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Up one grade in A-Level Maths?

Long story short, I used to be very good at Maths - 9's in both GCSE Maths and Further Maths. But now, I've got a B in my March mocks, and I need an A for uni!
I know 95% of the content except for a few gaps in knowledge, but for some reason, as soon as I open a Stats & Mechanics paper I cannot get my head around the wording and can't do it. I notice that when I look at the first line of the mark scheme, I know how to do the process, but it's selecting which process to do which is hard! (i.e binomial/normal distribution/probability - they get really confusing). What do I do? I was thinking about just doing past papers over and over again but I just feel really demotivated when I do it because I get low scores (i.e 45). Maybe I should leave off of doing them in timed conditions???
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Original post by ecovan1
Long story short, I used to be very good at Maths - 9's in both GCSE Maths and Further Maths. But now, I've got a B in my March mocks, and I need an A for uni!
I know 95% of the content except for a few gaps in knowledge, but for some reason, as soon as I open a Stats & Mechanics paper I cannot get my head around the wording and can't do it. I notice that when I look at the first line of the mark scheme, I know how to do the process, but it's selecting which process to do which is hard! (i.e binomial/normal distribution/probability - they get really confusing). What do I do? I was thinking about just doing past papers over and over again but I just feel really demotivated when I do it because I get low scores (i.e 45). Maybe I should leave off of doing them in timed conditions???

Sadly, I think the most efficient way to up your grade in Maths A-level is to do questions, as really nothing else helps when it comes down to it. However to make it a little more fun and more motivating, I would suggest first trying to do a few questions where you don't mark yourself, but check against the mark scheme's method. If you get it right, maybe have a chocolate, or a 5 min break or something. But if you get the wrong way, just have another go at a similar question, where you know the way it's going to pan out because the mark scheme told you how it does. Idk it kinda helps me get my head around where a question is going towards and lets me tell if it's binomial / normal or a mixture!

Hope this helps, feel free to tag me if you have any other questions or issues, I'm Y12 though I'm not sure if you're in the year above!!!

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