Let’s be honest, my Downloads folder was a mess. In the frantic rush of the school year, it had become a digital cupboard where every IGCSE History 0470 past paper went to get lost. I knew the valuable revision tools were in there, but finding a specific question on the Spanish Civil War or the Cuban Missile Crisis felt like an archaeological dig. I needed a system, for my own sanity as much as for my students.
I’m sure more polished versions of this exist somewhere in the ether. This is not a revolutionary product, but a teacher’s homemade solution—I’m basing my aggregation off of a long-ago Instagram post by venerable Miss Stout’s History Class over in Ireland. So, I built a thing. A resource born equally from a desire to streamline my own teaching and to give my students a clearer path through the thicket of exam preparation.
The goal was simple: to slice and dice the past papers into a searchable, sortable format. For me, it has been a quiet lifesaver. I can now, in the minutes before a class, instantly pull a ‘Describe’ question from 2018 on the Potsdam Conference for a quick do-now task. I can build a focused mock exam on the Cold War in Europe without an evening of cross-referencing. It gives me back the one thing teachers never have enough of: time.
Its real success, though, is measured in the classroom. There’s a palpable drop in anxiety when a student looks at a past paper and recognises the structure, when they can say, “I’ve practiced ten of these ‘Type b’ questions.” It breaks down the monstrous exam into manageable, familiar chunks.
I will admit, the process of creating it was its own education. The Paper 2 breakdown, in particular, was a meticulous labour that required more than one pot of matcha. It’s far from perfect. I’m already looking at my own topic categories for Paper 1 and seeing the seams. History, in its glorious complexity, doesn’t always fit into the neat boxes I designed, and I’m sure the next iteration will be better.
But a work-in-progress is better than no progress at all. So, I’m putting this one out into the world. If you are a fellow educator grappling with the same paper pile, or a learner looking for a structured way to revise, you are welcome to it.
I’ve uploaded it here for anyone to use, free of charge. It’s my small contribution to the teaching community that has given me so much. If you do get a chance to use it, please let me know. I’d love to hear how it works for you, and what I can do to make it better. After all, the best resources, like the best lessons, are always a collaborative work in progress.
Jenn Leah Ko 