Honestly universities are not going to care about a grade 9 at GCSE.
You should worry about truly understanding the material rather than regurgigate facts/techniques for a dumb exam that mainly tests how much you please the examiner.
Two way to please an examiner:
- You memeorized everything and can regurgigate facts/use memorized methods at the right places in the exam (most effective)
- You UNDERSTAND the material and hope for the best in the exam because doing lots of past papers is the most boring thing ever (much less effective: requires lots of luck)
I fit into the second category because I do not accept any fact without being shown a proof (real math (not GCSE math) is perfect for me :3). I ended up doing well enough to get into any sixth form and universities don't care about getting say 10A*s at GCSE.
I didn't work hard to please someone but I did work hard to make sure that I had at least an intuition (if not concrete proof) in every concept across all my subjects. This works for most subjects, to varying extents. However this failed for me in english literature (completely failed this although I got an A* in GCSE english language). This also failed, ironically, in GCSE math, although GCSE additional math saved the day for me, and made me realize there is more to math than what today's education wants to show.
I ended up with an A in both math GCSE's. Turns out I missed A* for GCSE math, although I had additional-math-level understanding! Therefore the exam isn't about your understanding of math at all, or at least mostly not.
I did achieve A*'s BTW, but it was once again, just luck after a true quality study. I wasn't proud of my good GCSE results because I knew that they weren't true representatives of understanding of the subject, and is in reality a test of memory for most, or a test of luck for the few that really think about this world, who consequently question claims (GCSE is full of claims).
In short, a 9 is not worth your time. Even a 7 is fine. Instead, just focus on understanding the material well rather than spending what seems forever on past papers.
If you want a true quality GCSE time, do extra reading and do tougher questions/topics in your own time in your favorite subjects (es even AS concepts if you wish, you'll be glad you did!)
Real math is beautiful; GCSE math is ugly. Only those who survive the agony of school-age mathematics realize this. The remaining spend the remaining of their lives hating something that is part of them. Math is part of us. Math is how we understand the world because it is part of our human nature. The concept of analyzing exists in all fields/subjects yet this is math too. Whether math is what the universe is made of is a question for another day...