The curious case of past papers, do they help?

I've asked many sixth form students and they said the best revision technique is past papers, but do they actually help as it didn't help me for my mocks or is that just me :/, has anyone actually achieved atleast an A grade just by doing past papers for revision

Reply 1

James_mc

2

I got all As at AS just revising with past papers, they really are the only way to accustom yourself to exam technique

Reply 2

username1292215

22

Original post by hask17

I've asked many sixth form students and they said the best revision technique is past papers, but do they actually help as it didn't help me for my mocks or is that just me :/, has anyone actually achieved atleast an A grade just by doing past papers for revision

I am studying chem bio maths and history

Past papers have been very useful for chem and maths because for maths they contain questions most similar to the exam i find that in C1 text book questions= too easy and in C2 textbook questions are harder (edexcel). Ofcourse do textbook questions,past papers and solomon papers

Practice makes permanent. Past papers give you confidence and practice

Reply 3

username2219677

4

Original post by James_mc

I got all As at AS just revising with past papers, they really are the only way to accustom yourself to exam technique

Im sure you don't mean "just" past papers. you must have had some other revision like notes no?

Reply 4

jamestg

21

Original post by hask17

I've asked many sixth form students and they said the best revision technique is past papers, but do they actually help as it didn't help me for my mocks or is that just me :/, has anyone actually achieved atleast an A grade just by doing past papers for revision

You HAVE to go through them properly and work on your weaknesses.

It's all well and good getting As in every C1 paper - but you could be fixing mistakes which you're repeatedly making which are holding back vital UMS.

I've gone from around 80UMS to 95UMS by doing this :smile:

it's the only way to use past papers effectively.

Reply 5

James_mc

2

Original post by Username3097486

Im sure you don't mean "just" past papers. you must have had some other revision like notes no?

Hm well I don't like notes really I would do a paper then mark it and revise anything I didn't feel perfect about. I used the website Memrise for definitions and stuff but I did German which was quite different I just kind of knew that and revised a bit of vocab and grammar but mostly speaking to German friends

Reply 6

hask17

OP

1

Original post by James_mc

Hm well I don't like notes really I would do a paper then mark it and revise anything I didn't feel perfect about. I used the website Memrise for definitions and stuff but I did German which was quite different I just kind of knew that and revised a bit of vocab and grammar but mostly speaking to German friends