# 9709/12 May/June 2019

> 9709/12 May/June 2019: 11 questions, 75 marks. Difficulty 0.41, deviation 0.16, algebraic 0.40, text density 0.29. CIE IAL Mathematics 9709 P1.

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CIE IAL · Mathematics · 2019 May/June

This Mathematics 9709 Paper 1 (Pure Mathematics 1) paper contains 11 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
- 11 questions
- 75 marks
- Free paper
- [Practise this paper](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13)
- [All 9709 P1 papers](https://www.examsci.com/past-papers/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/)

Core finding

**9709/12 May/June 2019 is a past paper for CIE IAL Mathematics 9709 Paper 1 (Pure Mathematics 1), with 11 questions worth 75 marks.** Its mark-weighted Difficulty Measure is 0.41 on a 0.20–0.75 scale, with a Difficulty Deviation of 0.16 and a mark split of 29.3% Easy, 56.0% Medium and 14.7% 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**: 0.41 — 0.20–0.75 · nearer Medium
- **Difficulty Deviation**: 0.16 — 0 = uniform; higher = more mixed
- **Difficulty Ratio**: 29.3 / 56.0 / 14.7 — % 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** | 0.41 | Σ(d_i × w_i) / Σw_i, with d = 0.20 / 0.45 / 0.75 |
| **Difficulty Deviation** | 0.16 | √(Σw_i(d_i − μ)^2 / Σw_i) |
| **Difficulty Ratio** | 29.3% Easy / 56.0% Medium / 14.7% 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 | [7 Series](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/series/) | 3 | 0.20 Easy | 0.45 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=60cf2ff6-13cf-422b-a61b-e2ee5a8ada64&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q2** FRQ | [3 Coordinate geometry](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/coordinate-geometry/) | 5 | 0.20 Easy | 0.20 Low | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=29559329-b613-4619-8d4e-d004f8551380&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q3** FRQ | [8 Differentiation](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/differentiation/) | 5 | 0.30 Easy | 0.20 Low | 0.30 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=7825bdc8-948d-44c6-9456-b95960fbbf74&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q4** FRQ | [5 Trigonometry](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/trigonometry/) | 5 | 0.35 Medium | 0.35 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=71328e89-ab39-48ce-ba4a-62288e46ae49&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q5** FRQ | [4 Circular measure](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/circular-measure/) | 5 | 0.45 Medium | 0.45 Medium | 0.45 Medium | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=3e9f769a-5af3-4317-a0f2-c34321ddd898&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q6** FRQ | [3 Coordinate geometry](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/coordinate-geometry/) | 7 | 0.34 Medium | 0.20 Low | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=577dc55a-fb57-4acf-a637-9bf9d22d7805&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q7** FRQ | [2 Functions](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/functions/) | 7 | 0.45 Medium | 0.45 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=b3e6895b-c603-4f20-92d1-de56790a170a&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q8** FRQ | [6 Vectors](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/) | 8 | 0.33 Medium | 0.33 Medium | 0.20 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=8156a114-86d1-4556-b260-6ea56c05403e&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q9** FRQ | [1 Quadratics](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/quadratics/) | 8 | 0.75 Hard | 0.75 High | 0.45 Medium | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=97140130-d9a7-4db5-bb27-e9891c1540e4&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q10** FRQ | [7 Series](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/series/) | 10 | 0.40 Medium | 0.40 Medium | 0.40 Medium | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=e637d4b4-3d5e-4316-80d9-f0380c09a9c5&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |
| **Q11** FRQ | [8 Differentiation](https://www.examsci.com/topics/cie-ial/mathematics/9709-p1/differentiation/) | 12 | 0.53 Medium | 0.45 Medium | 0.26 Low | [Go to Practice Hub](https://www.examsci.com/practice?set_id=914b0eaf-d2f6-4fc5-9900-3577c296fc13&question_id=ae365f0c-07dc-403f-bc2d-fdf850350225&source_detail=9709%2F12+May%2FJune+2019) |

## Topics in this paper

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

## 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 0.41 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 0.16, 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 29.3% Easy, 56.0% Medium and 14.7% 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-p1/2019-may-june-9709-12/