Strategies to get an A/A* in A-level Maths?

Hi im in year 12 and studying Maths,economics and psychology.

Im struggling mostly in maths, and i feel quite overwhelmed by maths in general.
I enjoyed maths at gcse and found it fairly straightforward(got an 8) however i'm finding it much harder now

for gcse i pretty much had a formula of just going through each mathsgenie video and answering the exam questions and tracking my performance on each topic. This strategy worked really well for me,I went from a 5 in yr10 EOY mocks, to 8s in yr11 mocks.

However for a-level MathsGenie doesn't seem to cover everything(correct me if i'm wrong) so i am just using textbook and going through topic by topic. This isn't really working and i find it hard to learn through the textbook alone.

So if anyone has done a-level maths, what did you use to get an A/A*, and if your have specific strategies that you used to cover all content, please let me know. thanks

Reply 1

username5447346

uno what ngl im in the same boat as u aha im in yr12 doing alevel maths physics n chem rn
but ive noticed that since ive started alevels maths is now my hardest subject when last yr it was the easiest (outta these three) soooooo im planning on tryna fix my issues with maths this half term by learning the content rlly rlly well, doing loads of practice exam q's n in the future, doing tons of past papers n sh*t
hope that helps x

Reply 2

Mesopotamian…

- Examsolutions for video tutorials and practice questions - the man is a lifesaver for things you’re stuck on.

- Past paper questions - use PhysicsandMathstutor for past papers, including old spec papers and practice papers. I practiced past papers stretching all the way back to 1998 to give you an idea of how much I did.

Reply 3

username5447346

also which course r u doing? im doing edexcel maths n our teachers told us a list of books to buy for it so pm me if u want me to send u the list lol n also i personally think cgp books r lifesavers legit they were all i used at gcses tbh aha x

Reply 4

bluebeetle

Agreed with Mesopotamian's advice, those are both really good resources that I would recommend above Mathsgenie for A-level content. If your school uses Integral, you can also check out their resources.

My general advice for A-level maths in terms of what you can do to help in lesson is to take notes on what the teacher says as well as what they write. So for example, if your teacher writes a long solution to a problem on the board, they probably just write the algebra, but verbally explain why they do each step. You might understand in the moment, but when you look back at the copied example later, you don't get it. What can be handy is to write down any reasoning your teacher gave for each step - and if you don't know how your teacher knew how or why to do a certain thing, ask! Then you can note that down. I find this made my A-level notes really useful to refer back to when I was stuck.

Reply 5

CurryCurry2468

Original post by anticorn04

You've probably sen people just say practice practice practice, which for the most part is what you need to succeed in a level maths.

This is how I would approach it:
1. Go through each topic outside the classroom, make whatever notes you need to make and do example q's and ANNOTATE each step so when u go back over it u can actually explain to urself what u were doing.

2. At the end of a topic, do the questions from the textbook and the ones u got wrong, make sure u make note of them or highlight them as a concern if ur consistently getting the same type of question wrong. Go back through ur notes, reattempt the question and if ur still hitting a brickwall, ask ur teacher for help.

3. Do past paper questions, u can find them on PMT or just search a level maths past questions (All the exam boards assess the same content so it dont matter if ur doing q's from a different board)

4. Make sure u address any misconceptions in class (this is mainly for mechanics as it is very common that u make misconceptions and what or not)
.
5. At the end of each topic, make note to urself on the general strategy on approaching questions in the topic. For example, with pulleys in YR 1 Mech u hav those q's where there is a change in motion or the string breaks ot whatever, for those q's u need to remember to break the q into 2 stages, stage 1 for the first bit of motion and stage 2 for the subsequent motion and just use suvat and f=ma.

6. Be able to make synoptic links, A Level Maths is now linear so it is not always obvious when u read a q on where to start and one q can tie together multiple concepts from the course. General rule of thumb is that when u start a topic, write down what u need from previous topics, what u will learn and where it links to elsewhere in the course.

7. Once u finished the content for first year or second year, sit down and do a past paper. From this, make note of where u dropped marks and use this as a basis of what u need to revise. Continue the cycle and you may find that at some point u have a strong grasp of all the content. This is where u step it up a notch and attempt some harder papers, I recommend trying the MADAS maths papers. These papers are designed to be harder than what u would expect in the exams but they are good practice as you might get a curveball question in the exam.

idk if i missed anything else......

Strategies to get an A/A* in A-level Maths?

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