Pearson Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies Past Papers & Mark Schemes

Pearson Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies (legacy specification) is a unitised qualification offering an exceptionally broad range of religious and ethical content, with 16 units spanning different world religions, sacred texts, and thematic religious studies. With 382 resources, this is one of the largest RS archives available — making it an invaluable source of practice for both current and legacy Religious Studies students. The legacy specification was structured around modular units, allowing schools to select the religions and themes most appropriate to their students and curriculum. Units 1 through 16 covered topics including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, religious ethics, scripture study, and philosophy of religion — as well as thematic units on topics such as peace and conflict, life and death, and justice. Each unit paper typically assessed students' ability to describe religious beliefs and practices, explain how beliefs are expressed in worship and daily life, and evaluate ethical and philosophical questions from religious perspectives. The characteristic question structure moved from short-answer knowledge recall through to extended evaluative essays. The extensive range of unit options across Units 1–16 means that this archive contains a wealth of past papers covering different religions. Even if your school studied Christianity and Islam only, the question types and evaluation skills practised through any RS unit paper are transferable — the analytical frameworks (describe, explain, evaluate) remain constant. For students following the current Religious Studies A or B specifications (1RA0 or 1RB0), the legacy unit papers provide excellent supplementary practice for specific religious topics that overlap in content, even if the question formats differ slightly.