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QCE · QCE Units 3 & 4 · official past papers

QCE Philosophy & Reason past exams 2021–2025, by year and topic

The official QCAA exams, marking guides and examiner reports we index, organised by topic and subtopic and labelled with the study design it was written under. Open the official paper, work the question in your own workspace, or bring a tutor into it live.

Index last synced 19 August 2026.

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ATARMAxxing indexes 15 official QCAA Philosophy & Reason papers from 2021 to 2025, with 5 questions mapped to 4 topics. Every paper opens on the QCAA website.

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2019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paper · 2021–2025

QCE Philosophy & Reason exams by year: official papers & marking guidance

Past exams indexed: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021. Open the official QCAA papers, with marking guidance where available.

Year	Study design	Official paper(s)	Marking guidance
2025 QCE Philosophy & Reason exam	2019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paper	Question and response book ↗ · Stimulus book ↗ · Subject report ↗	Marking guidance ↗
2024 QCE Philosophy & Reason exam	2019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paper	Question and response book ↗ · Stimulus book ↗ · Subject report ↗	Marking guidance ↗
2023 QCE Philosophy & Reason exam	2019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paper	Question and response book ↗ · Stimulus book ↗ · Subject report ↗	Marking guidance ↗
2022 QCE Philosophy & Reason exam	2019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paper	Question and response book ↗ · Stimulus book ↗ · Subject report ↗	Marking guidance ↗
2021 QCE Philosophy & Reason exam	2019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paper	Question and response book ↗ · Stimulus book ↗ · Subject report ↗	Marking guidance ↗

15 official papers across 5 years (2021–2025), 5 with marking guidance, published by QCAA.

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Unit 4 Topic 2 — Political philosophy · 5 mapped questions

Limits on government power; paternalism

20252019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paperExternal assessment 150 marksStudents judged whether a fictional state's proposed ban on e-scooters, justified by injury and hospital costs, is an appropriate use of government power. The stimulus set out current rules, the ban proposal and a libertarian post drawing on Mill's harm principle. Libertarianism had to be addressed alongside one chosen philosophy, analysing and evaluating the stimulus arguments.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Obligation to others; taxation

20242019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paperExternal assessment 150 marksStudents determined how far individuals are obliged to support others in society, framed by a choice between progressive and flat-rate income tax shown in a stimulus table. The subject report warned that answers focused on the tax design without addressing obligation scored less well.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Fairness

20232019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paperExternal assessment 150 marksStudents analysed how proponents of two chosen philosophies would respond to a scenario in which self-driving vehicle services sell priority road access, then justified which response is fairer.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Human nature

20222019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paperExternal assessment 1 or 250 marksStudents chose one of two questions: whether two philosophies rest on reliable assumptions about human nature, or whether it matters that a political philosophy accords with human nature. A page of short quotations on human nature served as stimulus.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Distributive justice

20212019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paperExternal assessment 150 marksStudents argued how far a universal basic income would deliver distributive justice, using two chosen philosophies and a stimulus explaining basic income features and the concept of distributive justice.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

The rest of the syllabus

Question-level mapping for these areas is still being verified. Every official paper covering them is in the year table above.

Unit 4 Topic 2 — Political philosophy (external assessment) — Terminology: human nature, fairness, formal and substantive equality, equity, justice, positive and negative freedom, rights, duty, obligation, distributive justice, democracy, authority · Anarchism (e.g. Bakunin, Rothbard) · Libertarianism (e.g. Locke, Nozick) · Social liberalism (e.g. Rawls, TH Green) · Socialism (e.g. Marx, Owen); communism inquired into under socialism · Need for and source of government power; optimal form of government; limits on government power · Individual versus collective needs; distribution of property; principles of social organisation · Relationship between each philosophy's assumptions and its conception of the ideal society
Unit 4 Topic 1 — Rights (internal assessment) — Natural/human rights; social contract theory (Hobbes, Locke) · Locke's labour theory of property; Mill's harm principle; Rawls's veil of ignorance · Civil disobedience; emerging and non-human rights claims; competing rights; UDHR and similar documents
Unit 3 — Moral philosophy and schools of thought (internal assessment) — Utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, virtue ethics · One school of thought from the syllabus list (e.g. existentialism, stoicism, empiricism)
Reasoning skills assessed in every paper — Standard argument form and hidden premises · Validity, soundness, strength, truth, plausibility · Symbolisation with ~, &, ∨, ⊃; valid forms and formal fallacies · Informal fallacies and cognitive bias

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