CIE IAL · Mathematics · 2014 May/June

9709/22 May/June 2014

This Mathematics 9709 Paper 2 (Pure Mathematics 2) paper contains 8 questions worth 50 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 P2 8 questions 50 marks Free paper

Core finding

9709/22 May/June 2014 is a past paper for CIE IAL Mathematics 9709 Paper 2 (Pure Mathematics 2), with 8 questions worth 50 marks. Its mark-weighted Difficulty Measure is 0.40 on a 0.20–0.75 scale, with a Difficulty Deviation of 0.14 and a mark split of 26.0% Easy, 64.0% Medium and 10.0% Hard. Algebraic complexity averages 0.45; text density and modelling average 0.23. All five measures use 14 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 14 parts carrying 50 part marks. Difficulty tags cover 14 parts, algebraic tags 14 and text-density tags 14. Tags are internal metadata, not official exam-board ratings.

Difficulty Measure 0.40 0.20–0.75 · nearer Medium
Difficulty Deviation 0.14 0 = uniform; higher = more mixed
Difficulty Ratio 26.0 / 64.0 / 10.0 % Easy / Medium / Hard
Algebraic Complexity Measure 0.45 0.20–0.75 · nearer Medium
Text Density and Modelling Measure 0.23 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 →

Definitions and calculation

MeasurePaper valueFormula
Difficulty Measure 0.40 Σ(di × wi) / Σwi, with d = 0.20 / 0.45 / 0.75
Difficulty Deviation 0.14 √(Σwi(di − μ)2 / Σwi)
Difficulty Ratio 26.0% Easy / 64.0% Medium / 10.0% Hard marks in band / all tagged marks
Algebraic Complexity Measure 0.45 Σ(ci × marksi) / Σmarksi, with c = 0.20 / 0.45 / 0.75
Text Density and Modelling Measure 0.23 Σ(ti × marksi) / Σmarksi, with t = 0.20 / 0.45 / 0.75

wi equals the part marks, except for a Hard part worth 4 or more marks, where wi = marks0.75 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.

QuestionTopicMarksDifficulty MeasureAlgebraic Complexity MeasureText Density and Modelling MeasurePractice
Q1
FRQ
1 Algebra 4 0.20Easy 0.33Medium 0.20Low Go to Practice Hub
Q2
FRQ
3 Trigonometry 4 0.45Medium 0.45Medium 0.20Low Go to Practice Hub
Q3
FRQ
5 Integration 5 0.35Medium 0.35Medium 0.20Low Go to Practice Hub
Q4
FRQ
4 Differentiation 6 0.45Medium 0.45Medium 0.20Low Go to Practice Hub
Q5
FRQ
2 Logarithmic and exponential functions 6 0.45Medium 0.45Medium 0.45Medium Go to Practice Hub
Q6
FRQ
1 Algebra 7 0.38Medium 0.38Medium 0.20Low Go to Practice Hub
Q7
FRQ
5 Integration 9 0.31Easy 0.31Low 0.20Low Go to Practice Hub
Q8
FRQ
3 Trigonometry 9 0.59Medium 0.75High 0.20Low Go to Practice Hub

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 14 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 0.14, 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 26.0% Easy, 64.0% Medium and 10.0% 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.