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How to revise A level Chem & Maths

Hi everyone :smile:
I was just wondering on how to revise for Chemistry (OCR A) and Maths ( EDEXCEL) for A levels and to keep up with the motivation to continue revising. I find myself being demotivated once I don't understand anything and my attention span is quite bad :frown: .Anyone have any detailed tips since I'm stuck on Cs and want to achieve As/A*s.
Original post by diorama82
Hi everyone :smile:
I was just wondering on how to revise for Chemistry (OCR A) and Maths ( EDEXCEL) for A levels and to keep up with the motivation to continue revising. I find myself being demotivated once I don't understand anything and my attention span is quite bad :frown: .Anyone have any detailed tips since I'm stuck on Cs and want to achieve As/A*s.


What resources have you been using?
For both, PMT and MME are pretty good.

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com

https://mmerevise.co.uk

For Edexcel Maths, my recommendations for your go-to resources would be Bicen Maths, Exam Solutions and Tayyub Majeed.

https://m.youtube.com/@BicenMaths

https://m.youtube.com/@ExamSolutions_Maths

https://m.youtube.com/@tm_maths

For OCR A Chemistry, my recommendations for your go-to resources would be MaChemGuy, Mr Murray-Green Chemistry Tutorials and Davies A level chemistry.

https://m.youtube.com/@MaChemGuy

https://m.youtube.com/@mrmurraygreen

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCjnvQEEejEGQrPT4JVJgbyQ

Chemistry and maths require different approaches. Chemistry requires learning several trends, statements, colours etc and being able to apply these to an exam question. Maths requires knowing several methods inside and out, when it’s appropriate to use them and to be able to reproduce them on command.

Chemistry is best done by attempting past papers (followed by marking and use of the examiner’s report), but this needs to be supported with active recall methods, such as flashcards, quizzes and drawing mindmaps in order to remember everything you need to know.

Maths is best done by attempting past papers (again, followed by marking and use of the examiner’s report), but watching explanations of the methods used on YouTube is generally the best method you can use to support it.
(edited 2 months ago)
Original post by diorama82
Hi everyone :smile:
I was just wondering on how to revise for Chemistry (OCR A) and Maths ( EDEXCEL) for A levels and to keep up with the motivation to continue revising. I find myself being demotivated once I don't understand anything and my attention span is quite bad :frown: .Anyone have any detailed tips since I'm stuck on Cs and want to achieve As/A*s.

Hi,
I don’t do A-Level Chemistry but I did do A-Level Edexcel Maths.
For context, I sat my A-Levels this June and received my results on Thursday. I got an A* in Maths, scoring 262/300. A-Level Maths was my favourite subject personally and I have a few tips on how I made it more manageable. In yr12 I was getting Bs and Cs for maths mostly and by the end of the yr13 I was getting A*s and As mostly.

Firstly, your teachers are very helpful in explaining the content so don’t be afraid to ask them for help! If you don’t find your teachers too helpful then I’d heavily suggest going on YouTube and watching videos from “TL MATHS” and Zeeshan Zamurred” on a given topic. Personally I used Zeeshan Zamurred’s a lot more as I believe his were absolutely amazing. Typically in his videos he’d run through the main points in a topic/ sub-topic, which would enable you to do a lot of questions successfully, and then run through a few exam style questions to show you how to use/implement those key points. I believe Zeeshan was superb at explaining maths coherently and made me understand what to do quickly and efficiently.

Once I felt confident, I’d attempt questions from the textbook and then go onto past paper questions/ exam style questions. My main website which I highly recommend is “Revisely”. The website it’s completely free and complied so many last paper questions for every topic in Maths for every exam board, with mark schemes and examiner reports to go along with it. It’s so easy to use and it’s such a good way to quickly do questions and get more comfortable with a topic. Other websites which are good for attempting questions are “Exam Solutions”,“Maths Genie”, “Physics and Maths Tutor” and“MadAsMaths”.

Maths is an easier subject to revise than other essay subjects in my opinion, as some questions take a few minutes to complete so I think A level Maths can be more easier to revise even if you procrastinate. Just set a goal to do a few questions daily for maths and I think you’d find that it’s actually quite manageable to do as most topics have questions which are quick to do especially when you practice a lot.

Other great YouTubers:
“Bicen Maths” is great for understanding topics. He also has useful videos like “Everything you need to know for A-Level Maths”, which reminds you of key things in every topic which you should know.
“Mr Astbury” is very good for past papers and challenging questions. He has done walkthroughs of all past papers from 2018-2023, so when I was stuck on questions when doing past papers, I’d watch those videos and they were amazing.
“AITutor” has done extremely helpful walkthroughs on the 2018-2019 papers specifically.

A-Level Maths is all about practice, practice, PRACTICE. I can’t stress that enough. I found the only way of me seeing incredible progress was when I’d do so so many past paper questions/ exam style questions on a topic. If you do lots of different questions on a topic, you’d become very familiar with the different styles a question can be presented and worded. This will be so vital by the time you sit your exam. By the time I sat my A-Levels I did all the past papers multiple times and all the mock papers ( set by Edexcel ) and practice papers ( set by Edexcel also ), on top of countless of exam style questions. Whilst that sounds quite a lot, I can assure you it’s very manageable! You obviously don’t need to do every single question you see, but doing plenty of different ones is very good!

My most important tip is DONT GIVE UP! Please, please, please don’t be demotivated if you don’t get A*s or As straight away. In fact I never got an A* in any maths test I sat at school until around Easter. When I was doing last paper questions there were countless of times when I wouldn’t get an answer correct. Same with Past papers, I wouldn’t even get A*s a lot of the time ( and that wasn’t even in exam conditions ), up until Easter.

Quality over Quantity is also important. People in my maths class would spend 9+ hours more than me during weekends and half-term breaks, yet I’d get more than them in tests. That’s not to brag at all. I’m saying this as you shouldn’t feel bad about yourself if you don’t spend as much time as others. My strategy of writing key points of a topic for me to remember , watching a quick video from one of the YouTubers I mentioned (when needed) and doing countless of different EXAM-STYLE questions seemed to be far more effective than some of my peers who were doing all the questions from the textbook and not doing challenging/different types of exam-style questions.

I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed with all of this information and you don’t have to use all of it anyways, you are your own person so do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable and most effective. I’ve tried to cover a lot of different points that’s why this may have been a bit long.

If you have any more questions or need some other advice, I’m happy to answer always.

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