O/L History 2026: an 8-week revision plan to 10 December

The O/L History paper is on Thursday, 10 December 2026. Counting back from that day gives eight weeks, and this plan fills them with the topics that actually repeat in 13 past Paper I sittings (2012 to 2025), not with the whole syllabus in textbook order.

The eight weeks at a glance

Weeks 1 to 4: the topics that repeat

Every topic below has been asked in at least three of the 13 sittings. They are split into four weeks of similar size, so no week is all easy or all heavy. Each day: twenty past-paper questions from that week's topics, then read the explanation of every one you missed.

Week 5: the hardest topics

These are the topics where the largest share of past questions is rated hard by our curators. A week on them, after the core is in place, is the cheapest way to lift a good score to a very good one.

• පෘතුගීසි පාලන සමය · 6 of 12 questions rated hard
• දඹදෙණි / ගම්පොල / කෝට්ටේ යුගය · 6 of 13 questions rated hard
• මුල් ඓතිහාසික යුගය · 3 of 7 questions rated hard
• අනුරාධපුර යුගය · 16 of 42 questions rated hard
• බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පාලන සමය · 12 of 32 questions rated hard
• දෙවන ලෝක මහා සංග්‍රාමය · 3 of 9 questions rated hard

The reasons, with worked questions, are in the hardest O/L History MCQ topics.

Weeks 6 to 8: from your mistakes to the paper

• Week 6: no new questions. Go back through every question you got wrong in weeks 1 to 5 and answer them again until each one is right twice.
• Week 7: two full Paper I papers on the clock, from years you have not done yet. Mark them, and add every miss to the list.
• Week 8: the list, one last time, and sleep. Nothing new in the last three days; the paper-day guide has what to do on each of them.

Three things specific to History

• Build one timeline on a single sheet: every era of Sri Lankan history, its kings and its key events, plus the world history chapters. Most Paper I questions are easier once you can place them on it.
• Column-matching and "put these in order" questions recur. Practise them as a type: they reward knowing which period a thing belongs to, more than the thing itself.
• Do not skip world history. The Industrial Revolution, the two World Wars and the United Nations come back in most sittings, and they are often the quickest marks on the paper.

Started late? Keep the order and squeeze it: weeks 1 to 4 become one topic set every three or four days, and never skip the wrong-answer list. The list is the plan.

A question from week 1, to start today