pmt-scraper 0.1.0

Download and organise PDFs from Physics & Maths Tutor pages

pmt-scraper

Download and organise PDFs from Physics & Maths Tutor pages.

Point it at any PMT page that lists PDF links and it scrapes every PDF, sorts them into folders, and downloads them politely (rate-limited, resumable, skips existing files).

Install

pip install requests beautifulsoup4

Usage

python pmt_scrape.py <url> [options]

Options

Output

Flag	Default	Description
--out <dir>	downloads	Root output folder
--organise heading	✓	Group by section heading on the page
--organise path		Mirror PMT's own folder structure
--organise flat		All files in one folder
--delay <secs>	1.0	Pause between downloads (be polite)
--dry-run		Print what would be saved, download nothing

Filtering

Flag	Description
--keywords k1 k2 …	Filter by keywords — see syntax below
--years y1 y2 …	Keep only PDFs mentioning any of these years
--year-range FROM TO	Keep only PDFs whose year falls within FROM–TO (inclusive)

--years and --year-range can be used together; both constraints must pass (AND).

Keyword syntax — prefix each token to control how it matches:

Prefix	Meaning
word or +word	Must be present (positive)
-word	Must be absent (negative)

Matching is case-insensitive and searches the section heading, link text, and filename. Years embedded in PMT's URL paths (e.g. .../2019/...) are detected automatically. Undated files are always kept.

Examples

# All papers, grouped by heading
python pmt_scrape.py https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/maths-revision/a-level-papers/

# Mark schemes only
python pmt_scrape.py <url> --keywords "mark scheme"

# Mark schemes only (positive keyword)
python pmt_scrape.py <url> --keywords +markscheme

# Mark schemes, excluding question papers
python pmt_scrape.py <url> --keywords +markscheme -questions

# Papers from 2018 to 2022
python pmt_scrape.py <url> --year-range 2018 2022

# Mark schemes for specific years (combine --years and --year-range)
python pmt_scrape.py <url> --keywords +markscheme --years 2019 2021 2023 --year-range 2019 2023

# Paper 1 only, no mark schemes, preview before downloading
python pmt_scrape.py <url> --keywords +paper1 -markscheme --dry-run

# Mirror PMT's folder structure
python pmt_scrape.py <url> --organise path

Project structure

pmt scraper/
├── pmt_scrape.py          # entry point
├── pmt_scraper/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── cli.py             # argument parsing and main loop
│   ├── scraper.py         # page fetching and PDF link extraction
│   ├── downloader.py      # file download and output path logic
│   ├── filters.py         # keyword and year filtering
│   └── utils.py           # filename sanitisation, URL helpers
└── downloads/             # default output folder

Notes

• Downloads use a .part suffix until complete — interrupted runs are safe to resume.
• Files already present (non-zero size) are skipped automatically.
• Pages that load links via JavaScript will not work; PMT's static pages are fine.