The Cambridge AS & A Level History (9489) May/June 2026 papers and mark schemes are out, and they’re free. All four papers, 9489/12 to 9489/42, can be downloaded and printed on the Tutopiya Learning Portal. Below you’ll find every question set in each option and how the mark scheme levelled answers, taken from the papers themselves.

Key points from the 2026 9489 papers

• Rival accounts of the same event were a theme. Paper 1 set Lenin against a White poster, a draft rioter against a newspaper editor, and Mao against Chiang Kai-shek on the New Fourth Army.
• Provenance mattered as much as content. The Paper 1 mark schemes kept asking who wrote each source, when and why, from Lenin’s speech to party workers to Chiang’s 1957 memoirs.
• Every paper is levels-marked. There are no point-by-point marks anywhere in 9489. You are placed in a level, then given a mark within it.
• Paper 3 tied labels to levels. In the Cold War and Holocaust questions, calling the historian by the wrong school of thought capped the answer at Level 3 or 4.
• Paper 4 marks argument and knowledge separately. A well-informed essay that never reaches a judgement loses half its marks.

All May/June 2026 9489 papers

Paper	Code	Duration	Marks	What it tests
Paper 1 Document Question	9489/12	1 hour 15 minutes	40	One source question from your option (AS)
Paper 2 Outline Study	9489/22	1 hour 45 minutes	60	Two two-part essay questions from your option (AS)
Paper 3 Interpretations Question	9489/32	1 hour 15 minutes	40	One question on a historian’s extract (A Level)
Paper 4 Depth Study	9489/42	1 hour 45 minutes	60	Two essays from one section (A Level)

Timings and marks are taken from the front cover of each 2026 paper. Each paper comes with its official Cambridge mark scheme. For the full syllabus content, see the Cambridge International AS & A Level History 9489 syllabus.

Which variant is this? Cambridge sets different versions of each paper (variants) for different time zones. The papers here are variant 2: 9489/12, /22, /32 and /42. All variants cover the same syllabus at the same difficulty, so variant 2 is just as good for practice as the one your school sat.

Download the 9489 May/June 2026 papers →

What came up in 9489 Paper 1 (Document Question), May/June 2026?

You answer one question from one section: the option you studied. Each question has four sources, a 15-mark part (a) comparing two of them and a 25-mark part (b) using all four.

Option	Sources	(a) 15 marks	(b) 25 marks
Section A European: The Russian Revolution, 1894-1921	Memoir of an SR student on de-kulakisation in 1918; Lenin’s 1919 speech on grain requisitioning; a 1919 White Army poster of Bolsheviks in a Cossack village; Lenin’s 1919 account of the decree on land	Compare B and C as evidence about Bolshevik food requisitioning	How far the sources support the view that the Bolsheviks were hostile to the peasants
Section B American: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-77	A Northern print of Southern “volunteers” (1862); a North Carolina newspaper on conscription (1862); a New York draft rioter’s letter to The New York Times (1863); the editor’s reply	Compare the views in C and D about the exemption clause	How far the sources show Americans on both sides agreed with conscription
Section C International: China and Japan, 1912-45	A 1937 cartoon of a Communist-Nationalist handshake; Mao’s 1941 statement on the New Fourth Army; a 1942 US diplomat’s report; Chiang Kai-shek’s 1957 memoirs	How far B and D agree about the New Fourth Army	How far the sources show the Kuomintang and Communists were united against Japan after 1937

What made it hard: single sources cut both ways. In the Russia question, the mark scheme let you use Source B (Lenin) both to support hostility to the peasants and to challenge it, depending on how you read its tone and purpose.

What came up in 9489 Paper 2 (Outline Study)?

You answer two questions from one section. Each question has a 10-mark part (a) (“Explain why…”) and a 20-mark part (b) that asks for a judgement. Two questions of 30 marks make 60.

Question	Topic	(a) 10 marks	(b) 20 marks
1	France, 1774-1814	Why there were so many constitutional changes, 1790-95	Whether divided opposition was the main reason the Directory survived
2	Industrial Revolution in Britain, 1750-1850	Why free trade mattered to industrialisation	Whether Parliament’s efforts to improve working conditions made little progress by 1850
3	Germany, 1815-71	Why Prussia’s economy grew rapidly after 1849	Military leadership versus Bismarck’s diplomacy in unification
4	Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61	Why support for abolitionism grew in the 1850s	How well the Missouri Compromise balanced sectional interests
5	Gilded Age and Progressive Era	Why opposition to tariffs was ineffective	Whether consumer protection laws were Theodore Roosevelt’s greatest achievements
6	Great Crash, Depression and New Deal	Why federal government did little to regulate business in the 1920s	Whether homelessness was the most serious impact of the Depression
7	Empire and world powers, 1870-1919	Why the Meiji Restoration began Japan’s rise as a power	Whether the scramble for Africa was driven by trade
8	League of Nations in the 1920s	Why Bulgarians disliked the Treaty of Neuilly	Whether international conferences in the 1920s failed
9	League of Nations in the 1930s	Why Hitler’s 1934 attempted Anschluss failed	How far the League’s reaction to Manchuria caused its failure

Questions 1 to 3 are the European option, 4 to 6 the American option and 7 to 9 the International option.

Watch for: the mark scheme’s note on Question 2(b) that the question is about working conditions. Answers drifting into housing and public health needed to link back to work.

What came up in 9489 Paper 3 (Interpretations Question)?

You answer one question: the topic you studied. Each section gives you a historian’s extract and the same 40-mark question: what can you learn about the historian’s interpretation and approach, using the extract and your own knowledge.

• Section A, The origins of the First World War. An extract on the authoritarian monarchies of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany. The mark scheme’s main interpretation: the historian blames the three monarchs in the July Crisis because they felt vulnerable and believed a show of national strength was vital.
• Section B, The Holocaust. An extract on how the killing of Jewish men became the destruction of whole communities in 1941. The main interpretation: the Nazi leadership kept seeking more radical solutions, while subordinates on the ground worked out how genocide would be carried out.
• Section C, The origins and development of the Cold War. An extract opening with Truman’s inexperience in 1945. The main interpretation: both sides were to blame, because Stalin expanded into Europe for security and the US reacted too slowly.

What made it hard: each interpretation has two parts. The mark scheme says that showing complete understanding means discussing both.

What came up in 9489 Paper 4 (Depth Study)?

You answer two questions from one section. Each is a single 30-mark essay.

Section	Questions
A: European history in the interwar years, 1919-41	1 Repression and Mussolini’s control, 1925-41. 2 Effectiveness of Stalin’s Five-Year Plans. 3 Hitler’s foreign policy aims and Nazi economic policy. 4 Impact of new industries on the British economy, 1919-39
B: The USA, 1944-92	5 Why the Republicans lost the 1948 presidential election. 6 Impact of Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s. 7 Significance of US trade deficits in the 1980s and early 1990s. 8 Whether the Reagan Doctrine was a success
C: International history, 1945-92	9 How far détente improved US-Soviet relations, 1963-80. 10 US support for Taiwan and Sino-US relations. 11 Senghor’s role in Senegal’s independence. 12 Causes of the Iran-Iraq War

Watch for: change over time. For Question 3, the mark scheme suggested foreign policy may only have driven economic policy from 1936, after unemployment had been tackled.

How the 9489 May/June 2026 mark scheme gives marks

All four 2026 mark schemes use level grids. Here is what moved an answer up a level.

1. Paper 1 part (a) has four levels. Level 4 (12 to 15 marks) makes a developed comparison and explains why the sources agree or differ, using context or source evaluation. Level 3 (8 to 11) compares and supports both similarities and differences with source content. In Section A Question 1(a), the step up was explaining the difference: Lenin was speaking to party workers who would carry out requisitioning, while the poster was White propaganda.

2. Paper 1 part (b) has five levels. Level 3 (11 to 15) uses the sources to both support and challenge. Level 4 (16 to 20) evaluates the sources in context, looking at their nature, origin and purpose. Level 5 (21 to 25) weighs the evidence to reach a supported judgement. For Section B Question 2(b), that meant noticing that the Northern print put “volunteers” in inverted commas, and that the New York Times was strongly pro-Union.

3. Writing an essay instead of using the sources scores very little. The Paper 1 grid puts an essay with little or no reference to the sources in Level 1 (1 to 5 marks), however good the knowledge.

4. Paper 2 part (a) rewards connected causes. The levels are 9 to 10, 6 to 8, 3 to 5 and 1 to 2. Level 3 explains factors. Level 4 also shows how the causes connect and reaches a supported conclusion. For Question 3(a), you might link the Zollverein, railway building and the Manteuffel reforms rather than listing them.

5. Paper 2 part (b) needs a sustained judgement for the top band. Level 4 (13 to 16) builds a balanced argument and may begin a judgement. Level 5 (17 to 20) is closely argued with precisely selected evidence and a developed conclusion. For Question 8(b), on 1920s conferences, the mark scheme weighed each meeting (the Washington naval conference, Genoa, Dawes, Locarno) as success, failure or partial success.

6. Paper 3 splits 40 marks into AO4 and AO1. Up to 20 marks are for analysing the interpretation (six levels) and up to 20 for your own knowledge (six levels). In Section C, the mark scheme said post-revisionism is the only label allowed into Levels 5 and 6. Orthodox or post-post-revisionist readings reach Level 4, and calling the extract revisionist is Level 3. In Section B, functionalism was Level 3 at best.

7. Paper 4 splits each 30 marks into AO2 and AO1. Up to 15 marks are for analysis and judgement and up to 15 for supporting knowledge, each with five levels (13 to 15, 10 to 12, 7 to 9, 4 to 6, 1 to 3). AO2 Level 5 needs valid, wide-ranging criteria, a balanced argument and a clear, sustained judgement. For Question 2, on Stalin’s Five-Year Plans, the mark scheme suggested using Stalin’s own aims as the criteria for judging success.

8. “Accept any other valid responses.” Every Paper 1 and Paper 2 question in the mark scheme ends with this line. The content listed is indicative, so you can use different examples as long as they answer the question.

Which papers should you sit?

• AS Level: Paper 1 and Paper 2.
• Full A Level: Papers 1, 2, 3 and 4.

On Papers 1 and 2, answer from the option your school taught. On Paper 3, answer on the topic you studied. On Paper 4, both essays must come from the same section.

How to use the 2026 papers as a mock

1. Keep them for last. Use older 9489 papers to practise each skill and save May/June 2026 for a timed mock.
2. For Paper 1, annotate provenance first. Before you read the content, note who wrote each source, when, for whom and why.
3. For Paper 2, plan your judgement before you write. Decide your answer to part (b) in one sentence, then make every paragraph support or test it.
4. For Paper 3, state the two-part interpretation in your opening. Then check it against the “main interpretation” in the mark scheme.
5. Mark Paper 4 twice. Give one mark for argument (AO2) and one for knowledge (AO1) using the separate grids, and see which is holding you back.

More A Level History resources

• A Level past papers 2026: all subjects

🔍 Looking for a specific past paper? Use our free Past Paper Finder to search by subject, year and exam board.

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Frequently asked questions

Are the 9489 May/June 2026 past papers free? +

Yes. All four question papers (9489/12, 9489/22, 9489/32 and 9489/42) and their official mark schemes are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

What came up in 9489 Paper 1 May/June 2026? +

Paper 1 had one source question per option. The European option was on the Bolsheviks and the peasants during the Russian Civil War, the American option on Civil War conscription and the exemption clause, and the International option on Kuomintang and Communist co-operation against Japan, including the New Fourth Army incident.

How is 9489 Paper 4 marked? +

Each 30-mark essay is marked twice: up to 15 marks for analysis and judgement (AO2) and up to 15 for the knowledge you use to support it (AO1). The top band for AO2 needs valid, wide-ranging criteria and a clear, sustained judgement.

What did 9489 Paper 3 ask in 2026? +

Each topic had one 40-mark question asking what you can learn about the interpretation and approach of the historian who wrote the extract. The topics were the origins of the First World War, the Holocaust, and the origins and development of the Cold War.

Why can't I find 9489/11 or 9489/13 for 2026? +

Only variant 2 of the May/June 2026 papers is on the portal at the moment. Cambridge sets different variants for different time zones; variants 1 and 3 test the same syllabus in the same format, so variant 2 prepares you just as well.

When will the October/November 2026 9489 papers be available? +

Cambridge usually releases the October/November papers in the new year. We add them to the Learning Portal once they are published.

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