O/L English Past Papers

Every paper here is for the Ordinary Level English Language examination or for the grades that lead to it, arranged by grade with the newest year first. Grade 11 holds the O/L papers themselves, because the examination is sat at the end of Grade 11; the lower grades hold school and zonal papers that use the same question types at an easier level.

They are linked from where they are published, not copied onto this site. If a link ever fails, please tell us and it will be checked.

Most students use past papers too early and too fast. A paper is a measuring instrument, and measuring is useless before there is something to measure.

• Learn the task before you attempt it. Read the Paper I guide and the Paper II guide first, so you know what each section is asking for. A student who does not know what a task wants cannot practise it.
• Do one section at a time, untimed, at the start. Accuracy first. Speed is a separate skill and comes later.
• Then do whole papers under time, in one sitting, with no dictionary and no phone. This is the only way to find out what happens to your handwriting and your planning in the last twenty minutes.
• Mark it against the marking schemes, not against your feelings. A paper you marked generously has taught you nothing.
• Write down what you lost marks for, not the score. Three sittings later, check whether the same three things are still costing you marks. That list is your revision plan.

Reading a paper and its answers together, without attempting it, feels productive and is nearly worthless. The learning is in the attempt: the moment when you do not know what to write is the moment that teaches you something. Keep the answers closed until your own attempt is finished, however uncomfortable that is.