A Level Maths - Do students who get top grades answer all the questions?

[Melony351]

DS is doing his Year 12 mocks. He's doing Further Maths which, at his school, means doing the whole A Level syllabus in Year 12 and the Further Maths syllabus in Year 13. His 'minimum target grade' (from school) for the maths A Level is an A, and he is personally aiming for an A*. Like most year 12's he has found A Levels a step up from GCSE, though his internal assessments have generally gone ok. Now that year 1 is complete, for his maths mocks he is taking the equivalent of full A Level maths papers. His experience of sitting a couple of past-papers at home, and of the exams themselves, is that on each paper there are questions that he finds very unfamiliar and difficult. He attempts them, but struggles to complete them. My question is this ... are the A Level maths papers deliberately designed to stretch the more able by including questions that will be unfamiliar, or should students aiming for top grades expect to be able to fully tackle most of the questions?

For context, DS has never needed a tutor in the past, but I'm now seeing him thrown off his stride for the first time and wondering if this is par for the course of whether he needs some help to get back on track.

*or whether he needs some help ...

I don't know but I know a lad who may...DS2 did maths this year and while I imagine he couldn't answer all the questions (target a B with an outside but v remote chance of an A) his mate is a super maths whizz so I am sure he will know. He's not surfaced yet but I will ask.

Its's an interesting point tho either way. My subject is MFL and while the A level is tough, I would expect any reasonably able student to at least have a go at every question; obviously they wouldn't get everything correct but none of the paper should be inaccessible. Maths may not be the same I guess. It's a tough call for your son after the year we have had though.

I'd suggest looking at the grade boundaries from previous years. I seem to remember (from doing a similar exercise with my DS) that you can lose quite a lot of marks (comparatively) even for an A* so would suggest you don't have to answer all the questions (as long as you're getting the one you do answer correct of course!)

Dcs all did maths A level. Repetition of question types is what worked for them. The two DCs who are less mathematically gifted worked hard and both got As, one only just missed the A*, the other only just got the A. Child who was most able didn’t put the work in and got a B. Other children who had been in the top set when younger got Bs too.

Yes, the previous paper grade boundaries do help a little, but only if you can be confident about the marking. I did maths A level myself and have a physics degree, so I did have a go at marking one of his practice papers and struggled with interpreting the marking scheme ... DS and I disagreed over some of the marks, with me being less generous than him. There were some areas where better exam technique (especially more explanation of reasoning) could have helped him gain marks in my view, whereas he was inclined to think the examiner would be able to follow his logic better than me and have more patience with his handwriting.

The grade boundaries will differ by board, but the ones shared by my DC’s school showed for maths A level in 2019:
grade boundary for B: 55
For A: 64
For A*: 80

So, provided you got close to full marks on the questions you did answer, you could miss out a few and still get an A or even A*.

Thanks. DS's exam board is Edexcel.

Are those marks you listed out of 100?

Yes, they are the percentages required.

Remember there may be weighting to specific papers though (there is in MFL).

Sorry I forgot to ask the mathematician here for his view and he has gone out now!

Ds1 is year 13 with the same full content A level maths in year 12 and FM in year 13.

He says FM makes all of maths seem more basic, ie if your son were to look back at GCSE maths now he would feel the same way. However, he should be able to identify the question type, it shouldn't feel unfamiliar. As Lizzie says he needs to just do repetition of question types to get really comfortable with it and learn to recognise it.

Ds says to use alevelmathsrevision.com/maths-categorised-exam-questions/ scroll down the Pure bit, there are videos and mark schemes to help him prepare for any exams.

Forgot to @Melony351

DS's exam board is Edexcel.

I was about to ask if it was Edexcel. Some of their past papers were awful. Notoriously so.

A* candidates wouldn't be expected to get 100% but they should be able to get a few marks from the most difficult questions. He needs to used to seeing questions he doesn't know the answer to and then just having a go. Putting down stuff that might be a start and seeing if it leads anywhere. Seeing if he can do part d) even if he has no clue on a) b) and c).

Thanks everyone. The mocks are now done, and DS seemed a little more positive afterwards, so we'll see how the results look in a couple of weeks time.