What’s the best way to improve in maths tests (A’level)?

[Cushionsarecomfy]

DS has really good comprehension and gets maths concepts easily (all his teachers say this). He should be doing really well in maths tests but he always under performs. How can he rectify this in time for his A’levels this summer?

practice questions.
more practice questions.
some more practice questions.

Thanks that’s it then. I’ll get him to print off past papers and keep working through them. Any other tips?

It was always repetition for me. Keep doing those past papers, revision book question and online tests (does the school give access to Hegarty Maths?)

Does he go over the tests he does poorly in to see what sort of mistakes he is using? (not spotting the method, doing the method wrong, silly mistakes etc)

It takes a lot of time. Tell him to expect that. Lots of repetition and past papers

Came on to say practice, practice, practice. But see I've been beaten to it!
Yes to going through questions you didn't get right to see where the mistakes are - and redoing the question a week later to see if you can do it then.

He needs to understand why he went wrong for every single question he gets wrong. (He should ask his teachers). It's important to understand all the details, not just the concepts. And learn the method for solving particular problems by repetition. It's one thing to understand in theory but another to be able to 'do' in practice. I think it's a little dangerous to be able to pick up the concepts easily, because to be honest, there is a lot of dull puzzling and plodding and not much spark of genius required to do well at maths. I was called a plodder at maths and agreed with the statement . I got my first, a prize, and a PhD. Unlike the person who called me a plodder!

The good news about all this practice now is that no last minute revision is needed for maths.

It’s not just practice though, his exam technique may also need to be looked at. Is he properly reading the questions and answering exactly what they ask? Is he showing each stage of his working, clearly?

Getting the right answer is not enough, showing how he got it also matters.

My son did a residential course at Wellington College in Easter term before A levels. 5 days of maths, only 4 other students doing same board curriculum. He got a D in January mocks, a B at A level . Money well spent but I understand not possible for everyone. In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have taken maths A level as he never enjoyed it.

CGP practice question books are good (and cheap). They tend to start with easier questions for each topic and get harder. My DS went through the book doing the first half or so in each section, then went through again to do the harder ones and then did the exam papers at the back of the book. Spread over the last year. Just an hour or so every few days. He got an A*.

@Cushionsarecomfy an effective way to study would be to open the maths past paper on a computer/laptop, then in another tab or a different screen have the mark scheme. Literally go through each question one at a time. Solve it, check the mark scheme against his answer. If he gets one wrong, identify what category it falls under and then he works on that.

If he has sat papers in school, he should redo the questions he got wrong and see if he can now get them right. But maths is all about practise, practise, practise.

I used to prep for maths exams as follows:

Step 1. Exam questions, with the text book available, not timing it at all, til I was happy I could remember the techniques etc

Step 2. Exam questions, without the text book, but still not to time. However, I did time how long it took so I could see how far off time I was.

Then Step 3. Past papers, to time, under exam conditions.

How is your son's exam technique?

I assume given it's A level that he's comfortable with the fact that if it's a 90 minute paper with 60 marks then a 6 mark question gets a max of 9 minutes etc. If not make sure he starts using that to manage his time.

Does he go through and do all the questions he is happy with first? I would always recommend looking at a question, deciding pretty sharpish if you're happy with what to do with it (even part of it). If you're happy you know how to do it, do the whole thing. If you know how to do the first bits, do those then see if how to do the rest has appeared in your head. If not, move on and worry about the rest later. If you can't remember any of it, move on straight away. Then once you've been through the whole paper, you know you have got every mark you can easily get, and you're into the swing of the exam. You then repeat the process, sometimes you'll have calmed down enough to know what you're doing for another couple of questions, if not you can decide to have a go at the one you have a vague idea for. If you have done plenty of practice how to do it will often come back as muscle memory.

My stance with exams is that they are game, where you don't get to decide the rules, and if you try and play it by different rules you lose. That means maximising the marks you can get first, managing your time pretty ruthlessly to so you don't spend ages on a single question, and making sure you do the easy wins of showing your workings and checking there's not a question on the back page of your exam paper.