This is a distillation of my presentations in November 2016 to the Maths in Action days run by The Training Partnership in London and Warwick and to the Coopers Company and Coborn School in January 2017. A teacher version is here.
KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Topic guide
Either your school will have prepared one or the exam board have them on their website
Make sure you read it; anything you don’t understand you need to ask about
Weak areas
Find what you’re not good at and do something about it
Get help from your teacher or one of the websites listed below
Strong areas
Don’t ignore what you’re good at, it’s always nice to turn to a familiar topic
PRACTISE WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Best practice
Work as if it is the real thing, without distractions; you can’t play Spotify in the exam room
Take care with your layout and give full working; method marks add up really quickly even if you don’t quite solve the questions
Quality vs quantity
Use of variety of sources so that you tackle a real range of question styles
Make sure that you are doing questions that are sufficiently challenging
Use of support when stuck
blind copying is not learning; help from friends and family is fine but make them explain why
If you are helping a friend, insist on showing them how to work it out
Highlight where you had help, help your teacher to help you; if they don’t know that you find the topic difficult they won’t do anything about it
USE WHAT YOU KNOW YOU KNOW
If in doubt, do some maths
Find the maths amongst the distractions
Look for cue words
Break the question down into simpler tasks
Don’t worry about tricky bits until you get to them
Look out for separate sub-questions that you can do without tackling an earlier tricky bit
Use your time wisely
Use the marks to tell you how long to take
Have a good go but don’t waste time
Do you understand/need to do the question?
Have you answered the actual question or have you just done some maths and need to do something with that value?
Checking: most pupils are rubbish at this!
Numbers – not just correct digits but correct info
Process – not just ‘add the add question’ but correct interpreting of the cue words
Maths – finally, you can check the actual maths. Look for common mistakes eg signs when multiplying with negatives, missing terms with brackets, plus c when integrating
RESOURCES
BBC Bitesize for GCSE – an oldy but goody
The Student Room – Forums and support for GCSE and A level
Khan Academy Math [US focus] – effectively GCSE and A level but with a US focus, lots of really good videos
SingingHedgehog – my website! Helppages and randomised worksheets with answers
Manga High – compete against classmates and the world up to GCSE but good for core skills at A level, best if school registers
nrich – weekly problems plus live puzzles to solve and explain up to A level.
Corbett Maths – GCSE and C1, daily 5 a day tasks plus many other good things
Plus Magazine – Plus magazine aimed at 16+ students with articles and puzzles
Mr Barton Maths – GCSE and A level, questions and videos and many other good things
Mr Carter Maths – GCSE comprehensive collection of differentiated tasks
Physics and Maths Tutor – collection of tiered A level papers
Twitter – questions from @ukmt, @corbettmaths; random stuff from @singinghedgehog
Geeky cartoons to enjoy:
XKCD – a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language
Spiked Math – a math comic dedicated to humor, educate and entertain the geek in you
SMBC – Saturday Morning Breakfast Club, cartoons about maths, science and life