Feeling like I'm going to fail GCSE maths
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You don't need a tutor get an igcse maths book and print past papers from the old maths spec and print igcse maths past papers from savemyexams and mathsgeek
Original post by Ninagabriella
You don't need a tutor get an igcse maths book and print past papers from the old maths spec and print igcse maths past papers from savemyexams and mathsgeek
i have 9-1 revision guide and its rubbish. I did some of the old papers but their difficulty is nowhere near the new papers, i find the old papers quite easy and can do most of it except some questions i havent learnt at school, so doing the old papers has not been of much use for me.
Original post by Anonymous1502
i have 9-1 revision guide and its rubbish. I did some of the old papers but their difficulty is nowhere near the new papers, i find the old papers quite easy and can do most of it except some questions i havent learnt at school, so doing the old papers has not been of much use for me.
Do as many papers as you possibly can. Even those from other exam boards will help because, at the end of the day, maths is maths. The old papers will also help if you need to consolidate knowledge. For the higher grade topics, try some of the easier AS maths questions as some of them are covered at GCSE. Which CGP books do you have? They have loads of different ones with exam style questions and for the higher level questions, you can use the Grade 9 practice book as this contains questions graded from levels 7-9 so might help you know how to tackle those better.
Original post by Anonymous1502
Im really starting to worry about maths, as we have been doing specimen papers in maths and everyone finds them hard and even if i know the topic, i cant do the specimen questions on it as the questions are just so much harder and i have no idea how to solve them. GCSE's are like in may and im still finding gcse maths hard, so im really worried, I really want to get a grade 8, at this point im doubting even if i can get a grade 6.I do all the work the teacher sets and all the homework.The teacher seems to not teach us the hard examples for topics and only teaches us like the easy tuff, so im struggling with the new questions.The new spec manages to change quite straightforward topics into some confusing and hard questions. 
I look online for help by watching maths genie and other math videos and I try and ask the teacher for help but sometimes I'm not even sure if the teacher knows what he is doing.Im really worried.
I look online for help by watching maths genie and other math videos and I try and ask the teacher for help but sometimes I'm not even sure if the teacher knows what he is doing.Im really worried. Dude, i honestly feel you, even i m struggling from the same issue... I dont wanna disgrace my report card by failing in Maths
Original post by MaxAngel
Dude, i honestly feel you, even i m struggling from the same issue... I dont wanna disgrace my report card by failing in Maths
I'm doing maths A level now. I'm happy to help with any queries you have.
You're not the only one. I myself have been worrying SO much. And I mean SO MUCH. But here is what I've been doing to kind of calm myself down about the whole situation...
1. You can always retake it! It's totally fine, yes next year the grade boundaries may not be as low or maybe even next year they will be easier! That's the beauty of maths - you can always retake it. If you fail this summer then you'll have another entire year to refresh yourself and become a master at maths and even achieve a grade of two higher due to that much extra time.
2. Watch maths videos. I love mathswatch, you have to pay for it however a lot of schools pay for it for their students, if you don't have an account then ask someone to borrow theres - there's not personal information or anything. It's an amazing site, it's like having your own maths tutor with you. I find that video help me so much.
3. Past papers and practice. In year 10 last summer during out past paper mock exams I was literally getting 6/7/8/9 marks out of the ENTIRE paper. Then at the beginning of year 11 in November last year I started doing past maths papers, watching a mathswatch episode every night, practicing and getting a voluntary sixth former helping me twice a week - now I'm achieving up to 50 marks in the paper and thats only from that 4 months of super revision. (the marks are out past papers which are fairly easier than the new 9-1 HOWEVER... this leads me to the next point)
4. The grade boundaries are going to be super low. It sounds as if almost every student in year 11 right now is struggling with the new 9-1 GCSE maths. This is ind of a good think because that means AQA etc will be lowering the boundaires - after all they wouldn't want England to go through the shame of having 90% of their students failing maths. A lot of my maths teachers at school have said all you need to get is at least 25 marks on all three papers to achieve a pass.
5. Find out which paper you are most suffering in and practice the topic within the paper. I got 30 marks in the two non-calculator specimen papers that we did in February but only 18 on the calculator - this is weighing me down so now I'm going to revise all that I can of the topics only in the calculator paper.
6. Learn the basics. In november I didnt even know how to add multiply or divide fractions. I didnt know how to divide with decimals. I didn't know the long division method. Now that I do I AM SO HAPPY because those basics help me answer SO many more questions!!! I love long division - BLESS LONG DIVISION.
7. Master one topic before moving to the other.
8. Find the best method for a topic. there's two long divison methods, the bus stop and the other one which is super detailed (times, divide subtract etc) and i find the second one is easiest for me. go with the easiest method.
9. do as many past papers as you can and look at the mark scheme afterwards. then you'll know how to lay out your workings out to get those marks.
10. if its a circle theorum question or angle theroum etc. and you have NO CLUE what to do then if you have time then write down ALL the theorums you know i.e a cyclic quadtrialteral has opposite angles the same (i cant quite remember). sorry my spelling is bad now because im trying to type as much as i can!! in my mock i had a question like this, didnt know what to do, however i wrote down the theorums which i thought would be relative to the question and I got an extra mark!!
hope this helped! i understand where you're coming from, Ive cried at least 10 times this month stressing over maths but when you actually think about it you dont have to worry too much because there are so many solutions to the problem.
1. You can always retake it! It's totally fine, yes next year the grade boundaries may not be as low or maybe even next year they will be easier! That's the beauty of maths - you can always retake it. If you fail this summer then you'll have another entire year to refresh yourself and become a master at maths and even achieve a grade of two higher due to that much extra time.
2. Watch maths videos. I love mathswatch, you have to pay for it however a lot of schools pay for it for their students, if you don't have an account then ask someone to borrow theres - there's not personal information or anything. It's an amazing site, it's like having your own maths tutor with you. I find that video help me so much.
3. Past papers and practice. In year 10 last summer during out past paper mock exams I was literally getting 6/7/8/9 marks out of the ENTIRE paper. Then at the beginning of year 11 in November last year I started doing past maths papers, watching a mathswatch episode every night, practicing and getting a voluntary sixth former helping me twice a week - now I'm achieving up to 50 marks in the paper and thats only from that 4 months of super revision. (the marks are out past papers which are fairly easier than the new 9-1 HOWEVER... this leads me to the next point)
4. The grade boundaries are going to be super low. It sounds as if almost every student in year 11 right now is struggling with the new 9-1 GCSE maths. This is ind of a good think because that means AQA etc will be lowering the boundaires - after all they wouldn't want England to go through the shame of having 90% of their students failing maths. A lot of my maths teachers at school have said all you need to get is at least 25 marks on all three papers to achieve a pass.
5. Find out which paper you are most suffering in and practice the topic within the paper. I got 30 marks in the two non-calculator specimen papers that we did in February but only 18 on the calculator - this is weighing me down so now I'm going to revise all that I can of the topics only in the calculator paper.
6. Learn the basics. In november I didnt even know how to add multiply or divide fractions. I didnt know how to divide with decimals. I didn't know the long division method. Now that I do I AM SO HAPPY because those basics help me answer SO many more questions!!! I love long division - BLESS LONG DIVISION.
7. Master one topic before moving to the other.
8. Find the best method for a topic. there's two long divison methods, the bus stop and the other one which is super detailed (times, divide subtract etc) and i find the second one is easiest for me. go with the easiest method.
9. do as many past papers as you can and look at the mark scheme afterwards. then you'll know how to lay out your workings out to get those marks.
10. if its a circle theorum question or angle theroum etc. and you have NO CLUE what to do then if you have time then write down ALL the theorums you know i.e a cyclic quadtrialteral has opposite angles the same (i cant quite remember). sorry my spelling is bad now because im trying to type as much as i can!! in my mock i had a question like this, didnt know what to do, however i wrote down the theorums which i thought would be relative to the question and I got an extra mark!!
hope this helped! i understand where you're coming from, Ive cried at least 10 times this month stressing over maths but when you actually think about it you dont have to worry too much because there are so many solutions to the problem.
Original post by LittleFlowrs
You're not the only one. I myself have been worrying SO much. And I mean SO MUCH. But here is what I've been doing to kind of calm myself down about the whole situation...
1. You can always retake it! It's totally fine, yes next year the grade boundaries may not be as low or maybe even next year they will be easier! That's the beauty of maths - you can always retake it. If you fail this summer then you'll have another entire year to refresh yourself and become a master at maths and even achieve a grade of two higher due to that much extra time.
2. Watch maths videos. I love mathswatch, you have to pay for it however a lot of schools pay for it for their students, if you don't have an account then ask someone to borrow theres - there's not personal information or anything. It's an amazing site, it's like having your own maths tutor with you. I find that video help me so much.
3. Past papers and practice. In year 10 last summer during out past paper mock exams I was literally getting 6/7/8/9 marks out of the ENTIRE paper. Then at the beginning of year 11 in November last year I started doing past maths papers, watching a mathswatch episode every night, practicing and getting a voluntary sixth former helping me twice a week - now I'm achieving up to 50 marks in the paper and thats only from that 4 months of super revision. (the marks are out past papers which are fairly easier than the new 9-1 HOWEVER... this leads me to the next point)
4. The grade boundaries are going to be super low. It sounds as if almost every student in year 11 right now is struggling with the new 9-1 GCSE maths. This is ind of a good think because that means AQA etc will be lowering the boundaires - after all they wouldn't want England to go through the shame of having 90% of their students failing maths. A lot of my maths teachers at school have said all you need to get is at least 25 marks on all three papers to achieve a pass.
5. Find out which paper you are most suffering in and practice the topic within the paper. I got 30 marks in the two non-calculator specimen papers that we did in February but only 18 on the calculator - this is weighing me down so now I'm going to revise all that I can of the topics only in the calculator paper.
6. Learn the basics. In november I didnt even know how to add multiply or divide fractions. I didnt know how to divide with decimals. I didn't know the long division method. Now that I do I AM SO HAPPY because those basics help me answer SO many more questions!!! I love long division - BLESS LONG DIVISION.
7. Master one topic before moving to the other.
8. Find the best method for a topic. there's two long divison methods, the bus stop and the other one which is super detailed (times, divide subtract etc) and i find the second one is easiest for me. go with the easiest method.
9. do as many past papers as you can and look at the mark scheme afterwards. then you'll know how to lay out your workings out to get those marks.
10. if its a circle theorum question or angle theroum etc. and you have NO CLUE what to do then if you have time then write down ALL the theorums you know i.e a cyclic quadtrialteral has opposite angles the same (i cant quite remember). sorry my spelling is bad now because im trying to type as much as i can!! in my mock i had a question like this, didnt know what to do, however i wrote down the theorums which i thought would be relative to the question and I got an extra mark!!
hope this helped! i understand where you're coming from, Ive cried at least 10 times this month stressing over maths but when you actually think about it you dont have to worry too much because there are so many solutions to the problem.
1. You can always retake it! It's totally fine, yes next year the grade boundaries may not be as low or maybe even next year they will be easier! That's the beauty of maths - you can always retake it. If you fail this summer then you'll have another entire year to refresh yourself and become a master at maths and even achieve a grade of two higher due to that much extra time.
2. Watch maths videos. I love mathswatch, you have to pay for it however a lot of schools pay for it for their students, if you don't have an account then ask someone to borrow theres - there's not personal information or anything. It's an amazing site, it's like having your own maths tutor with you. I find that video help me so much.
3. Past papers and practice. In year 10 last summer during out past paper mock exams I was literally getting 6/7/8/9 marks out of the ENTIRE paper. Then at the beginning of year 11 in November last year I started doing past maths papers, watching a mathswatch episode every night, practicing and getting a voluntary sixth former helping me twice a week - now I'm achieving up to 50 marks in the paper and thats only from that 4 months of super revision. (the marks are out past papers which are fairly easier than the new 9-1 HOWEVER... this leads me to the next point)
4. The grade boundaries are going to be super low. It sounds as if almost every student in year 11 right now is struggling with the new 9-1 GCSE maths. This is ind of a good think because that means AQA etc will be lowering the boundaires - after all they wouldn't want England to go through the shame of having 90% of their students failing maths. A lot of my maths teachers at school have said all you need to get is at least 25 marks on all three papers to achieve a pass.
5. Find out which paper you are most suffering in and practice the topic within the paper. I got 30 marks in the two non-calculator specimen papers that we did in February but only 18 on the calculator - this is weighing me down so now I'm going to revise all that I can of the topics only in the calculator paper.
6. Learn the basics. In november I didnt even know how to add multiply or divide fractions. I didnt know how to divide with decimals. I didn't know the long division method. Now that I do I AM SO HAPPY because those basics help me answer SO many more questions!!! I love long division - BLESS LONG DIVISION.
7. Master one topic before moving to the other.
8. Find the best method for a topic. there's two long divison methods, the bus stop and the other one which is super detailed (times, divide subtract etc) and i find the second one is easiest for me. go with the easiest method.
9. do as many past papers as you can and look at the mark scheme afterwards. then you'll know how to lay out your workings out to get those marks.
10. if its a circle theorum question or angle theroum etc. and you have NO CLUE what to do then if you have time then write down ALL the theorums you know i.e a cyclic quadtrialteral has opposite angles the same (i cant quite remember). sorry my spelling is bad now because im trying to type as much as i can!! in my mock i had a question like this, didnt know what to do, however i wrote down the theorums which i thought would be relative to the question and I got an extra mark!!
hope this helped! i understand where you're coming from, Ive cried at least 10 times this month stressing over maths but when you actually think about it you dont have to worry too much because there are so many solutions to the problem.
If you need to ask any questions about GCSE, I'm happy to answer them. I completed them last year.
Original post by Anonymous1502
i have 9-1 revision guide and its rubbish. I did some of the old papers but their difficulty is nowhere near the new papers, i find the old papers quite easy and can do most of it except some questions i havent learnt at school, so doing the old papers has not been of much use for me.
Best source for revision by a mile (for GCSE 1-9) is www.mathsgenie.co.uk
I am a qualified maths teacher (GCSE and A Level) and highly recommend this site. it goes through all the topics from grade 1 to grade 9.
Also check out recent mock papers on youtube:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iMzFgI5TYw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODT5qXlXySA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-LZtdQInqo
Finally, do not despair, still 9 weeks to revise, you are far from the only one in this boat!!
Good Luck with revision and exam!!
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Psychedeliyaa
Can you not access one from school? If not, I can send you a copy of mine from dropbox.
I'm currently in Year 11 and I would use your copy of MathsWatch ( I heard it's very effective!) please because I didn't do well in my Maths mock over a month ago,I'm doing the foundation tier (Edexcel) and my school doesn't use MathsWatch,unfortunately.
It would mean a lot to me.
Original post by Anonymous1502
Im really starting to worry about maths, as we have been doing specimen papers in maths and everyone finds them hard and even if i know the topic, i cant do the specimen questions on it as the questions are just so much harder and i have no idea how to solve them. GCSE's are like in may and im still finding gcse maths hard, so im really worried, I really want to get a grade 8, at this point im doubting even if i can get a grade 6.I do all the work the teacher sets and all the homework.The teacher seems to not teach us the hard examples for topics and only teaches us like the easy tuff, so im struggling with the new questions.The new spec manages to change quite straightforward topics into some confusing and hard questions. I look online for help by watching maths genie and other math videos and I try and ask the teacher for help but sometimes I'm not even sure if the teacher knows what he is doing.Im really worried.
I look online for help by watching maths genie and other math videos and I try and ask the teacher for help but sometimes I'm not even sure if the teacher knows what he is doing.Im really worried. Do not panic.
Last year grade 8 boundary mark was 124 out of 240" so average of 53 points per paper. This can be achieved by answering the first 16 questions correctly so if you are very good at easier topics you should get that grade. Last 6 or 7 questions are designed to distinguish between grade 8 and 9.
So with practice over next 21 weeks you should be fine. Do meditation to calm yourself, get a tutor. I am a tutor and my students confidence has been transformed.
Good luck
Original post by CraigFowler
Do not panic.
Last year grade 8 boundary mark was 124 out of 240" so average of 53 points per paper. This can be achieved by answering the first 16 questions correctly so if you are very good at easier topics you should get that grade. Last 6 or 7 questions are designed to distinguish between grade 8 and 9.
So with practice over next 21 weeks you should be fine. Do meditation to calm yourself, get a tutor. I am a tutor and my students confidence has been transformed.
Good luck
Last year grade 8 boundary mark was 124 out of 240" so average of 53 points per paper. This can be achieved by answering the first 16 questions correctly so if you are very good at easier topics you should get that grade. Last 6 or 7 questions are designed to distinguish between grade 8 and 9.
So with practice over next 21 weeks you should be fine. Do meditation to calm yourself, get a tutor. I am a tutor and my students confidence has been transformed.
Good luck
Nope, a grade 7 was 124; a grade 8 was 157.
Original post by CraigFowler
Do not panic.
Last year grade 8 boundary mark was 124 out of 240" so average of 53 points per paper. This can be achieved by answering the first 16 questions correctly so if you are very good at easier topics you should get that grade. Last 6 or 7 questions are designed to distinguish between grade 8 and 9.
So with practice over next 21 weeks you should be fine. Do meditation to calm yourself, get a tutor. I am a tutor and my students confidence has been transformed.
Good luck
Last year grade 8 boundary mark was 124 out of 240" so average of 53 points per paper. This can be achieved by answering the first 16 questions correctly so if you are very good at easier topics you should get that grade. Last 6 or 7 questions are designed to distinguish between grade 8 and 9.
So with practice over next 21 weeks you should be fine. Do meditation to calm yourself, get a tutor. I am a tutor and my students confidence has been transformed.
Good luck
I remember there being an angles question in like the 3rd page so I don’t think they put easy topics always
Original post by Anonymous1502
Im really starting to worry about maths, as we have been doing specimen papers in maths and everyone finds them hard and even if i know the topic, i cant do the specimen questions on it as the questions are just so much harder and i have no idea how to solve them. GCSE's are like in may and im still finding gcse maths hard, so im really worried, I really want to get a grade 8, at this point im doubting even if i can get a grade 6.I do all the work the teacher sets and all the homework.The teacher seems to not teach us the hard examples for topics and only teaches us like the easy tuff, so im struggling with the new questions.The new spec manages to change quite straightforward topics into some confusing and hard questions. I look online for help by watching maths genie and other math videos and I try and ask the teacher for help but sometimes I'm not even sure if the teacher knows what he is doing.Im really worried.
I look online for help by watching maths genie and other math videos and I try and ask the teacher for help but sometimes I'm not even sure if the teacher knows what he is doing.Im really worried. Hi there,
I attempt to give you some advice that I feel will help you out (I got straight A*s and a 9 in maths). Maths is just all about practice, I remember my maths teacher in Y8 telling me, "when you get to GCSE you won't even need to revise" this blew my mind at the time and it wasn't until my GCSEs I realised the truth in what he said. It is vital you understand concepts as you learn them, this involves practice, practice, practice (request past papers, maybe invest in workbooks containing Qs released by your exam board and you can buy grade 9 specific work books to really stretch you); understanding of a topic when you do it means that you won't have to revise it later as it'll be logical.
If you're really not convinced by your teacher (and your grades are dropping) you should raise that concern with the school's head or head of maths and see if the problem is resolved. However, the great thing about maths is that you can teach yourself a lot of it via some of the resources you named. But mainly keep practising, see where you're going wrong and importantly realise why you're going wrong, GCSE papers reuse questions or change the scenarios slighlty all the time so if you practice enough you'll have more or less covered some variation of every question on your summer exams!
I wish you the best of luck, keep working, keep practising and importantly keep evaluating where your weaknesses are. If you need any more help feel free to PM.
How did you revise ?
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