should i do past papers from the old spec

Im doing OCR A bio+chem.The new spec doesnt have many past papers to do.Would doing the old spec past papers help at all?Been told by some that they are a waste of time since they are significantly different.
+any websites where i can find more relevant past papers?

Reply 1

kq03

16

Original post by loazing21

Im doing OCR A bio+chem.The new spec doesnt have many past papers to do.Would doing the old spec past papers help at all?Been told by some that they are a waste of time since they are significantly different.
+any websites where i can find more relevant past papers?

old spec is pretty much almost the same. i just go through the paper before starting and cross out the questions that aren't in the spec. also go on physics&maths tutor. there are so many exam questions by topic which are so useful. i've done really well on end of topic tests by doing those questions but some are from the old spec so just cross those out. if you're unsure just check the spec or your textbook or ask your teacher

Reply 2

loazing21

OP

12

Original post by aw03

old spec is pretty much almost the same. i just go through the paper before starting and cross out the questions that aren't in the spec. also go on physics&maths tutor. there are so many exam questions by topic which are so useful. i've done really well on end of topic tests by doing those questions but some are from the old spec so just cross those out. if you're unsure just check the spec or your textbook or ask your teacher

did you use any other online resources apart from pmt

Reply 3

kq03

16

Original post by loazing21

did you use any other online resources apart from pmt

i also use the OCR textbook for biology and chemistry. those end of chapter and end of module practice questions are a godsend. they’re so useful. i usually do those and then do exam questions.

Reply 4

loazing21

OP

12

Original post by aw03

i also use the OCR textbook for biology and chemistry. those end of chapter and end of module practice questions are a godsend. they’re so useful. i usually do those and then do exam questions.

How many times did you do them?

yes

Original post by loazing21

Im doing OCR A bio+chem.The new spec doesnt have many past papers to do.Would doing the old spec past papers help at all?Been told by some that they are a waste of time since they are significantly different.
+any websites where i can find more relevant past papers?

They're not 'significantly different'. They have plenty of useful practice questions on them and are still worth spending a bit of time on.

Reply 7

kq03

16

Original post by loazing21

How many times did you do them?

every test i had i did them. we did tests after every chapter so i would do those end f chapter practice questions a couple of days before and when we had big exams like mocks covering a bunch of chapter and modules i would do both the end of chapter practice questions and the end of module practice questions. they helped a lot.

Reply 8

loazing21

OP

12

Original post by aw03

every test i had i did them. we did tests after every chapter so i would do those end f chapter practice questions a couple of days before and when we had big exams like mocks covering a bunch of chapter and modules i would do both the end of chapter practice questions and the end of module practice questions. they helped a lot.

did you do anything else for revision?

I used old spec papers preparing for A-level physics, because there weren't many new spec papers and it is a bad idea to waste them early on. (I started using them about a month or so before the final exam, because there were only about 5 sets of them) Whereas you have plenty of old spec papers, though probably fewer than I did because I was on Edexcel which has IAL papers that are very similar to the home papers.

They were pretty good, and formed a huge chunk of my revision. I tended to focus on papers with low grade boundaries and avoided those with high boundaries, typically because the former tended to have quite formulaic questions that I had already practically done before in previous years. I did try to do as many as possible though, and ones that I didn't end up "doing", I flicked through in the weeks leading up to the exam.

Do note that there are some topics that are not covered my the new spec and some new spec topics that are not covered by the old spec. I found that the latter scenario was much more common than the former. For that purpose I used papers from other exam boards that did have those topics on the old specification.

Reply 10

kq03

16

Original post by loazing21

did you do anything else for revision?

i do exam questions from physics and maths tutor and exam papers from OCR. i also made a massive poster for chemistry with organic synthesis and i stuck it on my bedroom wall. all the conditions and reagents to get from one organic compound to another is one there and it's really helpful. there's loads of maths questions in chemistry which are okay because they're so easy compared to A Level maths lmao but i do loads of those questions as well because Module 3&5 is basically maths with some theory sprinkled in.

should i do past papers from the old spec

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