GCSE Religious Studies past papers, marked against the real criteria
Seven papers in the AQA, Edexcel and OCR formats, thirty-eight written questions, each with the marking criteria beside it. You write the answer in full; it is marked the way an examiner marks it — the short answers point by point, the evaluations placed in a level, with the reason they sit there and what would have moved them up.
Open the papers, free, no card
What "marked against the criteria" actually means
Religious Studies looks like the subject where you write what you think, and it is where pupils most often write something true and sincerely meant and stop two bands below where they could be. The twelve-mark evaluation is marked by level: not on whether the examiner agrees, but on whether the answer did the job set.
Question. "Criminals should always be forgiven." Evaluate this statement. Give reasoned arguments in support and to support a different point of view, refer to religious teaching, and reach a justified conclusion. (12 marks, in the style of the AQA thematic paper)
A common answer, with nothing inaccurate in it:
Roughly half marks, for an answer the pupil worked hard on — and reading a model answer will not fix it, because a model shows a finished argument rather than what their answer was missing.
The same shape repeats down the paper. "Explain two…" wants each point developed with a second sentence, so four short assertions score two, not four. "Refer to a source of wisdom and authority" is a mark of its own, earned by a named or quoted teaching, not a general gesture.
"Christians believe" is usually where the mark goes missing
Two habits cost the most at the short tariffs, and both are vagueness rather than ignorance. The first is naming nothing. "Religious people think life is sacred" is not a source of wisdom and authority; "humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)" is, and on a five-mark question that is the fifth mark. It need not be scripture: a named church teaching, a hadith, or a thinker such as Aquinas on the First Cause does the same work. It has to be identifiable.
The second is treating a tradition as though it had one opinion. Accurate distinctions are not decoration; they are often the difference between a developed point and a flat one. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a sacrament that cannot be dissolved and offers annulment rather than divorce, while many Anglican and Protestant churches accept divorce as a regrettable last resort and permit remarriage. Quakers hold a peace testimony that rules out fighting, while most churches work with some version of just war. Sunni Muslims pray five times a day; many Shi'a Muslims combine those prayers into three occasions. Writing "some Christians… whereas other Christians…" and saying which is which is a developed answer. Writing "Christians believe" and picking one of them is a half-answer that has also, quietly, misdescribed several million people.
Which papers you are actually sitting
The full course is built on a systematic study of two religions plus themes, so two pupils who both "do RE" can share almost no content. Check what you were entered for, because the beliefs and themes papers are different tasks. A beliefs and practices paper asks what a religion holds and does — Tawhid, risalah and the pillars; the Trinity, the incarnation and the sacraments — and the marks are for accurate doctrine. A themes paper takes an issue such as peace and conflict or crime and punishment and asks you to bring religious and non-religious views to bear on it. There, Humanist and atheist arguments are creditable in their own right rather than as something to knock down.
The formats differ too. AQA runs a fixed ladder of 1, 2, 4, 5 and 12 marks for each religion and each theme. Edexcel repeats the same set for every theme: (a) 3-mark "outline three", (b) 4-mark "explain two", (c) 5-mark "explain two with a source", (d) 12-mark evaluation. OCR rises through short and medium questions to one longer evaluation essay. The tariff tells you the shape of the answer: a three-mark "outline" wants three bare points and earns nothing extra for explaining them.
The three marks nobody revises for
Every board awards up to three extra marks on the extended evaluation for spelling, punctuation, grammar and specialist terminology. They are awarded once per paper and are the cheapest marks on it. The terminology half is worth practising, because the words are the ones pupils half-remember: Shahadah, ummah, akhirah, Tawhid, imago Dei, agape, transubstantiation, sanctity of life. Spelling them correctly counts, and so does using them where they belong — calling the Catholic teaching about the bread and wine by its name gains credit that "the bread turns into Jesus" does not.
The papers
| Board | Year | Paper | Tier | Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AQA | 2022 | Religious Studies: Relationships & Families | practice | 6 |
| AQA | 2023 | Religious Studies: Islam | practice | 6 |
| AQA | 2024 | Religious Studies: Christianity | practice | 6 |
| Edexcel | 2023 | Religious Studies: Peace & Conflict | practice | 5 |
| Edexcel | 2024 | Religious Studies: Religion & Life | practice | 8 |
| OCR | 2023 | Religious Studies: Existence of God & Human Rights | practice | 6 |
| OCR | 2024 | Religious Studies: Crime & Punishment | practice | 6 |
43 questions across 7 papers, each with its own criteria. Everything here is written in the boards' own format and judged against their published criteria; the papers themselves belong to the boards and are not reproduced here.
Try it on your own answer
Open a paper, write what you would have written in the exam, including the wrong bits, and read what comes back. It is free to start and does not ask for a card.
The other subjects
Twenty-three in one place, aligned to AQA, Edexcel and OCR.