Biology › Past papers

A-level Biology past papers

Past papers show you how your exams are set out and how the marks are given. Choose your qualification to see how its papers are structured, with links to the board’s official papers and mark schemes.

Pearson Edexcel students: check whether you take Biology A (Salters-Nuffield), 9BN0, or Biology B, 9BI0. They are separate qualifications with different content and papers.

AQA Biology

7402 · three papers · 260 marks · nine published series listed here

OCR Biology A

H420 · three papers · 270 marks · nine published series listed here

Cambridge International Biology

9700 · five papers · 270 marks · two published series listed here

Pearson Edexcel Biology A (Salters-Nuffield)

9BN0 · three papers · 300 marks · nine published series listed here

Pearson Edexcel Biology B

9BI0 · three papers · 300 marks · nine published series listed here

Using a past paper

Sit a whole paper once you have been taught most of what it examines. Each paper page here says what that is. Do it in one sitting, in the time the board allows. Mark it with the board’s mark scheme the same day, and give yourself a mark only where your answer makes the point the scheme lists, not where you meant to. Note each point you missed and the topic it came from, then practise those topics before you sit the next paper. Boards publish only a few papers, and one you have already seen is no longer a fair test.

Run out of papers, or want to work on one topic? The question bank has original questions topic by topic, with point-by-point mark schemes.

Latest series

The most recent series for each qualification:

We checked these links against the exam boards’ websites on 31 August 2026. We do not host or reproduce past papers or mark schemes. If a link has moved, go to the board’s own past papers page.