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Download Grade 10 Past Exam Papers

Free Grade 10 question papers and marking guidelines, sorted by subject, year and exam period. All of it downloadable as PDFs, no account needed.
Phase
FET Phase, Grade 10 to 12
Subject groups
Commerce, Humanities, Languages, Mathematics, Science
Exam periods
June mid-year and November final
Memos
Marking guidelines included wherever they were released

Why Grade 10 past papers are worth more than most learners think

Grade 10 is the first year of the FET Phase, and the year the subjects chosen in Grade 9 stop being a plan and become a timetable. Almost everything introduced here is treated as assumed knowledge in Grade 11 and Grade 12, so a weak Grade 10 tends to reappear in matric with interest.

Grade 10 papers are set at provincial level rather than nationally, so layout and mark allocation vary a little between provinces. That is useful. A paper from a different province exposes a learner to question styles their own school never uses, which is the kind of surprise worth meeting in practice rather than in the exam room.

Every folder below holds the question paper and, where the education department released one, the memorandum alongside it.

Grade 10 past exam papers by subject

Open a subject group, then work down through subject, year and exam period. Question papers and memos sit together in the same folder, so you can mark your own work the moment you finish.

  • COMMERCE
    • ACCOUNTING
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2022
        • GP DEC EXAMS
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
      • 2023
        • GP DEC EXAMS
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
      • 2024
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
    • BUSINESS STUDIES
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2024
        • NW DEC EXAMS
        • NW JUNE EXAMS
    • ECONOMICS
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2021
        • GP DEC EXAMS
      • 2022
        • GP DEC EXAMS
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
      • 2023
        • GP DEC EXAMS
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
      • 2024
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
  • ACCOUNTING
  • BUSINESS STUDIES
  • ECONOMICS
Title Type Size Link
  • HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
    • GEOGRAPHY
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2024
        • NW DEC EXAMS
        • NW JUNE EXAMS
    • HISTORY
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2024
        • NW DEC EXAMS
        • NW JUNE EXAMS
  • GEOGRAPHY
  • HISTORY
Title Type Size Link
  • LANGUAGES
    • ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE
      • 2024
        • NW JUNE EXAMS
  • ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE
Title Type Size Link
  • MATHEMATICS
    • 2020
      • EC DEC EXAMS
    • 2021
      • GP DEC EXAMS
    • 2022
      • GP DEC EXAMS
      • GP JUNE EXAMS
    • 2023
      • GP DEC EXAMS
      • GP JUNE EXAMS
    • 2024
      • GP JUNE EXAMS
    • MATHEMATICAL LITERACY
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2024
        • NW DEC EXAMS
        • NW JUNE EXAMS
  • 2020
  • 2021
  • 2022
  • 2023
  • 2024
  • MATHEMATICAL LITERACY
Title Type Size Link
  • SCIENCE
    • AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2024
        • NW DEC EXAMS
    • LIFE SCIENCES
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2024
        • NW DEC EXAMS
        • NW JUNE EXAMS
    • PHYSICAL SCIENCES
      • 2020
        • EC DEC EXAMS
      • 2021
        • GP DEC EXAMS
      • 2022
        • GP DEC EXAMS
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
      • 2023
        • GP DEC EXAMS
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
      • 2024
        • GP JUNE EXAMS
  • AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
  • LIFE SCIENCES
  • PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Title Type Size Link

How to turn a past paper into actual marks

Downloading a paper is the easy part. This is the routine that separates reading a paper from learning anything from it.

Print it and set a timer

Work on paper, under the real time limit printed on the cover. Answering on a screen with the memo one tab away teaches you almost nothing about exam conditions.

Keep the memo closed

Sit with a question you cannot do rather than looking it up. Two minutes of being stuck is worth more than reading the answer.

Mark yourself strictly

Follow the marking guideline the way a marker would. If you would not award the mark to a stranger, do not award it to yourself.

Redo the losses a week later

List every question that lost marks, then redo only those seven days on. If you can still do them, it stuck.

Past exam papers for other grades

Fine Path keeps a free past paper library for every grade from 6 to 12. Pick a grade to open its papers.

Grade 10 past papers, answered

No. Unlike the Grade 12 NSC papers, Grade 10 papers are set provincially, so an Eastern Cape paper and a Gauteng paper on the same topic differ in layout and mark allocation. The curriculum behind them is the same national CAPS content, which is why papers from other provinces are still good practice.
No. Universities look at Grade 11 final marks for provisional offers and Grade 12 results for firm ones. Grade 10 matters for a different reason: it is the year that shows whether a learner is coping with their subject choices, and changing a subject in Grade 10 is far easier than changing one in Grade 11.
In the same folder as the question paper. Open a subject group, choose the subject, then the year and the exam period, and both files appear in the file list together. Memos are only there where the department actually released one.
Grade 10 papers are grouped into Commerce (Accounting, Business Studies, Economics), Humanities and Social Sciences (Geography, History, Tourism, Consumer Studies, Hospitality Studies), Languages, Mathematics (both Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy) and Science (Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Agricultural Sciences).
Yes, with one caveat. IEB and CAPS cover the same core curriculum, so content practice transfers well. Question phrasing and paper structure differ, so an IEB learner should still get hold of IEB papers for format practice closer to the exam.

Grade 10 is where the FET foundation is either built or postponed.

Fine Path tutors work with Grade 10 learners in Accounting, Business Studies, Economics and Maths, turning papers like these into marks that still hold up in Grade 11.

Navigate Your Way to Accounting Mastery With Fine Path.