Which H2 Math chapters actually get examined? A heat map of every A-Level paper since 2011
By StudySzn · · 4 min read
The short answer: over the 15 years from 2011 to 2025, the A-Level H2 Math chapters that carried the most marks were Differentiation (21.7 marks a year), Vectors (19.9 marks a year), Integration and applications of integration (18.7 marks a year), Sequences and Series (18 marks a year) and Differential equations (12.1 marks a year). Together the first four are about 39% of the 200 marks in a year. We went through every question, checked what each part tests, and counted the marks per chapter.
The chapters that carry the marks
- 1.Differentiation — 21.7 marks a year (11% of the paper)
- 2.Vectors — 19.9 marks a year (10% of the paper)
- 3.Integration and applications of integration — 18.7 marks a year (9% of the paper)
- 4.Sequences and Series — 18 marks a year (9% of the paper)
- 5.Differential equations — 12.1 marks a year (6% of the paper)
At the other end, sampling (3.5), permutation and combination (6.3) and functions (6.5) bring in the fewest marks a year. Don’t read “low” as “safe to skip”: all but 5 chapters came up in every single year, and the biggest single-year swing was differentiation in 2020, worth 42 marks on its own.
How the marks are counted
Both papers are compulsory, with no choice of questions, so nothing is weighted: every question counts in full, and each year adds up to 200 marks. The syllabus changed in 2017, so the presets in the tool below let you compare the old and the current syllabus. Paper 1 is all pure maths, and Paper 2 mixes pure maths with probability and statistics. Each question’s marks go to the chapter it tests, and when a question mixes topics, the marks are split part by part.
Try it yourself
Pick the years and the paper you care about. Click any cell to see the exact questions behind it. Your choices stay in the page link, so you can send a view to a friend.
Topic heat map
Marks per chapter per year. Darker means more marks.
| Chapter | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Avg / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 10.3 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 7.9 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 18 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 19.9 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 11.2 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 21.7 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 7.6 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 18.7 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 12.1 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 6.3 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 7.9 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 9.8 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 8.5 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 3.5 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 7.4 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| 10.1 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| Outside the current chapter list | ||||||||||||||||
| 12.3 /yr | ||||||||||||||||
| Total marks | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | |
Most examined first
Average marks over the selected years
Yearly mix by topic area
- Algebra & functions
- Vectors
- Calculus
- Statistics & probability
- Other
How this is counted
Each question’s marks go to the chapter it tests; when a question mixes topics, its marks are split part by part. Every question was classified from the paper itself, not from tags (updated 2026-10-09).
Nothing is weighted. Every question in both papers is compulsory, and each year adds up to 200 marks: 100 for Paper 1 and 100 for Paper 2. The syllabus changed in 2017, so use the presets to compare like with like.
How closely each year was checked. 2011–2020 were checked against the original scanned papers. The other years were checked against the question bank text only, because no scan of those papers was available.
Not in the current syllabus. The papers before 2017 asked some things today’s syllabus no longer covers. Those marks sit in their own row, not in a chapter.
What changed with the 2017 syllabus
Comparing 2011–2016 with 2017–2025, using only marks on current chapters:
- Discrete Random Variables went up from 2% to 7% of marks.
- Normal Distribution went up from 2% to 6% of marks.
- Vectors came down from 13% to 9%.
- Permutation and Combination came down from 6% to 2%.
If your paper is soon, lean on the recent years: use the “Last 5” button in the tool above.
How to use this when you revise
- Start with the heavy chapters. If you only have a week, get differentiation, vectors and differential equations solid first.
- Look at your paper, not just the whole set. Switch between Paper 1 and Paper 2: the statistics chapters are only examined in Paper 2, so they decide how you split your revision.
- Don’t skip the small ones. Sampling averages 3.5 marks a year, but it was worth 6 in 2013.
- Then practise. Pick a chapter and do real questions from it in the StudySzn question bank.
How we checked it
Every question was classified from the paper itself, not from tags. The 2011–2020 papers were checked against the original scans. The other years were checked against the question text and diagrams in our question bank, because we didn’t have a scan of those papers. This covers past papers only, so it’s a guide to the exam, not a prediction of next year’s.
Put the guide into practice
Download a free weekly revision planner. Pick a topic, attempt a timed question, record your mistakes, and schedule a second attempt. Our guides, planner and heat maps are free to use without an account.
Download the revision planner (CSV)Open in Excel or Google Sheets. Use one row per study session.
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