Past-paper analysis
IB Maths AI SL past paper analysis
We tagged 353 questions worth 3,200 marks from 20 exam sittings between 2021 and 2025. This page shows what each topic is worth, which paper it sits on, and how that has moved over five years.
- 353 questions
- 3,200 marks
- 20 sittings
- 2021–2025
Written by Ejaz Ahmad. Published 18 October 2026. See how we analyse papers.
Marks by topic
Trigonometry (13.47%), Differentiation (10.56%) and Functions (8.8%) lead the table. The top five topics together carry 47.8% of all marks, and even the smallest of the 16 topics, Modelling & regression, holds 1.83%.
Share of marks by syllabus area
| Area | % of all marks |
|---|---|
| Statistics & Probability | 31.2% |
| Geometry & Trigonometry | 23% |
| Number & Algebra | 19.2% |
| Calculus | 16% |
| Functions | 10.6% |
The five areas of the course.
Share of marks by topic
| Topic | % of all marks |
|---|---|
| Trigonometry | 13.47% |
| Differentiation | 10.56% |
| Functions | 8.8% |
| Probability distributions | 8.3% |
| Sequences & series | 6.66% |
| Hypothesis testing | 6.64% |
| Univariate statistics | 6.47% |
| Probability | 6.05% |
| Loans & annuities | 5.91% |
| Integration | 5.47% |
| Voronoi diagrams | 5.02% |
| Trig / sinusoidal graphs | 4.47% |
| Exponents & logarithms | 4% |
| Bivariate statistics | 3.77% |
| Approximation & error | 2.61% |
| Modelling & regression | 1.83% |
Share of all 3,200 marks. Marks from multi-topic questions are split equally between their tags.
Paper 1 vs Paper 2
Calculus leans towards Paper 2 (19.3% of its marks against 12.8% in Paper 1), while Functions leans towards Paper 1 (17.2% against 4.1% in Paper 2).
Share of each paper's marks, by topic
| Topic | Paper 1 | Paper 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Stats & Prob | 30.5% | 32% |
| Geom & Trig | 20.1% | 25.8% |
| Number & Alg | 19.5% | 18.9% |
| Calculus | 12.8% | 19.3% |
| Functions | 17.2% | 4.1% |
Each column is a share of that paper's own marks.
Where the sub-topics sit
The headline topics hide a split by paper: the same topic can be a Paper 1 skill or a Paper 2 skill.
Statistics and probability: Paper 1 vs Paper 2
| Topic | Paper 1 | Paper 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Prob. dist. | 8.1% | 8.5% |
| Hypothesis test | 7% | 6.3% |
| Univariate | 6.8% | 6.1% |
| Probability | 6% | 6.1% |
| Bivariate | 2.5% | 5% |
Share of each paper's marks.
Final long questions
Paper 2 ends with an extended investigation-style question. This counts how often each topic has anchored it.
Final long-question appearances by topic
| Topic | Appearances |
|---|---|
| Differentiation | 14 |
| Trigonometry | 8 |
| Integration | 8 |
| Prob. distributions | 7 |
| Trig graphs | 6 |
| Loans & annuities | 5 |
| Voronoi | 4 |
| Functions | 3 |
Topics that anchored the last question of Paper 2.
How topics changed by year
Differentiation rose from 3 questions in 2021 to 8 questions in 2025; Trigonometry fell from 11 questions to 10 questions. Each cell is the questions tagged with the topic that year.
Topics by year
| Topic | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trigonometry | 11 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| Functions | 7 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 11 |
| Differentiation | 3 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Prob. distributions | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Sequences & series | 3 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 6 |
Darker cells are larger values. Only the main movers are shown.
What this means for your revision
- Start with the top five topics (Trigonometry, Differentiation, Functions, Probability distributions and Sequences & series). Together they carry 47.8% of marks.
- Practise by paper. Calculus is mostly a Paper 2 skill and Functions a Paper 1 skill, so train each in the format it is asked.
- Watch the direction of travel: Differentiation has grown since 2021.
- Do not drop the small topics. The smallest, Modelling & regression, still holds 1.83% of marks.
Past frequency shows where marks have gone so far. It does not promise what a future paper will contain.
Guidebook
IB Maths AI SL guidebook
Full course coverage by Photon, with exam-style practice that follows these weightings.
Free cheatsheets
Revise the top topics
Start with Trigonometry: every IB Maths AI SL topic has a free cheatsheet with the formulas, methods and common traps.
Course page
IB Maths AI SL resources
Cheatsheets, guidebook details and revision resources for this course.
Method
We counted every IB Maths AI SL paper from the 20 May and November sittings between 2021 and 2025. Each question is read and tagged by topic. When a question carries more than one tag, its marks are split equally between them, so nothing is counted twice and the shares add up to 100%.
Tagging involves judgement, and these are counts of past marks, not a forecast. Read the full method.