How to get into Top Set Maths?

I’m in Year 9 and our End Of Years (EOY) are happening in June. Based on our EOY result, we are assigned sets the next year. I’m in B set this year (A being the top set and D being the bottom set) So far this year I’ve had a 73.5% average. I wanna score really high in my EOY Maths papers. The funny thing is, that if I was graded based on answers given in class, I’d probably get 100%. But I always seem to mess up in the test, getting Sub 80 scores. Idk how to counter this “curse”; I’ve been stuck in B set since Year 8 and I don’t want to waste another year in B. How can I revise so that I can get more than 95% in tests? Thanks.

Reply 1

tonyiptony

11

There is quite a big difference between "knowing the material" and "performing in exams".
The latter can be quite complicated, because (i) nerves, (ii) time management, (iii) carefulness, (iv) "exam strategies", etc. will play a huge role on top of what you know already.

There is an argument that you should revise LESS. That said, we don't really know why you are getting ~70%.
Have you talked with your teacher?

Reply 2

HereComesHavoc

OP

2

Original post by tonyiptony

There is quite a big difference between "knowing the material" and "performing in exams".
The latter can be quite complicated, because (i) nerves, (ii) time management, (iii) carefulness, (iv) "exam strategies", etc. will play a huge role on top of what you know already.

There is an argument that you should revise LESS. That said, we don't really know why you are getting ~70%.
Have you talked with your teacher?

Yeah, I talked to her today as we got a test back; I knew the material to a certain extent but the number of mistakes I made because I didn’t know the material well to the number of silly mistakes (like not rtq) was very imbalanced- likely 1:3. She just recommended that silly mistakes will reduce as I practice more, hence this post. However, it is also likely nerves contributed in me making mistakes as you suggested in your reply.

What do you mean by “exam strategies”? I’m curious…

Reply 3

Mad Man

17

It's possible. I was in mid set in y7 then moved to bottom set. In y8 I went back to mid, y9 top set and then achieved an 8 in my GCSEs.

Reply 4

useless-dismay

8

Original post by HereComesHavoc

I’m in Year 9 and our End Of Years (EOY) are happening in June. Based on our EOY result, we are assigned sets the next year. I’m in B set this year (A being the top set and D being the bottom set) So far this year I’ve had a 73.5% average. I wanna score really high in my EOY Maths papers. The funny thing is, that if I was graded based on answers given in class, I’d probably get 100%. But I always seem to mess up in the test, getting Sub 80 scores. Idk how to counter this “curse”; I’ve been stuck in B set since Year 8 and I don’t want to waste another year in B. How can I revise so that I can get more than 95% in tests? Thanks.

You dont need 95% to get to set 1/a unless your school is really strict because i've always gotten around 87% and still been in top set all throughout secondary and even do further maths. Having a tutor has helped with classes everyday outside of school since I missed a lot of content in y9 and y10 as i had covid twice and then had to quarantine for another thing for an additional 2 weeks. Set 2/b learn the same things as set 1 it doesn't really matter which one you're in. the only difference in my school was that only a few of the set 2 were offered further maths.

Reply 5

JesseKansas

7

Original post by HereComesHavoc

I’m in Year 9 and our End Of Years (EOY) are happening in June. Based on our EOY result, we are assigned sets the next year. I’m in B set this year (A being the top set and D being the bottom set) So far this year I’ve had a 73.5% average. I wanna score really high in my EOY Maths papers. The funny thing is, that if I was graded based on answers given in class, I’d probably get 100%. But I always seem to mess up in the test, getting Sub 80 scores. Idk how to counter this “curse”; I’ve been stuck in B set since Year 8 and I don’t want to waste another year in B. How can I revise so that I can get more than 95% in tests? Thanks.

Right so good news is you're doing very good for your sort-of age bracket if you like, and if you keep it up you'll get a 6-7ish in your real GCSES.

Sets in secondary school are mostly based on teacher opinion. Don't be an arse-kisser, but politely ask your maths teacher for some past papers or something for your year group and suggestions on how to improve. This has two benefits - one, that your teacher will see that you are committed and want to improve, and two, the advice will probably be specific to your weak points.

It sounds a bit like you may panic in exams. Some breathing techniques may help.

Even if you **** it up, if you explain your ambitions top your teacher, they may be tempted to move you up a set.

Ask for what topics are going to come up on your EOY tests. If you know them, go on whatever maths platform your school uses, Seneca and Youtube until you can whack out those maths topics at hyperspeed. It's a bit of a bodge - it isn't the *most* effective technique for your actual GCSEs as you won't get a list of topics for your actual GCSEs, but it'll help you for this.

Start going through the Spec and doing all of the maths in that. It may look daunting but that's literally a list of what they *can* put in the papers. If you can do that, save any silly mistakes, you can get 100 percent. Although the Spec takes about 9 months or so to fully master completely.

If they don't give you a list of topics then do a bunch of GCSE Foundation past papers, I presuuuume it will be them for your EOY test but I cannot be certain.

(edited 11 months ago)

How to get into Top Set Maths?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you