Frequently Asked Questions

A rolling archive of five years of past exam papers is made available online. Exceptions are the following that have a rolling three year archive:

Three years available

• Computer Science
• English Language and Literature
• History
• Mechanical Engineering
• Mathematical & Physical Sciences Faculty. Please note there are no Statistical Science papers. See a list of all MAPS departments.

If you would like additional sample questions to help with your study, please consult with the relevant department.

Past papers are not available from the following departments:

• Medical School. We do not receive any Medical School papers; their policy is to provide sample papers / questions only, and these can be found on the Medical School intranet.
• Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Any queries should be referred to the respective Module Lead and Moodle page which may list a formative assessment.
• Statistical Science. Please contact your department for past papers.
• Intercollegiate papers. We only provide papers set by UCL departments. If you are looking for an intercollegiate paper contact the University of London Library, or  your department.
• University of London. Some exams are set by the University of London; these exam papers are kept at the University of London Library at Senate House, shelved in the Middlesex South reading room, and are for reference use only.

• You can search for exam papers by module code or title using the Explore catalogue. Please sign in to access an exam paper.
• You can also browse via Collection Discovery by department, and click through to level (undergraduate / postgraduate and year of exam). Please sign in to access an exam paper.
• Please note that all UCL module codes changed in 2018, so it may be more reliable to search by exam paper title.
• If your Moodle course contains the 'Library Resources' block, this will have a direct link to the exam papers for that module. N.B. this searches by module code so will return papers matching the new module codes in operation since 2018.

• The paper may not have been made available to the Library's (LCCOS) Exam Papers Service administered by Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) as previous to 2022, we received past exam papers via the Registry Office. Since this time, we are reliant on the departments providing us with the accessible copies in PDF format of the papers; thus we do not automatically receive copies of past papers.  
• Multiple choice papers are often not made available because of the limited question pool for such exam papers, unless the department is happy to provide us with copies.
• The paper may not have been set in that year, or the department may have chosen to withhold the paper for other reasons.
• The paper may contain copyright material, such as extracts from books or journal articles, photographs or other images, which we do not have permission to reproduce. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows fair dealing use of such extracts for the purpose of examination, but this is not valid beyond the duration of the examination itself. Where possible, permission will be sought, or a full reference to the extract made.
• The paper may have been set by another department; Try searching for different possible departments by using the search facilities on the Explore Catalogue or by browsing Collection Discovery to find the paper you want. 
• Notwithstanding the above, if you still think a paper should be available, please contact your departmental administrator or use the missing paper form. Departments are able to send us exam papers to add retrospectively.

UCL Library Services does not receive answer sheets or mark schemes: If you require this information please contact the department which set the paper.

Once you have retrieved the paper/s you require from the Explore catalogue or Collection Discovery, sign-in, then click on "digital versions". The short copyright statement will display, close when you have read it, and then the PDF will load for you to view. Just above the PDF on the right, you will see a print icon. 

PDF format

The papers are provided as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. To view them, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer. This is installed on all UCL cluster PCs and those managed by Information Systems. If you are using another type of PC you can download the reader free of charge from the Adobe website. Users with visual difficulties may wish to visit the Adobe accessibility webpage for information on improved accessibility with Adobe products. All PDFs submitted are available in an accessible format and can be read by screen readers.

Papers can be printed from within the exam paper viewer, using either the printer icon on the toolbar or 'File/Print' from the menus.

Please report any error messages to lib-exams@ucl.ac.uk. It is helpful if you can copy the error message and/or provide a screenshot of the error and copy this into an email so that we can diagnose the problem swiftly.

Some of the exam papers, particularly those written in mathematical typesetting programs, may look illegible. Use Acrobat Reader's magnifying glass (zoom tool) to increase the magnification on screen, or print out the paper to reveal the text.

Occasionally whole lines of text seem to be missing. This seems to be a bug in Acrobat Reader. Try scrolling on past the problem area and back again - this may be enough to trigger the display of the 'missing' text.

Occasionally we are requested to redact part of the paper, for example Multiple Choice Questions. In this instance a section or a page may appear to be missing. Check with your department or get in touch with us at lib-exams@ucl.ac.uk.

It is possible that errors may have arisen when the paper was set, for example an inaccurate mathematical formula. If you think this is the case, please notify the department who set the paper.

Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) now receive electronic accessible copies of the exam papers from the departments. If you spot any errors, please do contact us lib-exams@ucl.ac.uk. For paper copies, see the next FAQ.