Our data
The Most Downloaded Matric Papers
What South African learners actually study. Drawn from 332 121 paper downloads on this site.
Figures as of 4 October 2026, from our production database.
Everyone downloads the paper. Fewer mark it. Mark it.
Top Grade 12 subjects by downloads
Mathematics leads. Life Sciences is close behind. Six subjects pass 25,000 downloads each.
| Rank | Subject | Downloads | Share of all downloads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mathematics | 37 743 | 11.4% |
| 2 | Life Sciences | 35 685 | 10.7% |
| 3 | English FAL | 29 429 | 8.9% |
| 4 | Mathematical Literacy | 29 146 | 8.8% |
| 5 | Physical Sciences | 26 243 | 7.9% |
| 6 | Geography | 25 901 | 7.8% |
| 7 | Business Studies | 10 799 | 3.3% |
| 8 | Agricultural Sciences | 10 315 | 3.1% |
| 9 | English HL | 9 388 | 2.8% |
| 10 | History | 9 140 | 2.8% |
| 11 | Accounting | 8 821 | 2.7% |
| 12 | Life Orientation | 7 617 | 2.3% |
Downloads by paper year
These are the six paper years with the most downloads. Learners favour the latest papers. The 2025 papers alone have 83 223 downloads. Older papers from 2017 to 2019 still draw steady use.
| Paper year | Downloads | Share of all downloads |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 83 223 | 25.1% |
| 2024 | 57 243 | 17.2% |
| 2023 | 33 140 | 10.0% |
| 2019 | 31 460 | 9.5% |
| 2018 | 28 762 | 8.7% |
| 2017 | 19 435 | 5.9% |
What this means for your revision
- Start with the latest papers. They match the current exam format most closely.
- Then go back three to five years. More papers means more practice on each question type.
- Mark every paper with its memo. A paper you do not mark teaches you little.
Get every paper and memo on the Grade 12 past papers page. Check exam dates on the matric exam timetable 2026.
About this data
Counts come from our production database, read on 4 October 2026. Each count is a recorded paper download. Counts cover all time up to that date. Subject figures are for Grade 12 papers only. You may cite these figures with a link to this page.