How to use mark schemes wisely when practising Edexcel IAL maths/further maths

I'm currently starting on my journey of IAL maths and further maths. When I'm studying for past papers and checking answers, I would like to know what would be a good method to check my marks(a good method means a method that gives me the marks closest to what the people would give me when I take the exam).
My current method would be first check if my answer is correct. If so, I get all the marks. If not, I go through all the steps in the mark scheme and see how many steps we both match to see if I get those marks.

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Ben123123123

I didn't do maths/FM with EdExcel (IAL), but generally you would need to go through the answers for the whole question. The mark allocation would require you to have mentioned specific things in your answer, and not including them mean you would still get your marks deducted even if you get the right answer. For one, you can often use several different methods and still get the same answer.

If it becomes difficult to figure out the whole answer, you can sometimes look up the answers to the question through other online sources, including those on YouTube.

The other thing is to exercise prudence. If you don't feel that there was anything less than perfect that would award you the mark (everything needs to be clear and explicit), then I wouldn't award the mark for that part of the question. Rather be harsher on yourself and preparing yourself for a nastier examiner than to let yourself think you would get higher marks in the real thing i.e. better to be overprepared than underprepared.