Grade 12 Mathematics Past Papers and Memos

The topics, the marks and the time you get, from the Department of Basic Education's examination guidelines for Mathematics. Know this before you sit down with a paper and you will know what a good mark should feel like.

A ± means it is the weighting the examiners work towards rather than a fixed part of the paper, so a sitting lands a few marks either side of it.

Paper 1

150 marks, 3 hours

Algebra, equations and inequalities: ±25 marks
Number patterns: ±25 marks
Functions and graphs: ±35 marks
Finance, growth and decay: ±15 marks
Differential calculus: ±35 marks
Counting principle and probability: ±15 marks

Paper 2

150 marks, 3 hours

Statistics and regression: ±20 marks
Analytical geometry: ±40 marks
Trigonometry: ±50 marks
Euclidean geometry: ±40 marks

How hard is Grade 12 Mathematics?

Out of every 10 learners who wrote Mathematics, about 4 got 40% or more.

254 415 learners wrote Mathematics in 2025. Of the 9 subjects on this site, this is the one fewest learners pass at 40%.

Use that when you mark your own paper. Under 30% is a fail. 30% to 39% is a pass, but it shuts you out of most courses after school. 40% and up means you did better than most of the country.

The paper is not the same every year. In 2024 it was about 5 out of every 10.

National Mathematics results, 2021 to 2025
Year	Wrote the exam	Got 30% or more	Got 40% or more
2025	254 415	64%	41.9%
2024	251 488	69.1%	47.9%
2023	262 016	63.5%	43.6%
2022	269 734	55%	36%
2021	259 143	57.6%	37.6%

National results for the October and November papers, from the Department of Basic Education's 2025 NSC Diagnostic Report.

Practise Grade 12 Maths by topic All Grade 12 subjects When each paper is written

Grade 12 Mathematics past paper questions

Where can I download Grade 12 Mathematics past papers and memos?

On this page. There are 211 Grade 12 Mathematics past papers here, from 2014 to 2026, and they come with their memos. Some people call them exam papers or previous question papers. They are the same thing. Every one is a free PDF and none of them ask you to sign up.

Are the Grade 12 Mathematics trial or prelim papers here?

Yes. Look under September in each year. The September papers are the trial exams. Some schools call them prelims and some call them preparatory exams. Each province sets its own, so you can practise on more than one.

Do the papers come with memos?

Yes. The memo, which is the marking guideline the examiners use, sits on the same row as the paper it belongs to, so you download the two together rather than hunting for them separately.

Which provinces are these Mathematics papers from?

The Department of Basic Education, the Eastern Cape, the Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape. Every paper here was set by an education department. Some departments put their papers online, and we take those from the department. Others do not, so we find their papers elsewhere and check each one against its cover before we add it. If you cannot find your province, a national paper is set to the same CAPS curriculum and is just as good to practise on.

What topics are in Grade 12 Mathematics Paper 1?

Paper 1 is out of 150 marks and you get 3 hours to write it. It covers 6 areas: Algebra, equations and inequalities; Number patterns; Functions and graphs; Finance, growth and decay; Differential calculus; Counting principle and probability. The marks for each one are set out above.

Which term are these Mathematics papers from?

Every term the department published one for. Term 4 is the November exams, Term 3 is the September exams, Term 2 is the May/June exams, Term 1 is the Feb/March exams. Each paper in the list is labelled both ways, so it does not matter whether your school talks in terms or in months.

Are these IEB papers?

No. These are NSC papers, set by the Department of Basic Education and the provinces for the government curriculum, CAPS. If you are at an IEB school the content overlaps a great deal, but the papers are set separately and are not on this page.

Which paper should I start with?

The newest one. Start with 2026 and work backwards. The examiners who set the most recent papers are the ones setting yours, and how they word a question matters as much as what it is about.

Verified against DBE and provincial education department papers

Published 16 Apr 2026 · Updated 13 Oct 2026 by NavyBlue Editorial Team

Had enough for now? Try today's puzzle.

Today's puzzle pulls from Mathematics and everything else you have covered. Four tries, about two minutes, and one group is always a trick.

Play the Grade 12 puzzle