A level maths study help
11
I’m in Year 13 and starting to feel pretty overwhelmed about past papers.
All year my maths teachers told us to save papers for the last few months, but now I’ve counted them and there are so many. For Edexcel Maths alone there are about 110 papers on PMT (not even including old spec), plus around 27 Biology and 27 Chemistry papers too.
I’m trying to balance content revision, blurting, memorising, and topic practice as well, so I don’t know how people realistically get through everything without just rushing papers.
I’ve seen a lot of people online who got As/A*s say they did basically every question or paper multiple times, which makes me feel behind. But I also feel like I need time to properly review papers, not just speed-run loads.
I need at least a B in maths for uni (would love an A) and I’m usually getting Cs/Bs at the moment.
Did anyone actually manage to do all the papers? How did you prioritise what to focus on?
Any advice would be really appreciated 🙂
All year my maths teachers told us to save papers for the last few months, but now I’ve counted them and there are so many. For Edexcel Maths alone there are about 110 papers on PMT (not even including old spec), plus around 27 Biology and 27 Chemistry papers too.
I’m trying to balance content revision, blurting, memorising, and topic practice as well, so I don’t know how people realistically get through everything without just rushing papers.
I’ve seen a lot of people online who got As/A*s say they did basically every question or paper multiple times, which makes me feel behind. But I also feel like I need time to properly review papers, not just speed-run loads.
I need at least a B in maths for uni (would love an A) and I’m usually getting Cs/Bs at the moment.
Did anyone actually manage to do all the papers? How did you prioritise what to focus on?
Any advice would be really appreciated 🙂
Reply 1
Hey. Whilst I'm not doing A-Level, if doing Higher (the Scottish equivalent), I don't think it's necessary to do all of those past papers.
What I recommend is starting with the most recent and working your way back the closer you get to exams. It's really up to you how often you do past papers (e.g., you might want to do one year's worth of past papers per subject each week, or you might find that to be too much). I'd say do as much as you can without overdoing it and burning out.
It also may depend on the subject (e.g., you'll maybe have to do more past papers for maths because the best way to revise for it is through practice).
I hope this helps. 😊
What I recommend is starting with the most recent and working your way back the closer you get to exams. It's really up to you how often you do past papers (e.g., you might want to do one year's worth of past papers per subject each week, or you might find that to be too much). I'd say do as much as you can without overdoing it and burning out.
It also may depend on the subject (e.g., you'll maybe have to do more past papers for maths because the best way to revise for it is through practice).
I hope this helps. 😊
Reply 2
Original post
by …:)I’m in Year 13 and starting to feel pretty overwhelmed about past papers.
All year my maths teachers told us to save papers for the last few months, but now I’ve counted them and there are so many. For Edexcel Maths alone there are about 110 papers on PMT (not even including old spec), plus around 27 Biology and 27 Chemistry papers too.
I’m trying to balance content revision, blurting, memorising, and topic practice as well, so I don’t know how people realistically get through everything without just rushing papers.
I’ve seen a lot of people online who got As/A*s say they did basically every question or paper multiple times, which makes me feel behind. But I also feel like I need time to properly review papers, not just speed-run loads.
I need at least a B in maths for uni (would love an A) and I’m usually getting Cs/Bs at the moment.
Did anyone actually manage to do all the papers? How did you prioritise what to focus on?
Any advice would be really appreciated 🙂
All year my maths teachers told us to save papers for the last few months, but now I’ve counted them and there are so many. For Edexcel Maths alone there are about 110 papers on PMT (not even including old spec), plus around 27 Biology and 27 Chemistry papers too.
I’m trying to balance content revision, blurting, memorising, and topic practice as well, so I don’t know how people realistically get through everything without just rushing papers.
I’ve seen a lot of people online who got As/A*s say they did basically every question or paper multiple times, which makes me feel behind. But I also feel like I need time to properly review papers, not just speed-run loads.
I need at least a B in maths for uni (would love an A) and I’m usually getting Cs/Bs at the moment.
Did anyone actually manage to do all the papers? How did you prioritise what to focus on?
Any advice would be really appreciated 🙂
You're feeling overwhelmed because you're thinking you need to do every paper, but the truth is that most A/A* students don't complete all of them, what matters is quality of review, not quantity. Spend as much time analyzing your mistakes as you did completing the paper, identify weak topics and go back to targeted questions rather than rushing onto the next paper.
Trenyce (Kingston rep)
Reply 3
Original post
by Kingston TrenyceHi,
You're feeling overwhelmed because you're thinking you need to do every paper, but the truth is that most A/A* students don't complete all of them, what matters is quality of review, not quantity. Spend as much time analyzing your mistakes as you did completing the paper, identify weak topics and go back to targeted questions rather than rushing onto the next paper.
Trenyce (Kingston rep)
You're feeling overwhelmed because you're thinking you need to do every paper, but the truth is that most A/A* students don't complete all of them, what matters is quality of review, not quantity. Spend as much time analyzing your mistakes as you did completing the paper, identify weak topics and go back to targeted questions rather than rushing onto the next paper.
Trenyce (Kingston rep)
Will absolutely agree with this - I think the most important part is analysing weak bits and working on those! Of course the more papers you get through the better but in the end the grade you get about what you can do in the exam, not how many past papers you got through.
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