IB past papers: where to get them legally, which ones match your syllabus, and how to use them

You can get official IB past papers legally in three ways: from your school, which can give you papers and markschemes through your teachers or IB coordinator; by buying them from the IB's online store, operated by Follett; and, for a small number of subjects, as free specimen or sample papers on ibo.org. Websites that post full IB papers publicly are doing something the IB says it won't license, and many of their papers are for syllabuses that no longer exist.

That second problem matters more than students expect. Biology and Chemistry changed for exams from 2025, ESS and Global Politics from 2026, and Psychology from 2027, so a random pile of papers can teach you a format you'll never sit.

Where can you get IB past papers legally?

Your school

Start here. Schools that teach the Diploma have access to the IB's Programme Resource Centre, which is open only to IB World Schools, and schools commonly give students past papers and markschemes for practice and mocks, usually through subject teachers or the coordinator. Ask what's available before you buy anything, and ask specifically for papers in the current format for your subject.

The IB store

Past papers and markschemes are sold through the IB's online store, operated by Follett, which describes itself as the exclusive distributor of IB Publishing materials. Which sessions and subjects are available varies, so check the listing for your subject and level before you buy.

Free sample papers on ibo.org

The IB publishes a small set of sample and specimen exam papers for free, for information. They include specimen papers for Maths AA and AI and papers for some other subjects such as English A literature, English B, geography, history and digital society. They're limited, but they're official and legal to use.

What do the IB's licensing rules say?

The IB's licensing policy lists what it will not license anyone to use. In summary, it won't license:

• IB material on a publicly accessible website (only on secure, restricted sites);
• IB material for a for-fee tutoring service;
• exam material from the two sessions before the current one;
• more than 25% of any one work, third-party material inside IB publications, or students' own work (students keep the copyright in what they write).

The IB says that using its material without a licence is infringement and that it will take legal action. For you, the practical meaning is simple: a public website offering free downloads of full IB papers isn't doing so under an IB licence, and the most recent papers in particular aren't licensed for anyone. That's also why this site, and any honest study resource, writes its own practice questions instead of reproducing past-paper ones.

Why are random PDF sites a problem?

• Copyright. As above: the papers are there without permission.
• Old syllabuses, unlabelled. A Biology paper with a Paper 3 and options, or a single-level ESS paper, is from a course that's gone, but the file name rarely says so.
• Mismatched markschemes. Papers in many sessions come in time-zone variants with different questions. A markscheme from the wrong variant marks a different paper.
• Missing pieces. Scanned pages lost, data booklets or source booklets absent, or a markscheme with no paper at all.

If you've already downloaded files, the useful question is the next one: do they match your course?

Which older papers still work for your syllabus?

Use this table to decide what a paper is good for. "Current format" means papers set for the course you'll sit.

For a full-paper mock, always use a current-format paper. Older papers are best cut up: pick out the questions on topics you're revising and do them as topic practice.

How do you do a past paper properly?

Before

• Pick a current-format paper and its matching markscheme (same session, same time-zone variant).
• Set exam conditions: the full time, your exam calculator, a clean Chemistry data booklet or maths formula booklet where your subject uses one, nothing else on the desk. Current Biology exams (2026 and 2027) have no data booklet.
• Work out the minutes per mark and write your checkpoints on the cover. The time management guide has the figures for every paper.

During

• Answer everything. Put a small mark next to any answer you guessed, so a lucky guess doesn't hide a gap.
• When time runs out, draw a line. If you want to finish, do it in a different colour so you can see what you'd have scored in the real exam.

After: mark strictly, then log

Mark with the markscheme one marking point at a time, crediting only what's on the page. The mark schemes guide explains how science points, maths method and accuracy marks, and markbands work. Then log every mark you lost:

Sort the causes into a few groups: knowledge gap, command term, misreading, slip, timing. After three or four papers a pattern shows, and it's often not "I need to learn more content". That pattern is what to revise next. A week later, redo only the questions you lost marks on, without looking at your first attempt. This is the step that's easiest to skip, and it's the one that turns a past paper into progress; why you're not improving explains why.

When should you use past papers in your revision?

Current-format papers are scarce, especially for the courses that changed recently, so don't spend them early. A sensible order:

1. While you're still learning topics: topic-by-topic questions, including questions cut from older papers.
2. From about two months before exams: full current-format papers under timed conditions, spaced out, each followed by marking, an error log and redoing lost questions.
3. Last two to three weeks: keep one or two unseen papers per subject as final rehearsals.

The IB revision plan shows how to fit this around six subjects.

What can you use when you run out of past papers?

• Your textbook's end-of-topic and exam-style questions, which are written for the current syllabus.
• Your teacher's tests and mocks, and any specimen material your school has for new courses.
• Question banks. Heptavo is one: its questions are original, exam-style questions written for the current syllabuses, each with a mark scheme. They are not official IB past papers and aren't endorsed by the IB; they're for topic-by-topic practice between full papers.
• Your own error log. Redoing the questions you got wrong is often worth more than a new paper.
• Questions you write yourself from markscheme patterns: change the context of a question you've done (a different enzyme, a different reaction, a different case study) and answer it to the same markscheme points.