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Maths edexcel gcse exam 6th/8th november 2013

Hiya,

I am completing my GCSE maths exam on the 6th and 8th of November. I am doing the Edexcel specification A for GCSE. Can anyone please guide me on revision material, past questions, and general tips for GCSE maths revision please. I've got 59 days til the first exam which is just over 8 weeks.

Should I be revising now or will it be pointless? I was hoping to start revision in 2 weeks time and intense revision for 9 days late October. Which would give me abut 6 weeks to revise the whole specification, is this leaving it too late. I know I may seem over paranoid about my exam, but its my first GCSE exam.

Thanks!

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Reply 1
You should aim to revise as early as possible, as constant as you can. Doing revision 2 weeks before an exam might benefit some but it might make you more stressed, thus not being able to completely understand the topics you have to go over.

You should aim to do as many past papers from Edexcel as you can, You'll get to know the layout and try make questions of your own from those questions, you'll never know what might come up! If possible, buy a MathsWatch DVD which has 5 minute clips of how to do every topic in the specification, and also has lots of questions at the end for you to try, getting harder as the questions go. For tips, don't slack in class, try to finish work early and ask for more, which will help your confidence but also handling questions of different types.

Revising at a slow pace will ensure that you'll be able to get your head around most of the topics, and you'll be fine for the exam! Don't worry, I did my Maths exams in November too, it was nerve wracking but I'm sure you'll do fine :smile: If you need any help or guidance, feel free to PM me :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by lilypear
You should aim to revise as early as possible, as constant as you can. Doing revision 2 weeks before an exam might benefit some but it might make you more stressed, thus not being able to completely understand the topics you have to go over.

You should aim to do as many past papers from Edexcel as you can, You'll get to know the layout and try make questions of your own from those questions, you'll never know what might come up! If possible, buy a MathsWatch DVD which has 5 minute clips of how to do every topic in the specification, and also has lots of questions at the end for you to try, getting harder as the questions go. For tips, don't slack in class, try to finish work early and ask for more, which will help your confidence but also handling questions of different types.

Revising at a slow pace will ensure that you'll be able to get your head around most of the topics, and you'll be fine for the exam! Don't worry, I did my Maths exams in November too, it was nerve wracking but I'm sure you'll do fine :smile: If you need any help or guidance, feel free to PM me :smile:


Thanks I'll look at my MathsWatch disc. Is 6 weeks too short of a time to revise the whole syllabus, or shall I start this weekend?
Reply 3
Original post by GoldGhost
Thanks I'll look at my MathsWatch disc. Is 6 weeks too short of a time to revise the whole syllabus, or shall I start this weekend?


I would advise that you start doing a little bit now - don't go too head into it, just get your head around the questions etc :-)
Same! Is it two dates or do we get a break in between the 2 exams? I've started revising for maths right now because I have 8 weeks to learn a 2 year course...I was doing stats last year so I'm sooo confused.
Reply 5
Original post by ToLiveInADream
Same! Is it two dates or do we get a break in between the 2 exams? I've started revising for maths right now because I have 8 weeks to learn a 2 year course...I was doing stats last year so I'm sooo confused.


It's typically two separate dates.
Original post by ToLiveInADream
Same! Is it two dates or do we get a break in between the 2 exams? I've started revising for maths right now because I have 8 weeks to learn a 2 year course...I was doing stats last year so I'm sooo confused.


Same...:frown: we did stats last year and we are going to do the maths exam in November. There are 3 units, we already know the whole of unit 1 (because that was statistics) but you need to revise unit 2 and 3. Unit 2 isn't that bad...but I don't like unit 3. Have you done some maths work over the summer holidays??
Original post by delldj
Same...:frown: we did stats last year and we are going to do the maths exam in November. There are 3 units, we already know the whole of unit 1 (because that was statistics) but you need to revise unit 2 and 3. Unit 2 isn't that bad...but I don't like unit 3. Have you done some maths work over the summer holidays??


It's so stressful! I'm really glad a bit of stats is in maths though..what did you get for stats? I've done mostly algebra over the holidays, though I'm still failing at just all of maths. Trig is fine. I really hate graphs right now, especially the ones where you have to match a certain equation to the graph. Wtf :confused:
Reply 8
Original post by ToLiveInADream
Same! Is it two dates or do we get a break in between the 2 exams? I've started revising for maths right now because I have 8 weeks to learn a 2 year course...I was doing stats last year so I'm sooo confused.


I think I will start as soon as possible, giving myself 7 weeks to go over it. I am just aiming for the A* mark and nearer 90% in the exams. And the 2 dates are calculator and non calculator exam.
Original post by ToLiveInADream
It's so stressful! I'm really glad a bit of stats is in maths though..what did you get for stats? I've done mostly algebra over the holidays, though I'm still failing at just all of maths. Trig is fine. I really hate graphs right now, especially the ones where you have to match a certain equation to the graph. Wtf :confused:


I got 178/200 ....2 away from an A*....I got a B in the coursework and an A* in the exam. What about you?
Original post by delldj
I got 178/200 ....2 away from an A*....I got a B in the coursework and an A* in the exam. What about you?


I got 181/200 so just about scraped an A*. I was sort of angry though..my teacher had marked my coursework at 35/40 and it was pulled down to 28/40 (A)!
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 11
Original post by delldj
I got 178/200 ....2 away from an A*....I got a B in the coursework and an A* in the exam. What about you?


Is statistics more favorable than additional maths? I'm just wondering as our teacher is deciding to put us in for OCR additional maths instead of statistics.
Original post by ToLiveInADream
I got 181/200 so just about scraped an A*. I was sort of angry though..my teacher had marked my coursework at 37/40 and it was pulled down to 28/40 (A)!


my coursework let me down :frown:. You know the question about standard deviation I forgot to learn that. If I learnt it would've scraped in :frown: also for the gradient thingy I forgot to put a minus in front of my answer!!! I've learnt from my mistakes and I will not repeat that in the future.
Original post by GoldGhost
Is statistics more favorable than additional maths? I'm just wondering as our teacher is deciding to put us in for OCR additional maths instead of statistics.


Im not sure. I haven't done additional maths and we are doing edexcel.
Original post by delldj
my coursework let me down :frown:. You know the question about standard deviation I forgot to learn that. If I learnt it would've scraped in :frown: also for the gradient thingy I forgot to put a minus in front of my answer!!! I've learnt from my mistakes and I will not repeat that in the future.


I actually put 10 for that question but I wasn't 100% sure...I sort of guessed. In the mocks, I only got around 80/100 because of mistakes like them. And when I went through the paper in the real things I found loads of little mistakes...I'm glad I write fast so I have loads of time to check at the end. Don't worry btw, and A grade in stats is great!!
Original post by ToLiveInADream
I actually put 10 for that question but I wasn't 100% sure...I sort of guessed. In the mocks, I only got around 80/100 because of mistakes like them. And when I went through the paper in the real things I found loads of little mistakes...I'm glad I write fast so I have loads of time to check at the end. Don't worry btw, and A grade in stats is great!!


Congratulations on your A* :biggrin:. I finished really quickly because I was on the 2nd last page and they said 'you have an hour left'. I made a few mistakes but I corrected them but im kicking myself for that standard deviation question and the gradient.
I'm doing the November exam too. I want to try get an A* this time. I would say maths watch is really helpful as I spent a month revising for the June exams.


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Reply 17
Original post by ninalicious97
I'm doing the November exam too. I want to try get an A* this time. I would say maths watch is really helpful as I spent a month revising for the June exams.


Posted from TSR Mobile


If you don't mind me asking, what grade did you get please and how much revision did you do?
Original post by GoldGhost
If you don't mind me asking, what grade did you get please and how much revision did you do?


I got an A. I did a lot of revision in the month I started revising. Especially in the last 2 weeks. I used the maths watch CD and went through all the topics I couldn't do. Then I did exam past papers, especially past papers that were just topics. I found these from bland.in. I stayed behind school in the last week everyday going over things I couldn't understand with my teacher. I think the reason I didn't get an A* was because I started a bit late. So I would definitely start revising now.


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Reply 19
Original post by ninalicious97
I got an A. I did a lot of revision in the month I started revising. Especially in the last 2 weeks. I used the maths watch CD and went through all the topics I couldn't do. Then I did exam past papers, especially past papers that were just topics. I found these from bland.in. I stayed behind school in the last week everyday going over things I couldn't understand with my teacher. I think the reason I didn't get an A* was because I started a bit late. So I would definitely start revising now.


Posted from TSR Mobile


Thanks, I am aiming for 2 hours of solid revision a night (but don't really want to measure it on time, but work done). Can we retake if we don't get the grade that we would like?

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