GCSE Maths- How to revise for a grade 9
1) PAST PAPERS
➢ The best way to revise for GCSE Maths is to complete past papers- questions and topics often repeat
across the years. Doing past papers can give you an overview of the main knowledge and topics that
you should know, as there are specific topics that repeat each year and are quite common. I
recommend doing at least 1 past paper for maths every week. These can be found on Mathsgenie or
your exam board website.
➢ Once these are completed, completing the past papers from other exam boards can help you to
increase your maths skills (my exam board for maths was Edexcel but once I had completed all the past
papers for Edexcel available, I did all the past papers from OCR and AQA)
➢ I would say that doing past papers is the best form of revision for maths, but it is important that you
do this in the right way. What I would do is complete a past paper in timed conditions (e.g. 1hr 30
mins for an Edexcel paper) and then also mark it immediately after using the mark scheme, giving
yourself a score and grade (grade boundaries can be searched up). This part is crucial to help you to
see what topics/ questions you struggle in. Following this, you can look up the topics you struggle in
on Mathsgenie or Corbettmaths and complete the exam booklet on that topic (after watching the
videos if you need to).
➢ The next thing to do is to find all the areas in the exam where you made ‘silly mistakes’(e.g. mixing
up the + or – signs) and make a list of these. This list can help you to remember the common silly
mistakes you make. Having a list of these to read through before completing a past paper is extremely
beneficial in serving as a reminder of what basic mistakes you shouldn’t be making, so that you stop
making these mistakes after a while, leaving mainly the questions you struggle in to tackle. And yes,
this does take time but it is all worth it in the end :)
➢ Over time, your scores should increase as the more you practice, the more you become familiar with
the questions, topics, the format of the questions, etc. Often, you probably know the topic but the
application of the topic in the questions in the exam may be difficult, so practicing can help.
➢ This one helps a lot- if you still don’t understand how to get the answer to a question, you can watch
a walkthrough of that past paper on Mathsgenie.
2) Practice questions
➢ The next best way to study GCSE Maths is to complete questions on specific topics that you
struggle in or aren’t familiar with. Many questions have the same format and technique but with
different numbers so by doing these, you are learning the method for that topic.
➢ These can be found on Corbettmaths and Mathsgenie for main/ basic topics. To get more difficult
questions for further practice you can use Justmaths question booklets.
➢ The most effective way to do practice questions is to attempt a booklet, mark it and look at the
‘worked solutions’ mark scheme for questions you got wrong. If you still don’t understand how to
do the question, watch a video on how to answer these types of questions using Mathsgenie,
corbettmaths or Hegarty maths.
3) Videos
➢ Watching walkthroughs of past exam papers are useful especially if you struggle in answering
exam-style questions.
➢ The GCSE Maths Tutor has videos on every single topic and also summaries of the whole GCSE
specification.
1) PAST PAPERS
➢ The best way to revise for GCSE Maths is to complete past papers- questions and topics often repeat
across the years. Doing past papers can give you an overview of the main knowledge and topics that
you should know, as there are specific topics that repeat each year and are quite common. I
recommend doing at least 1 past paper for maths every week. These can be found on Mathsgenie or
your exam board website.
➢ Once these are completed, completing the past papers from other exam boards can help you to
increase your maths skills (my exam board for maths was Edexcel but once I had completed all the past
papers for Edexcel available, I did all the past papers from OCR and AQA)
➢ I would say that doing past papers is the best form of revision for maths, but it is important that you
do this in the right way. What I would do is complete a past paper in timed conditions (e.g. 1hr 30
mins for an Edexcel paper) and then also mark it immediately after using the mark scheme, giving
yourself a score and grade (grade boundaries can be searched up). This part is crucial to help you to
see what topics/ questions you struggle in. Following this, you can look up the topics you struggle in
on Mathsgenie or Corbettmaths and complete the exam booklet on that topic (after watching the
videos if you need to).
➢ The next thing to do is to find all the areas in the exam where you made ‘silly mistakes’(e.g. mixing
up the + or – signs) and make a list of these. This list can help you to remember the common silly
mistakes you make. Having a list of these to read through before completing a past paper is extremely
beneficial in serving as a reminder of what basic mistakes you shouldn’t be making, so that you stop
making these mistakes after a while, leaving mainly the questions you struggle in to tackle. And yes,
this does take time but it is all worth it in the end :)
➢ Over time, your scores should increase as the more you practice, the more you become familiar with
the questions, topics, the format of the questions, etc. Often, you probably know the topic but the
application of the topic in the questions in the exam may be difficult, so practicing can help.
➢ This one helps a lot- if you still don’t understand how to get the answer to a question, you can watch
a walkthrough of that past paper on Mathsgenie.
2) Practice questions
➢ The next best way to study GCSE Maths is to complete questions on specific topics that you
struggle in or aren’t familiar with. Many questions have the same format and technique but with
different numbers so by doing these, you are learning the method for that topic.
➢ These can be found on Corbettmaths and Mathsgenie for main/ basic topics. To get more difficult
questions for further practice you can use Justmaths question booklets.
➢ The most effective way to do practice questions is to attempt a booklet, mark it and look at the
‘worked solutions’ mark scheme for questions you got wrong. If you still don’t understand how to
do the question, watch a video on how to answer these types of questions using Mathsgenie,
corbettmaths or Hegarty maths.
3) Videos
➢ Watching walkthroughs of past exam papers are useful especially if you struggle in answering
exam-style questions.
➢ The GCSE Maths Tutor has videos on every single topic and also summaries of the whole GCSE
specification.
