At Bethany, we offer pupils the opportunity to sit their Maths examination early, which gives pupils, either the opportunity to bank their Maths grade, or the chance in the summer to try and achieve a better grade or move onto the Additional Maths FMSQ. This is often a nervous time but there are a number of benefits to doing this, but I believe it is best coming from the current Year 11 pupils, who have some top tips for future year groups on how to be successful.
Harrison Smith, who achieved a grade 4 in the November examinations, said
I think the best advice would be to do lots of work before the exam.
I made sure that I had learned all of the facts that I needed, such as formulas for circles and facts about angles so that I knew these before I went into the exam.
I really annoyed my parents by telling them over and over again all of the things that I needed to know, but it helped me to remember them so I’m not that bothered about annoying them.
I would definitely drain all the maths teachers, keep asking them loads, even small questions. It was probably really annoying but it helped me and it worked.
Doing loads of past papers helped as well, so I knew what to expect when I went into the exam. Over the holiday before the exam I think I did like 8 papers and went over the answers really carefully. I probably didn’t pay attention enough in Year 10, which probably wasn’t good but I did put loads of effort in in the end.
I also used YouTube videos of people showing you how to do things, and also the Dr Frost videos. I also got Mr Manktelow to make me a task on Dr Frost when I wanted to practice a certain skill which was really good. Also the Maths Nightclubs we did in lessons were good for revising.
I definitely benefited from doing the exam in November, I just wanted to pass Maths, as I have always found it hard. I didn’t think I was quite ready but on the practice papers I was quite consistent.
It has benefited my other subjects as I haven’t done Maths since the results in January so I have had more time to do my coursework and get ready for my other exams. It also got me used to doing exams in the hall so I haven’t been as nervous this summer.
I wasn’t really nervous on the day of the exam, no that’s a lie, everyone is nervous but I walked into school looking on the bright side, I didn’t want any negative talk so I just tried to be and think positive stuff.
I am really proud it went well.
Emilia Dillon, who achieved a Grade 5 in November, had the following advice:
When you are revising the best advice would be to do past papers that feel as if it is everlasting, do so many that you get bored of doing them! I would also say that watching videos online and listening to podcasts are really good as I quite like to learn visually and audibly.
But for me the most effective way was practice questions, and then using mark schemes and papers that teachers had done so that I could understand what went wrong, I even found some errors that Mr Manktelow had made!
The least effective revision technique was procrastinating, you just have to get on with it, I also didn’t really like looking at examples in textbooks, these were not very effective.
I have found doing the early entry in November very beneficial as by doing the exam early I have been able to focus on my other subjects that I like more than Maths and wanted to do well in those as well.
When the exams came I was confident that I could do well but I still felt nervous because it was my first GCSE and wasn’t sure is going to come up and how I would deal with it. But I am glad that I did do it, as it helped me to get an idea of what the best techniques were for me so that has helped my revision for other subjects this summer.
I would also say try preparing for exams with friends as it is really useful to revise with other people as you can talk about things and give each other ideas, but also teachers are all really good as helping all of us understand things.
Finally Tilly Etherington, who sat the Higher Tier examination in June to try and get a Grade 7 or better had this advice:
I did the Foundation Maths exam in November of Year 11, it definitely helped me doing it early as it meant that I got a confidence boost going into the summer. I never really thought I was that good at Maths before but getting a 5 made me think that I could actually do it. Some of my friends got a 5 and stopped doing Maths which was good for them, as it meant that they had got it out the way before the summer, and for me it meant that I knew what to expect this summer.
My advice would be for anyone that does the Foundation and then the Higher, that you revise all the easier things as well. The start of the Higher paper is the end of the Foundation paper, so even if you can do stuff at the end, you can drop marks on the easier stuff that you have just forgotten as you haven’t done it for a while.
I didn’t really work that hard in Year 10, so I had a bit to catch up on, which makes it harder to learn some of the hard topics in Year 11, as they use stuff you have done before, so if you have to relearn that stuff as well it makes it harder.
I don’t really like Dr Frost as I feel that I need to write things down, I don’t like doing stuff in my head and then putting an answer in, I need to write it all down. I find that writing stuff out lots of times helps me to remember stuff. In my other subjects I don’t really write things I use a laptop but I find that for Maths writing helps me, as they are skills that I have learnt by doing them lots of times so that they become familiar and I don’t have to really think about them.
Obviously I did lots of past papers, but I didn’t just do each exam paper 1 after the other, I really liked watching videos, The GCSE Maths Tutor on YouTube is really good, as you can watch stuff, and then pause it to practice the questions and then get the answers. I would practice each topic and then go and do those questions on past papers so that I knew that I could do them correctly.
