Can I view last year papers if I'm a private candidate?

Strongly doubt this will work, but I'm a private candidate who's studying for a literature-type exam. I've heard that the reason exam boards don't publish the exam papers until the next exams are finished is so that teachers can run mock exams with it without the students pre-knowing the questions.
If I could know the essay questions that came up this year, it would save me a lot of hassle since that's one less thing I need to analyse/pay attention to.
The A-Level is relatively unpopular (only about 200 - 300 annual entries). If I asked the exam centre to give me access to past papers, claiming I'm a private candidate, would they? Is there anything I can do to prove that I'm a private candidate?

Strongly doubt this will work, but I'm a private candidate who's studying for a literature-type exam. I've heard that the reason exam boards don't publish the exam papers until the next exams are finished is so that teachers can run mock exams with it without the students pre-knowing the questions.
If I could know the essay questions that came up this year, it would save me a lot of hassle since that's one less thing I need to analyse/pay attention to.
The A-Level is relatively unpopular (only about 200 - 300 annual entries). If I asked the exam centre to give me access to past papers, claiming I'm a private candidate, would they? Is there anything I can do to prove that I'm a private candidate?

If you are a private candidate, you will have registered yourself as such with the exam board. That would be all the evidence necessary.

However, I still don't think they'd give you access to 2023 past papers.

That's unfortunate. Why not though?

Well, without wishing to be too blunt about it, they don't trust you to keep the papers confidential; they do trust teachers to.

What if I get the exam director (or whatever they're called: the person who I'm paying to sit the exam) to ask for the papers?

That might work. The exam centre at which you're sitting the exam should have access to the past papers.