asks for:

• "Overall, X mattered more than Y, because Y could not have happened without X."
• "It was harsher in appearance than in effect, because what was taken away was the means to meet what was demanded."
• "X shaped the outcome even where X did not get its way, because the argument was always about how far to move in that direction."
• "The reaction was understandable but not justified, judged against what the same country had done in the same position."

7. The mistakes examiner reports name every series

These come from the Principal Examiner reports across the 2018 to 2024 series, and they repeat year after year in almost the same words. They are not topic-specific. Every one of them is available to you on any question on the paper.

• Writing too much on part (a). Reports repeatedly describe candidates reaching full marks in the first four lines and then writing most of a page, taking the time from parts (b) and (c), which is where two thirds of the marks are.
• Generalising on part (a). "A lot of land" and "the army was reduced" earn nothing. Name the land. Give the number.
• Listing instead of explaining on part (b). The commonest single fault on the paper. A list stays at Level 2 however long it is and however accurate.
• Two disconnected paragraphs on part (c). One paragraph on one thing, one on another, with no link between them and no argument running through. Reports name this pattern explicitly.
• One-sided answers on part (c). Capped at Level 3, which is 6 out of 10, however strong the explanation.
• Analysing without concluding. A genuinely balanced answer that never says which side it comes down on. That is the difference between 9 and 10, and it is one sentence.
• Answering a different question. Asked why someone was unhappy with a proposal, candidates write what everyone wanted. Asked about aims, they write about achievements. Asked whether something was handled effectively, they describe what happened.
• Ignoring a date limit in the question. A question that says "up to 1923" is marked to 1923. Everything after it earns nothing, and it is usually the part the candidate knew best.

Your topic notes carry the mistakes that only apply to their own content, such as confusing one treaty with another. This list is the one that applies everywhere.

8. Quick revision

• 2 hours, 60 marks, 40 per cent. Two questions from Section A, one from Section B.
• Every question is (a) 4, (b) 6, (c) 10.
• AO1 33 per cent, AO2 67 per cent, AO3 nothing. Two thirds of the paper is explanation and none of it is sources.
• (a) from 2024: four separate points. Detail no longer adds a mark.
• (b): two explained reasons is 6. One explanation is 4, and 5 if a specific fact sits inside it.
• (c) from 2024: one explanation each side is 7. Extra explanations take you to 8 and 9. A supported judgement is the tenth mark.
• One-sided (c) is capped at 6, however good it is.
• Section A questions are split two from Key Questions 1 to 3, two from 4 to 6, so revising half an option halves your choice.

Where these facts come from

Everything on this page is taken from Cambridge's own documents, and each claim can be checked against a named one.

The Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 syllabus for 2027 and 2028. The paper timing, the mark total, the 40 per cent weighting, the Section A and Section B structure, the eight questions split four and four across the two options, the two-from-1-to-3 and two-from-4-to-6 rule, the three-part structure of every question, and the AO1 33 / AO2 67 / AO3 0 weighting table.

Paper 1 mark schemes, 2018 to 2024. The three level ladders and their mark ranges, both 2024 rule changes, and the sentence that splits Level 3 on part (b). The two changed rules were confirmed by reading the same wording in both a pre-change and a post-change paper rather than by taking either on its own: June 2023 prints "One mark for each relevant point; additional mark for supporting detail" and "a minimum of three explanations (2 on one side; 1 on the other). This will be worth a mark of 7", while June 2024 prints "One mark for each relevant point." and "Seven marks for one explanation on each side; one additional mark for each additional explanation on either side".

Principal Examiner reports, 2018 to 2024. Section 7, and the observation about overwriting part (a).

The question-slot tables in section 2 were built by reading the printed question stem in every one of the 48 Paper 1 mark schemes from 2018 to 2024, and the Section B half was established independently by eight readers whose counts agree and recording which Key Question each numbered question examined. Cambridge publishes no such table. The check that it is right is that all eight slots total exactly 48.

Note on the mark split. The syllabus states that every question is in three parts but does not print the 4, 6 and 10 division. That comes from the mark schemes, where it is the same in every series read.

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