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Completely regret picking A-level maths.

I'm in year 12, I picked maths, comp sci, engineering, EPQ and gold's art award. I'm doing alright in everything else, on course to meeting my targets except maths. I have no idea how to improve; i've tried past papers, nearly all of the revision sites and tutors and I just don't get it? Any advice?
Original post by dxbbiex
I'm in year 12, I picked maths, comp sci, engineering, EPQ and gold's art award. I'm doing alright in everything else, on course to meeting my targets except maths. I have no idea how to improve; i've tried past papers, nearly all of the revision sites and tutors and I just don't get it? Any advice?


What exam board ?
what don't you understand, the concepts? and what are your targets?
Reply 3
I was pretty much the same as you when I was in year12. For me, past papers were the way to go. You mentioned that you’ve done them, but are you actually learning from your mistakes? Mistakes are good but if you’re not learning from them it’s useless. What you should consider is making not of all the topics you find hardest, and working double as hard on them. I got a predicted A* in mine (no exams this year), so if you need any advice lmk😄
Reply 4
Original post by Rae5
What exam board ?

OCR
Reply 5
Original post by absolutelysprout
what don't you understand, the concepts? and what are your targets?

It just seems to make no sense in my head? My target is a B at the end of year 13 for maths , I'm currently working at a D.
Reply 6
Original post by dbains
I was pretty much the same as you when I was in year12. For me, past papers were the way to go. You mentioned that you’ve done them, but are you actually learning from your mistakes? Mistakes are good but if you’re not learning from them it’s useless. What you should consider is making not of all the topics you find hardest, and working double as hard on them. I got a predicted A* in mine (no exams this year), so if you need any advice lmk😄

Thanks, I'll try focusing on my hardest topics :smile:
Reply 7
Original post by dxbbiex
It just seems to make no sense in my head? My target is a B at the end of year 13 for maths , I'm currently working at a D.

Topic wise; I defo struggle with mechanics the most.
me too :frown:
Original post by dxbbiex
I'm in year 12, I picked maths, comp sci, engineering, EPQ and gold's art award. I'm doing alright in everything else, on course to meeting my targets except maths. I have no idea how to improve; i've tried past papers, nearly all of the revision sites and tutors and I just don't get it? Any advice?


You need to focus on understanding the basics, perhaps try working things through algebraicly so you start to understand the concepts and not just the procedures.

For example in differentiations rather then using numbers take a polynomial and make delta x = x2 - x1 ; x2 = x1 + h and delta y = f(x2) - f(x1) .

Now find dy/dx in terms of x1 & h, now what happens if we make h infinetly small...
IMO doing things like this can really crack the nut and help you understand why your doing the procedures your doing.
Reply 10
Original post by mpaprika
me too :frown:

We could help eachother? :redface:
Reply 11
Original post by mnot
You need to focus on understanding the basics, perhaps try working things through algebraicly so you start to understand the concepts and not just the procedures.

For example in differentiations rather then using numbers take a polynomial and make delta x = x2 - x1 ; x2 = x1 + h and delta y = f(x2) - f(x1) .

Now find dy/dx in terms of x1 & h, now what happens if we make h infinetly small...
IMO doing things like this can really crack the nut and help you understand why your doing the procedures your doing.

Thank you, i'll defo try this method! :biggrin:
Original post by dxbbiex
We could help eachother? :redface:


yes definitely !
Original post by dxbbiex
It just seems to make no sense in my head? My target is a B at the end of year 13 for maths , I'm currently working at a D.


you've still got time to improve! a-level maths is a tough subject, you may need to spend some more time doing consolidation work once you've covered a topic to make sure your understanding of it is good. that may mean you do textbook questions and a few questions from the tons of online banks of math questions out there.

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