Improving maths GCSE grade

[Elizo]

Hi all - advice appreciated. DS been v strong on maths in lower years of secondary. Dipped a bit last year. Now got a strong 6 in mock (all 3 Edexcel papers) but wants/ needs 7 or 8. He got low six end year 10. Any advice on strategy he can use? School use sparx so lots of homework on that but read other sites better. He needs a simple strategy so doesn’t feel overwhelmed with options/ resources.

Thanks so much

Do you know where he is dropping marks? For example, is he still not fully secure in some of the concepts? Or is he struggling with exam technique?

By this point in Y11 I'd say that working through past papers is a good place to start. This will highlight both knowledge gaps and weaknesses in exam technique. After each paper, he can then go away and plug those gaps using whichever resources he finds most helpful. Rinse and repeat.

Look at papers he has done recently and identify patterns in missed marks or general weak topics. Work on the weaknesses.

Agree with pp - past papers are the answer. You can download the mark scheme and see exactly where points were lost eg marks can be awarded for various steps in an answer but will not be awarded where working is not shown. You can then determine which marks were lost due to knowledge gaps or errors and which due to exam technique.

Thank all. Good question from @thesunisastar They do a RAG rating for topics on basis of mock so will look at that with him. My feeling is it is content more than exam technique but will see what he thinks. I think in class they have focused on getting them secure at grade 6 (practice papers for homework always first half) so possibly not covered higher material (or not in depth). Re. past papers obviously limited for one exam board, so how do you source them?
Appreciate your help.

Past papers are on exam board website.
Edexcel search for Pearson.

Thanks yeah.’But they only go back so far so he will run out of his exam board quite quickly. Wondering if other boards similar

You could use other boards, it is all the same syllabus.
There are quite a lot of papers however. Maths 1-9 started in 2017 I think, and 2 sets a year so 6 papers per year.

You need to both look at his past mock papers and also his end of year 10 papers. This is about identifying why he didn't get full marks. They start a paper with zero then gain marks answering questions. For every question he didn't get full marks on what is his missing? Understanding that and going back over stuff is better than looking forward for a little while. He still has a lot of time.

If he sat those year 10 papers now would he get it all correct or not? They should have gone over it in class afterwards so he should now know where he went wrong but can he remember what he missed? For any parent reading this and their child is in year 10 this is what summer of year 10 is best spent doing, weeks of acing out their year 10 stuff before they start year 11 adding on to it, for all subjects if they want to improve their grades.

Definitely go back over the papers he has done before moving onto testing him on exam papers he hasn't sat yet.

You are saying he wants/needs a 7 or 8 is this a personal choice thing or entry to a sixth form or A level maths? If it is for A level maths then a 7 can be problematic in terms of expectations of A level grades. A maths teacher posted about this a while ago which I can link if needed.

Agree, identify the weaker areas where marks are being missed. Can they work through the wordier questions, understand what is required and clearly show answers at each stage. Do they show workings to get credit even if final answer is wrong.

I spent half an hour or so with my child doing maths every night The more he could do the more his enjoyment of the subject grew and the more his motivation grew. He got a* at gcse and did maths A level and ended up with a first in integrated master in engineering at a Russel group uni.

Thank you. Am aware of the correlation and challenges of doing A level with a 7 (saw that post). DS not decided yet what he wants to do but wants to keep as many options open as possible. He was always close to top of year until about a year ago, not sure if work too hard for him/ lack of focus or what. Will definitely get the papers out and go over. I’m no mathematician but with answer scheme etc hopefully we can make some progress.

My DS hated maths but found this revision book the most helpful (just as wlel, for the price of it!!) - https://www.gcsemathsinfourweeks.com/revision-guide-ca3

Last year we subscribed to onmaths.co.uk. It's not cheap but it is good. Lots of mini mocks, questions on specific topics, predicted papers. All backed up with good videos. My ds said it was probably the best resource he used across the whole of his gcse revision.

Different board - but particular topics can be found and worked answers

https://www.mathsdiy.com/

https://www.mathsdiy.com/maths-questions-by-topic/

Also you can buy workbooks -

GCSE Maths Edexcel Workbook: Higher (includes Answers): for the 2025 and 2026 exams - you could buy and get him to work through.

There should like PP say be past papers from the exam board sites.

As long as you have the maths skills to work though were he's gone wrong - then practise questions are best way I believe to revise and improve maths.

Extra explanations - well you tube or khanacademy can help and he could always approach the teacher.

DC school have switched to spark maths - it's shit - the teachers have gone back to the I think mathswatch - well what every they were using before.

Most schools for a mock will do a rag analysis.

So he will be able to see which topics he got green on (knows and got all the marks), which ones he is amber in and which ones he did not know.

The papers go from easy to hard (odd exceptions but generally true).

He should focus on the amber topics first. These are usually exam technique/incomplete understanding.

Other exam boards papers are broadly similar.

Physics and maths tutor, do all the past papers, from all the exam boards. My DD was predicted a 2 in her maths GCSE in sept, working at a 1, and she's just got a 5 in her mocks. 30mins everyday of practise papers and Sparx, they have to be determined though. Past papers and more past papers is the only way imo.

Wow well done your DD!

Thanks, her maths teacher is magic and has made her fall in love with maths. She wants to do it for A Level now! I'm not sure you can go from a 1 to a 7 in a year but she seems determined. Tbf the ability is obviously there, but she's never tried much. Was always in lowest sets do assumed she just couldn't do maths. She's in a mixed set atm and it's completely changed her perspective on maths, she finds the hard questions much much easier than the easier but very wordy ones. Which apparently is common!

So impressive. DS has started going over his papers and the questions he got wrong. I found mathsgenie has a very useful video explainer for every question in case the mark scheme isn’t enough. Next set of mocks March- I’m sure he can nail this 🤞🏻🤞🏻Really appreciate everyone’s advice.

Even at GCSE level, the sausage-machine students may not be able to access the hardest questions to get top grades. They require a degree of reasoning ability, which some students just don't have the aptitude for.

My DC school have a varied level of 'top set' expectations from 9-6.

Sparx is for lower set so I would say 5. They use a lot of 'past papers' that have been created (not sure where teacher got them) from actual past papers and do 3 per week since October.

My older DC was in a different school where top set were the 9s. He was in set 3 and had an awful teacher in Y10 (don't often diss teachers but he was bad!). It really set him back to a predicted 6. We paid for a very good tutor from Jan Y11 who was £60 p/h but also marked exams so knew exactly where and how to get marks. She got him through to get a high 7, which he needed for his A level choices. However my DS then used his 7 to do Maths and Physics A level. He coped OK with Y12 but Y13 was a bit beyond him. With hard work and tutoring he got Ds. I kind of wish he'd got a 6 at GCSE and then he would have been forced to look at other options where he is stronger (his purge A level was a B) but he was very adamant he wanted to do physics and maths as he enjoyed them the most (at GCSE).

I think if your child is struggling now, it's great to try and get him the best grade possible. BUT don't use that grade to do A levels which may be beyond him.

And also to say, he put so much work into Maths GCSE and neglected some others which, had he put the same amount of work in, he probably would have got much higher grades in.