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maths best way to revise?

coatsoft

What would you say are the best ways to revise maths when aiming for A*? Thanks in advance

Reply 1

rosewater1

past papers
past papers
past papers
past papers
past papers
past papers
and more past papers

Reply 2

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Practice questions
Past Papers
repeat

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Reply 3

JoshBedford

Original post by coatsoft

What would you say are the best ways to revise maths when aiming for A*? Thanks in advance

Do every single past paper you can find, every single question in your textbook, that's the way to learn maths! You learn from the mistakes you make

Reply 4

TenOfThem

Original post by coatsoft

What would you say are the best ways to revise maths when aiming for A*? Thanks in advance

The best way to get an A* is to have no need for revision - i.e. you understand the material rather than needing to learn it

If that is not the case then an effective use of Past Papers is the way forward - be very clear Past Papers alone are pointless

Complete a Past Paper
Use this to identify key areas that need more work
Choose 2 at most
Look back at the original notes on these
Ask for help in understanding them
Practice some key examples

Complete another Past Paper and identify (hopefully new) issues from that
Repeat

Reply 5

CTArsenal

Understand what you're doing when doing the question, so that you know the process to solving it, i.e. differentiating a curve to find the gradient at a certain point and then using the value to find the equation of the tangent.

Then, of course, practice past papers in order to eliminate the odd arithmetic mistakes that you might make in the real exams.

Reply 6

Old_Simon

Something not often mentioned:

In the exam you get a formula book. IMHO this is not a tool for the exam only it is a tool you should keep by you all through your learning, in class, doing homework and self learning. Understand what is in there and how it can be used.

Conversely the very few formulas not in the book are in the specification for every module. Learn them well.

Reply 7

Danneal12

I agree with the general consensus, revising Maths is half to do with understanding the material and half practising questions to get a feel for the types of answers and trying to avoid mistakes :smile:

I think my preferred method is:
- do a past paper and mark very critically
- identify the areas that you struggle with and for each section, use a textbook to create a NEW set of notes
- compare old notes to new notes and add anything you missed to your new set
- practise some questions from a textbook exercise and ensure you are getting them right
- return to the past papers

A lot of people have put a huge emphasis on doing paper after paper but, if you're struggling, it can just be demoralising and a waste of the finite supply of papers you have so make sure you return to learning it before attempting paper questions.

Original post by Old_Simon

This is good advice as well - use the Formula Book for you practising and you will grow accustomed to what you can look up in there and what formulae you need to know :smile:

That's just my opinion of course - everyone is different and finds their own techniques that work for them :smile:

Reply 8

Old_Simon

Here is another thing I do that is different. As soon as I get into a topic (within say the first hour or so) I start looking into the past papers right then. Right away I start doing the questions from that topic in every single paper from that exam board. Later I go to the other boards papers. I do not store up past papers as some kind of revision tool. I use them as a learning tool as I go along.