The Student Room Group

From A in GCSE Maths to A in Maths A Level

Is this realistic?

Why do people with As at GCSE end up with Ds and sometimes worse?
How do I go about getting an A?
Solid revision from the get go, and past papers when exams are soon? What other tips do you have?

What did you find the most difficult when it came to Maths? Was there a lot of content to cover or was it the difficulty of the topics or questions? How many hours did you revise? Did Maths take up most of your time?

I'd appreciate it if you answered a few of my questions.
Reply 1
i think you meant A in GCSE to C in A Levels #reality
Reply 2
i got an A in GCSE and I am borderline A* :smile: I just do every practice paper possible a few weeks before the exam and worked pretty hard in all my maths lessons. But I also think you should find the subject enjoyable or your not going to do as well as those who do find it enjoyable.
Reply 3
If you've got the capability of course it's possible! People don't do as well because they don't realise how much hard AS/A levels are :/ I would certainly revise after every lesson making sure you have a good understanding of every topic, but I certainly wouldn't push yourself too hard though :3 I don't do maths so I can't answer any of the other questions sorry.
:smile:
Reply 4
Work from the start, until the end.

Complete as many questions as possible. Obviously, you will need to do more for Core 3/4 as opposed to the pathetically easy Core 1.

Maths has taken up a considerable amount of my time, but I don't tend to think of it in that way. I set myself a task; complete 'x' chapter, complete 'y' past-paper or complete 'z' exercise. The time period varies; if I understand the material, I can breeze through the material (I was doing C1 papers in 15-20 minutes at one time), but if I feel that I'm not confident on one little thing, then I just keep working at it - this can potentially take hours.

In addition, I do Further Maths, hence I spend much longer on mathematics.
Reply 5
Original post by letsbehonest
Is this realistic?

Why do people with As at GCSE end up with Ds and sometimes worse?
How do I go about getting an A?
Solid revision from the get go, and past papers when exams are soon? What other tips do you have?

What did you find the most difficult when it came to Maths? Was there a lot of content to cover or was it the difficulty of the topics or questions? How many hours did you revise? Did Maths take up most of your time?

I'd appreciate it if you answered a few of my questions.


I had an A at GCSE and ended up with an A at A level (1ums of an A*) I remember the funny looks people gave me when they heard I was trying for an A at A level. Trust me it's doable, all it takes is a lot of practice by means of past papers. When I first started I felt way out of my depth but through lots of practice, the concepts become second nature. Also I bought a subscription for Livemaths and I honestly think I wouldn't have got an A without it. :smile:
Reply 6
Original post by myyrh
I had an A at GCSE and ended up with an A at A level (1ums of an A*) I remember the funny looks people gave me when they heard I was trying for an A at A level. Trust me it's doable, all it takes is a lot of practice by means of past papers. When I first started I felt way out of my depth but through lots of practice, the concepts become second nature. Also I bought a subscription for Livemaths and I honestly think I wouldn't have got an A without it. :smile:


What's Livemaths? I'm also soon going to be doing alevel Maths and I want an A in it and will try me best to get it.
Also isn't the site KhanAcademy equally good? Or is Livemaths better?
Reply 7
Original post by krisshP
What's Livemaths? I'm also soon going to be doing alevel Maths and I want an A in it and will try me best to get it.
Also isn't the site KhanAcademy equally good? Or is Livemaths better?


Never tried Khan academy so I can't really say much on it sorry :/ Live maths is a site which offers tuition in the form of carefully explained and worked through examples in videos. It goes in to great detail for each topic. You have access to videos for pretty much all the A level units and they're tailor-made to your exam-board. The site also has videos of each past paper being worked through so you can understand exactly how to understand those tough questions when the mark scheme is too vague. :smile:
Reply 8
Original post by letsbehonest
Why do people with As at GCSE end up with Ds and sometimes worse?


It's probably because if you're at least somewhat good at Maths, you should be getting an A* at GCSE... of course, there are exceptions, but generally that's how it is.
Reply 9
Original post by myyrh
Never tried Khan academy so I can't really say much on it sorry :/ Live maths is a site which offers tuition in the form of carefully explained and worked through examples in videos. It goes in to great detail for each topic. You have access to videos for pretty much all the A level units and they're tailor-made to your exam-board. The site also has videos of each past paper being worked through so you can understand exactly how to understand those tough questions when the mark scheme is too vague. :smile:


Thanks for letting me know! Sounds pretty good, I'll look further into it.
Reply 10
I got an A* in gcse, and will comfortably get an A* at A Level, all i do for revision is know the many formulas and do every single past paper (for the Core 3 exam i did 13 papers, getting over an A in all) and apart from that i did, literally, nothing.

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