Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language 0510/12 is the May/June 2026 Paper 1 (Reading and Writing), variant 2. It lasts 2 hours, is worth 60 marks and is sat by every 0510 candidate. It had six compulsory exercises and 17 questions: four reading exercises worth 30 marks, then an email and an essay worth 15 marks each. This guide goes through the paper question by question and shows what the official mark scheme gave marks for. The paper and its mark scheme are free on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

For an overview of both 0510 papers from this series, see IGCSE English as a Second Language 0510 May/June 2026 past papers: what came up and how it was marked.

0510/12 at a glance

Exercise	Questions	Text or task	Answer type	Marks
1	1–6	A student’s blog about chillies	Short answers	8
2	7(a)–(i)	Four young people on learning to drive	Match statements to A–D	9
3	8–9	Interview with an actor about his routines and his theatre	Notes under two headings	7
4	10–15	Article about competitive cheerleading	Multiple choice A–C	6
5	16	Email to a friend about a family visit to a special place	120–160 words	15
6	17	Essay for your teacher: should maths be compulsory?	120–160 words	15
			Total	60

You answer on the question paper, and dictionaries are not allowed.

Question-by-question walkthrough

Exercise 1: a blog about chillies (8 marks)

Bilal, a student who loves spicy food, writes about a TV documentary on chillies and his own experience of growing and eating them. The blog covers world production figures, the Scoville heat scale, growing tips and some unusual uses.

• Question 1, total production in 2020 (1 mark): 36.1 million tonnes. The blog also gives figures for China and Mexico, so make sure you take the worldwide total. “Tons” was accepted, but “tones” was not, because it changes the meaning.
• Question 2, the hottest chillies Bilal has eaten (1 mark): Bilal says Scotch bonnets are his limit and can only imagine how hot the Carolina Reaper is, so the answer is the Scotch bonnet.
• Question 3, what he is growing now (1 mark): habanero. He grew bird’s eye chillies before, so the time reference (“at the moment”) is the key.
• Question 4, his growing advice (1 mark): don’t water the plants too much if you want the fruits to be hot. The “if” condition had to be there: “don’t overwater them” on its own does not answer the question. “For them to be hot” was given as an acceptable way to show the condition, and “spicy” was accepted for “hot”.
• Question 5, the chilli food he dislikes (1 mark): chocolate. Chilli jam and chilli biscuits are distractors; the food he says he isn’t keen on is chocolate.
• Question 6, uses he learned about from the documentary (3 marks): any three of four points: farmers use them to keep elephants away from crops, they have been used as currency or money, they can reduce pain, and they are used as decoration.

Exercise 2: four young people learning to drive (9 marks)

Four short accounts from Shin (A), Ania (B), Vlad (C) and Hikma (D) about when and how they learned to drive. You match nine statements to the right person, one mark each, and a letter can be used more than once.

Part	What the statement is about	Answer
7(a)	Turned down a family member’s offer to teach them	D
7(b)	Surprised at how young you can start in some countries	A
7(c)	Started lessons at the earliest legal age	C
7(d)	Found some of the theory hard to learn	B
7(e)	Took longer to learn than expected	C
7(f)	Found one particular manoeuvre difficult	A
7(g)	Thinks the minimum age should be higher	D
7(h)	Lacked confidence at the start	B
7(i)	Suggests they started too young	C

The statements test attitudes and timing rather than facts. Several people mention their age, their dad or their instructor, so word-matching alone will mislead you. Vlad (C) is the answer three times: he booked a course as soon as the law allowed, expected it to be easy, and needed months of extra lessons. In 7(d), Ania found rules such as safe stopping distances hard to get used to, while Shin says he picked up the theory straight away, which rules him out.

Exercise 3: notes on an actor (7 marks)

A journalist interviews the actor Alex Morgano at the small theatre where he is currently performing, and he talks about his routines before each show and what he likes about the venue. You write short notes under two headings.

• Question 8, things Alex always does before a show (up to 4 marks): the scheme listed five points, one mark each: eating a sandwich an hour before the play; saying the first few words of the play out loud; staying away from the other actors; half an hour of stretching; and closing his eyes for ten seconds. For the second point, “words” had to be plural, or the note had to show the plural idea (for example “first few word…”).
• Question 9, why he likes this theatre (up to 3 marks): four points: he feels close to the audience; he can walk there from home; the staff are friendly (café or theatre staff both counted); and his dressing room is quiet. Two strict notes here:
  • The walking idea was essential. A note that only says the theatre is easy for him to get to scored nothing, and “walk theatre” on its own was not accepted.
  • “Quite” for “quiet” was not allowed, because it changes the meaning.

Exercise 4: competitive cheerleading (6 marks)

A writer describes his first reaction when a friend took up cheerleading, then what he found out about its history, its Olympic prospects, All Star Cheer and the parts of a routine. Six multiple choice questions, one mark each.

Question	What it asked	Answer
10	The writer’s first reaction to his friend’s plan	B (he wasn’t impressed)
11	What the friend told him about its history	B (when women started to take part)
12	Why it could become an Olympic sport	C (it has already been officially recognised as a sport)
13	What surprised him about All Star Cheer	A (team sizes vary)
14	What the writer is doing in the fifth paragraph	B (defining the parts of a performance)
15	What he says about flyers	C (they are more likely to be injured)

The wrong options were built from details that do appear in the text. In Question 12, for example, the article mentions coaches and competitions, but the reason it gives is the International Olympic Committee’s recognition in 2021. In Question 14, the article says the parts are not necessarily performed in the order listed, which rules out C.

Exercise 5: an email about a special place (15 marks)

You and your family have just visited a very special place for the first time, and you write an email to a friend about it. The three bullet points ask you to say why you all went, explain how you got there, and describe what it was like. The guidance is about 120 to 160 words.

• Marks split: up to 6 for content and up to 9 for language, decided separately.
• The bullet-point cap: if you leave out one or two of the three bullets, content can’t go above 2. Language is still marked across its full range.
• The word-count cap: an answer well short of the guidance, below 85 words, gets only 1 or 2 for content, because it only partly fulfils the task.
• What moves content up: the top band (5–6) needs all of the task covered, content that stays relevant throughout, a style that suits a friendly email from start to finish, a clear sense of who you are writing to and why, and ideas that are well developed. The middle band (3–4) is the “generally” version of each of these. The bottom band (1–2) is partial: some of the task, an inconsistent style and little development.
• No indicative content: the mark scheme gives no list of expected points for this email. It is marked entirely from the generic content and language grids, so any special place works, as long as all three bullets are covered and developed.

Exercise 6: an essay on compulsory maths (15 marks)

After a class discussion, your teacher asks for an essay on whether maths should be a subject every student has to study. Three prompt comments suggest that maths supports other subjects, that some students would rather choose their own subjects, and that maths skills are needed in everyday life. You may use them, and you should add ideas of your own. The guidance is again about 120 to 160 words.

• Marks split: the same as the email: 6 for content and 9 for language, from the same two grids.
• Caps: the under-85-words rule applies here too. A response that has nothing to do with the question gets 0 for both content and language. There is no bullet-point cap, because the essay has prompts rather than bullets.
• What moves content up: the same descriptors as the email: the task fulfilled, relevance throughout, a style that suits an essay for your teacher, a strong sense of purpose and audience, and ideas that are well developed. Answer the question directly and back each idea with a reason or example; repeating the three comments without expanding them leaves little to credit for development.
• No indicative content: as with the email, the scheme has no list of expected arguments, so it does not require you to take a particular side.

How language is marked in both writing tasks (9 marks each)

The language grid has three bands, and it looks at range, accuracy and organisation together:

• 7–9: ideas communicated skilfully; a wide range of both common and less common vocabulary; a wide range of simple and complex sentence structures; a high level of accuracy, with only occasional errors that never get in the way; well-sequenced writing with a wide range of linking words and other cohesive devices.
• 4–6: clear communication with common vocabulary and some attempts at less common words and complex structures; generally accurate; generally well organised with a range of linking words.
• 1–3: only common vocabulary and simple structures, errors that get in the way of meaning, and little attempt at organisation or linking.

Within a band, the examiner gives the lower mark if your writing meets some of the descriptors and the top mark if it meets all of them. If it meets everything in a band, the examiner considers the next band up.

Where the marks are on 0510/12

Skill	Exercises	Marks
Reading for specific details (short answers)	1	8
Reading for opinions, attitudes and implied meaning (matching)	2	9
Selecting details for a purpose (notes)	3	7
Reading for gist, attitude and text organisation (multiple choice)	4	6
Writing: content (task fulfilment, register, development)	5 and 6	12
Writing: language (range, accuracy, organisation)	5 and 6	18
Total		60

• Half the paper is writing, and 18 of those 30 marks are for language. Accurate, varied sentences with good linking carry more marks than any single reading exercise.
• Every reading mark is a separate one-mark point, so one precise answer is worth as much as any other, and careful reading of each question matters more than speed.
• Exercise 2 is the biggest reading exercise at 9 marks, and it tests attitudes rather than facts.

How to self-mark 0510/12 with the mark scheme

1. Mark the reading answers point by point. A slash in the mark scheme shows alternative wordings for the same point. For the list questions (6, 8 and 9), tick each numbered point you made and stop at the maximum: 3, 4 and 3 marks.
2. Check every key word for spelling that changes the meaning. “Tons” passed in Question 1 but “tones” did not, and “quite” was refused for “quiet” in Question 9. A small slip that still leaves the meaning clear is a different matter, because answers only need to be unambiguous.
3. Read the guidance column for conditions and plurals. Question 4 needed the “if” idea, and Question 8 needed “words”, not “word”.
4. Reject vague answers. In Question 9, “easy to get to” scored nothing; the mark was for walking. If your note is more general than the text, count it as wrong.
5. Mark the writing in two passes. First decide the content band and mark, then the language band and mark, using the descriptors above. Check the caps before you settle on content: all three email bullets covered, and at least 85 words.
6. Ask someone else to mark your writing too, or compare it against the descriptors a day later. It is hard to judge your own range of vocabulary and structures fairly.

Sit 0510/12 as a timed mock

The paper gives 120 minutes for 60 marks, with half the marks in the two writing tasks. A workable plan:

Block	Marks	Time
Exercise 1: chillies blog	8	12 minutes
Exercise 2: learning to drive	9	14 minutes
Exercise 3: actor notes	7	12 minutes
Exercise 4: cheerleading	6	12 minutes
Exercise 5: email (plan, write, check)	15	30 minutes
Exercise 6: essay (plan, write, check)	15	30 minutes
Final check, especially spelling of key words and your word counts	–	10 minutes

Before each writing task, spend a few minutes on a plan: for the email, one paragraph per bullet; for the essay, your view, two or three developed reasons and a conclusion.

Other May/June 2026 0510 papers

• 0510 Paper 22 (Listening)

Practise and download

• Download 0510/12 and its mark scheme on the Learning Portal →
• All 0510 May/June 2026 papers: overview and marking patterns
• Try a free IGCSE English as a Second Language quiz

Need help with a 0510 topic? Book a free trial lesson with an IGCSE English as a Second Language tutor →

Frequently asked questions

What came up on 0510 Paper 12 May/June 2026? +

Four reading texts and two writing tasks: a student's blog about chillies, four young people on learning to drive, an interview with an actor about his pre-show routines, an article about competitive cheerleading, an email about a family visit to a special place, and an essay on whether maths should be compulsory at school.

How many marks is 0510/12 and how long is it? +

It is out of 60 marks and lasts 2 hours. The four reading exercises are worth 30 marks together, and the email and the essay are worth 15 marks each.

What were the answers to Exercise 2 on 0510/12 2026? +

7(a) D, 7(b) A, 7(c) C, 7(d) B, 7(e) C, 7(f) A, 7(g) D, 7(h) B and 7(i) C. The four drivers were Shin (A), Ania (B), Vlad (C) and Hikma (D), and Vlad was the answer three times.

How are the email and essay on 0510/12 marked? +

Each gets up to 6 marks for content and up to 9 for language, decided separately from two level grids. An email that leaves out one or two of the three bullet points can score no more than 2 for content, and any answer under 85 words gets only 1 or 2 for content.

Why was 'tones' wrong in Question 1 of 0510/12? +

The answer was 36.1 million tonnes. The mark scheme accepted 'tons' but not 'tones', because 'tones' is a different word and changes the meaning. The same rule rejected 'quite' for 'quiet' in Question 9.

Where can I download 0510/12 May/June 2026 and its mark scheme? +

Both are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal, on the Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language 0510 past papers page.

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