Best C1, C2 revision guides?

To be honest, I've always found past papers to be a lot more helpful than revision guides. How difficult are you finding it (i.e. what sort of scores have you been getting in mock tests etc)? Also, when you say you're aiming for 185+, does this mean 185/200 for the scores of both papers combined or something else?

combined.
OCR has 2 papers, C1 and C2, both 72 marks as far as I'm aware, which then are both UMS upgraded to a maximum mark of 100, so Im looking for 185/200.

I'm going into Economics, and these module results will be the first thing that LSE, UCL and Warwick et al see, so they have to be BIG.

Also ty for the advice guys, I've got the Crenshaw book. It seems I was right about the CGP being too weak for A level although they were handy enough at GCSE.

So you're looking at approximately 95% on both papers. That's certainly possible and to get this, you'll need to make sure that (1) you understand all of the material from both modules and (2) you're able to work accurately and keep minor mistakes to a minimum. With practise, you'll find that you should be able to finish the exam several minutes early and this will give you more time to check over the paper and catch any mistakes.

However, bear in mind that the UMS marks won't be the first thing the universities see - on your UCAS form you only put down the grades for each module rather than the UMS mark so getting 80% or 100% would look the same to them. Obviously it's still worth getting marks as high as possible since you may find later modules harder and good scores on the earlier modules would pull up your average.

LSE, Oxbridge are asking for Module marks this year, as far as I'm aware, so I'm sure that next year even more unis will be doing so. I went through 6/10 C1 questions in 25 minutes, the exam is 1 hour 30 long. I was finished with 20-25 minutes to go in the GCSE maths exams

(my mental maths is quick, but I'm not the best with complex algebra and trigonometry)

The first thing they'll look at is your AS grades and predicted grades. If those aren't good enough then (except in some unusual circumstances) they'll reject you. I know Cambridge ask for module marks but I don't know about Oxford and LSE and what they do with them. Yeah it's possible that other unis might want to start looking at marks but you never really know. Just bear in mind that the actual grades are much more important so if you have limited time, it's better to bring another subject up from a B to an A than to bring maths up from a low A to a high A. Then there's the A* grade and to get this grade you will need to average 90% in your A2 modules (or 90% in C3 and C4 for maths). But you don't need to worry about that till next year.

Yes, it is important to get high marks in C1 and C2 but if doing this makes you worse in other subjects then you should devote time to making sure that you do well in those subjects.

From your GCSE results, you're certainly able to work through the questions quickly and this is also shown by how you were able to work through 6 of the C1 questions. If you found them easy then it makes sense that you would work through them pretty quickly. But what about the other 4 C1 questions? Were these not part of your mock exam or did you find them harder?


Best way to sort this out is to just practise and do more questions, past papers etc. You'll find that eventually you get better at this.

Of course, 3 low As is better than 2 high As and a high B (thats according to my school's head of careers).

As for other subjects, well, they aren't a problem, put it this way. In two of them, I'm aiming, and on course for, 95+ %, and the other is at the end of the year, so that should be a solid A.

This exam series, I only have C1, C2, and Biology F211 (basically, Biology Unit 1), and Biology is a good subject for me (UMS 400/400 at GCSE, no revision for the last two units - must be the Asian genes in me ), so basically, I can devote around 80-85% of my time on Maths.

As for the other 4 C1 questions, well, just from looking at them, they were more advanced, and I probably would have needed around 35-40 minutes on them (providing I had the correct formulas), but in that particular lesson, the teacher couldn't be bothered, and just stuck on a live stream of iPlayer on his laptop, so we could see the results of the world cup bid. After Russia won, he said just do the past papers for the rest of the lesson, which was 20-25 minutes, in which I did the rest of the questions.

I appreciate the help, its much appreciated, I'll rep

I'm doing C1 and C2 in January... I covered all of C1 at GCSE, and C2 in this past term, but I'm generally struggling with it (not working very hard). I'm fairly good at maths, easing to an A* at GCSE (thats not a big ask though tbh). I've been looking on Amazon, and I've found the usual CGP, as well as
Core 1 for OCR by Janet Crenshaw
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Core-1-OCR-Level-Maths/dp/0582836492/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291144422&sr=8-1.

as well as
Core1 and 2 by D.A.Quadling
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Core-Cambridge-Advanced-Level-Mathematics/dp/0521548969/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1291144916&sr=8-21

I am not too bothered by the price, but I'd just like to see what others' experiences are? I'm a bit worried that the CGP is going to be too simple, and because the Janet Crenshaw book includes a CD (and generally looks very good inside), I'm favouring that atm. I really need detail, as my class notes and text books are awful, and because as I'm going into economics, I need BIG scores here (185+ in both please).

depends what exam board oyur doing, im doing edexcel and the official books are probably the best you can get for edexcel

these http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/maths/Pages/Resources.aspx

Thanks. That's really good that you're doing well in your other subjects. I personally found that I spent much more time revising for my harder subjects at A-level. I did maths, further maths, physics and chemistry and chemistry was the hardest and, for me, maths was the easiest. So I found that I would spend ages going through all the chemistry material then I would be able to get high marks (95-100%) on maths tests with very little revision.

So if you find that you can get through one or two biology past papers and do really well then by all means devote most of your time to the harder subjects.

I dont know what has happened to my maths, and my general ability. I earned a scholarship to my school (a private one - the scholarship is the only reason financially why I can actually go there), by coming 3rd in the entrance exam, on the basis of my maths exam. I got Gold in all the maths challenge and all that, and World Class Maths Awards and all that kind of thing, but now, I'm struggling... Too much complacency...

What field are you looking to go into now, I'd think Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or Maths would be ideal fields at university?

I'm currently doing maths at university and yes, I have found that I can get better and worse at different subjects over time. For example, in my personal statement I wrote a large chunk on number theory (prime numbers, equations with integer solutions etc) but in my 1st year exams this module was my worst one. It might also be because different subjects have different sorts of content as you progress in them.

It is common for people to not do maths for a while then find that their ability in this subject has dropped. This is why they advise you not to take gap years if you're doing maths at university. It may also be that you need to take time to adjust to learning at A-level rather than GCSE. The transition gets even bigger when you go from A-level to uni.

On the bright side, all these awards you've mentioned are great material for your personal statement so that would really help your application. If you can carry on getting involved in academic things like this then that would also help as universities are most intereseted in things you've done recently.