# 9709/12 March 2017

> 9709/12 March 2017: 10 questions, 75 marks. Difficulty 0.40, deviation 0.10, algebraic 0.40, text density 0.29. CIE IAL Mathematics 9709 P1.

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CIE IAL · Mathematics · 2017 March

This Mathematics 9709 Paper 1 (Pure Mathematics 1) paper contains 10 questions worth 75 marks. The profile below reports five mark-weighted difficulty and complexity measures, and every question row repeats them. Full question text and mark scheme open in the Interactive Practice Hub.

- CIE IAL
- 9709 P1
- 10 questions
- 75 marks
- Free paper
- [Practise this paper](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3)
- [All 9709 P1 papers](https://www.examsci.com/past-papers/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/)

Core finding

**9709/12 March 2017 is a past paper for CIE IAL Mathematics 9709 Paper 1 (Pure Mathematics 1), with 10 questions worth 75 marks.** Its mark-weighted Difficulty Measure is 0.40 on a 0.20–0.75 scale, with a Difficulty Deviation of 0.10 and a mark split of 18.7% Easy, 81.3% Medium and 0.0% Hard. Algebraic complexity averages 0.40; text density and modelling average 0.29. All five measures use 22 part-level tags, not candidate results. Every question row below repeats them and opens the Interactive Practice Hub for that question.

## Difficulty & complexity profile

All five measures are mark-weighted and calculated from 22 parts carrying 75 part marks. Difficulty tags cover 22 parts, algebraic tags 22 and text-density tags 22. Tags are internal metadata, not official exam-board ratings.

- **Difficulty Measure**: 0.40 — 0.20–0.75 · nearer Medium
- **Difficulty Deviation**: 0.10 — 0 = uniform; higher = more mixed
- **Difficulty Ratio**: 18.7 / 81.3 / 0.0 — % Easy / Medium / Hard
- **Algebraic Complexity Measure**: 0.40 — 0.20–0.75 · nearer Medium
- **Text Density and Modelling Measure**: 0.29 — 0.20–0.75 · nearer Low

Scale: Easy 0.20 · Medium 0.45 · Hard 0.75, and Low 0.20 · Medium 0.45 · High 0.75 for the two complexity measures. [How each band is defined and how the values are calculated →](https://www.examsci.com/guides/difficulty-and-complexity-measures/)

### Definitions and calculation

| Measure | Paper value | Formula |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Difficulty Measure** | 0.40 | Σ(d_i × w_i) / Σw_i, with d = 0.20 / 0.45 / 0.75 |
| **Difficulty Deviation** | 0.10 | √(Σw_i(d_i − μ)^2 / Σw_i) |
| **Difficulty Ratio** | 18.7% Easy / 81.3% Medium / 0.0% Hard | marks in band / all tagged marks |
| **Algebraic Complexity Measure** | 0.40 | Σ(c_i × marks_i) / Σmarks_i, with c = 0.20 / 0.45 / 0.75 |
| **Text Density and Modelling Measure** | 0.29 | Σ(t_i × marks_i) / Σmarks_i, with t = 0.20 / 0.45 / 0.75 |

w_i equals the part marks, except for a Hard part worth 4 or more marks, where w_i = marks^0.75 to offset the accessible starter steps inside long structured questions.

## Question list

Each measure is recalculated from the parts of that question and uses the same weights as the paper profile.

| Question | Topic | Marks | Difficulty Measure | Algebraic Complexity Measure | Text Density and Modelling Measure | Practice |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Q1** FRQ | [1 Quadratics](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/quadratics/) | 4 | 0.45 Medium | 0.45 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=afdf10cf-dda5-4731-a2ad-fe993c5bceae&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q2** FRQ | [7 Series](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/series/) | 4 | 0.45 Medium | 0.45 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=86badcbb-5fc7-4b73-b4ac-c49a4466fda5&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q3** FRQ | [8 Differentiation](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/differentiation/) | 5 | 0.40 Medium | 0.40 Medium | 0.45 Medium | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=23c40e27-2514-408a-85f2-ad8e3674b79f&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q4** FRQ | [4 Circular measure](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/circular-measure/) | 6 | 0.41 Medium | 0.41 Medium | 0.45 Medium | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=56d89153-584b-48b7-a44f-80b1bcec44d4&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q5** FRQ | [1 Quadratics](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/quadratics/) | 7 | 0.45 Medium | 0.45 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=69293091-819f-4906-aef2-4ce4570d3ccd&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q6** FRQ | [6 Vectors](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/) | 7 | 0.38 Medium | 0.38 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=439461cd-ee0f-4a4d-b2ca-c5fc7017a78e&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q7** FRQ | [8 Differentiation](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/differentiation/) | 8 | 0.36 Medium | 0.36 Medium | 0.36 Medium | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=28b3e74a-1e80-4c48-90a5-c6a0c27ee8a3&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q8** FRQ | [2 Functions](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/functions/) | 10 | 0.40 Medium | 0.40 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=6f19ca04-e421-485f-aba5-3bc86eb736a7&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q9** FRQ | [3 Coordinate geometry](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/coordinate-geometry/) | 11 | 0.38 Medium | 0.38 Medium | 0.38 Medium | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=89b15757-0c90-41cd-bcfb-d087daaef047&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |
| **Q10** FRQ | [8 Differentiation](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/differentiation/) | 13 | 0.41 Medium | 0.41 Medium | 0.28 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=cef05f0a-f192-4bd4-b35f-d7ff10fc17f3&question_id=da27523c-4a6f-4779-8834-e351e23974eb&source_detail=9709%2F12+March+2017) |

## Topics in this paper

- [1 Quadratics](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/quadratics/)
- [7 Series](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/series/)
- [8 Differentiation](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/differentiation/)
- [4 Circular measure](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/circular-measure/)
- [5 Trigonometry](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/trigonometry/)
- [6 Vectors](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/)
- [2 Functions](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/functions/)
- [3 Coordinate geometry](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/coordinate-geometry/)
- [9 Integration](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/integration/)

## Related papers

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## Paper FAQ

**How are the difficulty and complexity measures calculated?**

Each part is weighted by its official marks. Difficulty uses Easy 0.20, Medium 0.45 and Hard 0.75; algebraic complexity and text density and modelling use Low 0.20, Medium 0.45 and High 0.75. A Hard part worth 4 or more marks is down-weighted to marks^0.75, so the accessible starter steps inside a long structured question do not inflate the difficulty result. This paper's Difficulty Measure is 0.40 from 22 parts.

**What does the Difficulty Deviation show?**

It is the mark-weighted standard deviation of the part difficulty values around the paper mean. A value of 0 would mean every tagged part has the same difficulty; this paper's deviation is 0.10, so its parts are more mixed than a single-level paper.

**Is the Difficulty Ratio based on question counts or marks?**

It is based on official marks, not question counts. This paper's shares are 18.7% Easy, 81.3% Medium and 0.0% Hard; the three shares sum to 100% before rounding.

**Are these official difficulty ratings?**

No. They are derived from the platform's part-level difficulty and static-question-profile tags. They are not exam-board grade boundaries and are not calculated from candidate outcomes. Use them to compare the demand profile of papers, not to predict a grade.

**Why does each question row show its own measures?**

Each row recalculates the same mark-weighted formula from that question's parts. A single-part MCQ therefore shows the tag value directly, while a multi-part structured question blends the tags of its parts using the same Hard-part decay as the paper profile.

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Full page with native tables, bar charts and Practice Hub links: https://www.examsci.com/past-papers/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/2017-march-9709-12/