Old specification or new: which past papers still apply to you

6 min read · updated 10 October 2026

Why this trips people up

A student works through an old paper, meets a question on a topic they have never been taught, and concludes there is a gap in their revision. Usually there is not. They are sitting a paper written for a version of the course that no longer exists.

Edexcel revise their qualifications periodically. Content gets added, removed, or moved between papers; the number of units can change; the style of questions shifts. The papers from before a revision stay online for ever, and almost nothing on the internet labels them clearly.

How to tell which version a paper is

The specification code on the front of the paper tells you, and the useful part is the last digit.

• International GCSE: 4PH0 is the older Physics specification, 4PH1 the newer one. The same pattern runs across subjects — 4BI0 and 4BI1 in Biology, 4CH0 and 4CH1 in Chemistry.
• International A Level: the older papers run WPH01 to WPH06, the newer ones WPH11 to WPH16. The extra 1 in the middle is the generation.

The change happened around 2018 and 2019 depending on the subject, so papers from roughly 2019 onwards are generally the current version. Do not rely on the year alone, though — the code on the paper is the only thing that settles it, and your own exam paper or specification will carry the code you are being examined against. If you are unsure which one you are entered for, your teacher or exams officer can tell you in a second.

Every paper on this site is listed with its code, and subject pages say plainly when they hold both generations.

When an old paper is still worth doing

Most of the time, which is the part people get wrong in the other direction — discarding a decade of perfectly good practice because the code does not match.

The underlying subject rarely changes much. Newton's laws did not move. Mole calculations work the same way. A balance sheet balances. What changes is which topics sit in which paper, how questions are worded, and occasionally the depth expected. For practising a technique — a calculation, a mechanism, an essay structure — an older paper is almost as good as a current one, and you have far more of them.

The sensible order is: work through the current-specification papers first, because they are the closest match to what you will sit. When you run out, go back into the older ones for extra practice on the topics you know are still on your course.

What to watch for in an older paper

• A topic you have never met. Check your specification before assuming you missed something. It was quite possibly removed.
• A different paper structure. Older papers may be a different length or carry different mark totals, so do not read too much into a raw score comparison.
• Changed command words or formats. Question styles drift between specifications; the newer papers are the better guide to what the wording will look like on the day.

None of that makes the older paper useless. It makes it practice rather than a mock.

The practical approach

Use current-specification papers for timed, realistic attempts — these are the ones that tell you where you stand. Use older papers as a question bank for drilling specific topics, where the value is repetition rather than realism.

And if a question looks strange, check the code before you panic. Most "I have never seen this" moments in revision turn out to be a paper from a course that ended before you started it.