How Did I Fail Maths?

Make sure you do as many past papers as you can, the more the better.
To do well in Maths you just have to practice questions especially the parts you struggle with and you'll soon notice that the questions are just repeated again and again. Also do you time yourself ?
Timing yourself is one of the most important exam techniques and you HAVE to master it.


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I did past paper questions and i think i quite avoided the very difficult questions. I think i was doing abit too much memory work and assuming it will be exactlythe same in the exam.

I think its probably best to practise every single possible scenario in the exam so that you could feel better on the day. When I did C2/S1 (maybe C1), its not because I knew how to do it through sheer problem solving but I became familiar with how to work it out, through learning past paper formats

That or you had a really unlucky day..

I did past paper questions and i think i quite avoided the very difficult questions. I think i was doing abit too much memory work and assuming it will be exactlythe same in the exam.

I did my AS maths exam and got an E. In class, I was sending my teachers past paper questions and getting him to mark, studying before the day of the class. I was working at Grades A and B throughout the year. I just don't understand where I went wrong. Can someone with advice tell me how to improve my grade at A2 please? Thanks

That's your answer right there. I've been a maths tutor for 16 years and I've heard this hundreds of times. I also did the same myself when at school with similar results, until I realised!

You have to ask yourself - do I really understand the material? Past papers are all very well for familiarity but can you explain why we solve a quadratic or a cubic? What differentiation or integration actually is? What does sin, cos and tan actually mean? If not, you need to!

That's your answer right there. I've been a maths tutor for 16 years and I've heard this hundreds of times. I also did the same myself when at school with similar results, until I realised!

You have to ask yourself - do I really understand the material? Past papers are all very well for familiarity but can you explain why we solve a quadratic or a cubic? What differentiation or integration actually is? What does sin, cos and tan actually mean? If not, you need to!

I ask myself the same question. I got 'B','D','D' for the 3 modules I did for AS (S1, C1, C2 respectively). The actual exams I found were much harder than any of the Edexcel past papers I had done!



Ok so I want to test my own knowledge and see if I can answer those questions.

Solving Quadratics or cubics - is done to work out where points of the graph cross the x and y axis (if they cross).

Differentiation - is used to find the point on a curve and can also be used to work out the nature of the curve (whether it is a minimum or maximum). Not sure what differentiation really is though

Integration - is used to find the area under a line or curve. Again.. not really sure what integration actually is.

sin, cos and tan - not really sure what they mean. But I know how they look on a graph and when to use the sine and cosine rule :P

Mr, how exactly does a person understand a topic before you move to remembering it and doing past papers?
This is an approach I want to apply for this year. I want to make sure I don't forget what I learnt. I'd appreciate your reply

I did my AS maths exam and got an E. In class, I was sending my teachers past paper questions and getting him to mark, studying before the day of the class. I was working at Grades A and B throughout the year. I just don't understand where I went wrong. Can someone with advice tell me how to improve my grade at A2 please? Thanks

You need to do WHOLE past papers not just individual questions. Ask your teacher for the Bronze, Silver, Gold papers so you can build up the difficulty [assumng this is Edexcel]

I did. I made sure that I did past papers every week and i got As and Bs and sometimes Cs.

At the moment, you may believe that learning maths means learning rules that you have to regurgitate in the exam. As you've discovered, this doesn't work. Think of it like this; if you see a cooker on with the gas/elec on full blast, do you think to yourself 'I must remember not to touch that'? Do you worry you'll forget? No, because you understand what would happen if you did. Same with learning maths (or anything). If you can understand it - you won't forget it.

To really understand it there are 2 good ways. One to be able to explain the idea without using the word itself. So for example, saying 'differentiation is when you differentiate' is meaningless. You have to explain why you do it and what is its purpose.

Second, can you explain it to someone else? If so, and they understand you - you understand it!

Feel free to keep asking me questions

Did your teacher use the right grade boundaries for each year? They vary a lot ...

Did you work strictly to time?

What was the breakdown of grades between the modules? Btw an E is not a fail ...

Sorry I meant...
Differentiation - is used to find the gradient of a point on a curve and can also be used to work out the nature of the curve (whether it is a minimum or maximum).

Also I meant in general quadratics and cubic equations can be used to work out where they lie on the y-axis. For example if you are given the X-coordinate of one point of the graph, you can easily find the y-coordinate. So you can find where the graph crosses the y-axis by letting x=0

I have no idea where sin, cos and tan come from. I just know that tan=sin/cos because the book says so

I find the Edexcel Modular books are terrible at explaining why concepts occur

E in C1, D in C2 and U in S1

Are you getting the papers back to see where you went wrong or do you alrready know?

You did best on C2 which is the hardest!

Really need to change this around and I think I can get at least a B/C at the end of year 13.