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Predicted papers or past papers?

so for revision I'm not sure whether it's more effective to do predicted papers orcprast papers. I have my paper 1 for maths coming up and I'm only revising topics on the advanced info however past papers has other topics so if I did a past paper and didn't do well it would be because I don't know all the topics in it so I don't think it would be helpful...
But. At the same time looking at the predicted papers they look really easy. I'm doing higher so I except them to look kinda harder but the predicted papers seem easier than the past paper. And I'm worried if I do them then come to the real thin it will be difficult because the predicted papers are so much easier. What do you guys think?
Do both. See what happens.
past papers are ALWAYS the best way to go, they’re written by actual exam boards and are the best indication of what’ll come up, whereas a lot of predicted papers i’ve seen, e.g by Primrose Kitten seem a bit easy or don’t have the right style of wording you see in the exam, which can throw students off a bit when the actual questions are worded or layed out differently.
Where are you getting predicted papers from
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by TTAva2000
so for revision I'm not sure whether it's more effective to do predicted papers orcprast papers. I have my paper 1 for maths coming up and I'm only revising topics on the advanced info however past papers has other topics so if I did a past paper and didn't do well it would be because I don't know all the topics in it so I don't think it would be helpful...
But. At the same time looking at the predicted papers they look really easy. I'm doing higher so I except them to look kinda harder but the predicted papers seem easier than the past paper. And I'm worried if I do them then come to the real thin it will be difficult because the predicted papers are so much easier. What do you guys think?

You are right that the predicted papers (at least all of the ones I've looked at) tend to use more straightforward questions on the topics that will be covered in the exams. If you are targetting a low to middle grade (4-6) I think they cover enough and with adequate difficulty. If you are aiming higher then you need other resources. Doing past papers but leaving out irrelevant questions would be a good way to go. If your GCSE maths is Pearson/Edexcel there are collections of past paper questions by topic (themed papers) and questions focused on grade 7 and 9 that your teacher can share with you.
"Predicted papers" are (mostly?) not written by examiners and haven't gone through the processes that exam-set papers will have done. So the difficulty, style, mark allocation, etc. may differ.

If the predicted papers are too easy, I wouldn't bother with them. Otherwise, they might provide valuable practice even if they aren't quite in the same style as your final exams.

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