Why You’ll Miss Out On Your Target Grade In GCSE Maths

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I didn’t want to start off this blog post in a negative light but I had to warn you about this small issue that will prevent you from achieving your target grade…

Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes, including myself. It’s part of human nature. In an exam, it’s easy to make mistakes. The atmosphere is tense and you’re under pressure.

Maths is a unique subject because, unlike most other subjects, there is only one correct answer. As part of your solution, you carry out some working but this all leads to a single answer. Now, if you make a mistake early on in your working, it will follow through and your final answer will be incorrect. This is why it’s so easy to make silly mistakes and lose marks in your GCSE maths exam.

Convince yourself now that you will make silly mistakes in your maths exam because it will happen. I’ve marked many student’s practice papers in the past (as a result of 1-to-1 tutoring) and the number of marks lost due to silly mistakes can be as high as 10% of the overall score. This means you could lose up to 10 marks (usually the papers are out of 100) just through silly mistakes.

Here comes the important bit. Let’s suppose you are striving for a ‘B’ grade in your GCSE maths exam. If you aim to scrape a B grade, you’ll miss out due to the silly mistakes you’re bound to make. This happens in most cases. That’s why you should aim for a score that is, at least, 10% greater than the grade boundary. If you need to score 50 marks to get a ‘B’, you should aim for a score of at least 60. This extra 10 marks act as a safety margin in case you happen to make those silly mistakes in the real thing. Even better, you should aim for the next grade up – A. Not only does it guarantee the ‘B’ grade but it also raises your aspirations.

There you have it. That’s how you can almost guarantee your target grade in GCSE maths. It’s a simple rule of thumb yet it’s very powerful. In my GCSE Maths Revision System, I advise my students to, not only aim for just 60 or 70 marks in their exam, but to strive for 100% and no less. This is because I believe students are much more intelligent than they think. It’s just external influences that make them think otherwise. However, scoring 100% is a different ball game altogether and to achieve that, you’ll need to follow all of my guidelines in my GCSE Maths Revision System.

Revision For Paper 1 And Paper 2

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There are usually two papers in GCSE maths; a non-calculator paper and a calculator paper. Sometimes you may get more. For instance, the AQA 4360 spec has 3 papers and the OCR modular spec has more than 3 papers. For the sake of convenience, let’s assume you only have 2 papers. You may ask, “When do I stop revising for both papers and only concentrate on paper 1 as this is coming up first?”

Well, the general rule of thumb I use is the space between the first and second papers. Suppose the first paper is on a Wednesday and your second paper is on a Friday. The space between the two exams is simply 2 days. That means you should give yourself 2 clear days to revise for paper 1. On Monday of that particular week, you would stop any revision for paper 2 and concentrate solely on paper 1. You will continue to revise for paper 1 until your paper 1 exam is over. Then immediately after, you revise for paper 2. Revision before Monday is split evenly across both papers.

After the exams have took place, you’ll notice that the same amount of revision was dedicated to both papers. That’s the aim here because you want to maximise your result in both exams. Remember this is a general rule of thumb. You can approach each paper however way you like, just make sure that the same amount of time (approximately) is spent on each one.

For a more detailed analysis of approaching multiple exams in one go, see my GCSE Maths In Four Weeks Program.

Keep Yourself Motivated!

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Motivation is very important during revision. Motivation is what drives you to work. At times, revision will become tedious and motivation levels will drop. When this happens, it is important to quickly restore your motivation levels. What separates an ‘A’ grade student from a ‘B’ grade student is their ability to sustain motivation.

A well structured revision plan can boost motivation. This is because you know, in advance, what you are going to do. Student’s without a plan revise spontaneously. They read through a large textbook and answer the odd exam paper. This is not very effective at all. After a while, negativity starts to creep in. Students begin to think, “why am I doing this? Is this really going to work? Forget it. I’ll do whatever I can”. At this point, they’ve lost their focus and it’s unlikely for them to succeed.

Remember, different students have different ways to motivate themselves. It’s just a case of finding out what motivates you the most. Personally, whenever I lack motivation or the will to work, I’ll listen to an inspirational song/video or visualize the exam certificate in my hand with the A* grade on it. Just imagine the euphoria you would get when you open your results envelope and see this (with your name on it):

Certificate

Perhaps you could print this out and write your name on it. Then, place it somewhere where it’s clearly visible. Whenever you feel flustered, just look at the certificate.

How To Carry Out Your Revision

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Now that you’ve drawn up a revision plan, you’re probably wondering how to go about it. Your revision plan may consist of a list of tasks to do on a particular day and you may ask, when and how should I complete each task?

There are usually two ways that I do this:

Complete all tasks by a set time: I may give myself a deadline to complete all of my tasks by. For example, this could be 3pm in the afternoon. Now that you have a cut-off for revision, you need to predict how long each task will take and whether you’ll complete them by this 3pm deadline. You may have to wake-up slightly earlier on this day so you can begin early. Or, you may have to increase the intensity just so you can finish by 3pm. In essence, you carry out your revision earlier in the day. The great thing about this method is once you reach this cut-off, you are free to do whatever you want for the rest of the day.
Revision in short bursts: Sometimes it can be difficult to revise for long periods of time in the morning because fatigue starts to creep in. When this happens, its best not continue with revision because your brain switches off and thus, information will not stick. This is why, whenever I feel mentally drained, I leave revision for a while and focus on a completely different activity (note, your body will tell you when you should take a break). When I’m re-energised, I return to my books. In practise, I revise for 1 or 2 hours, take an hour break, revise for another hour, take another break and repeat this process. This is an alternative way of carrying out your revision.

Ultimately, it’s your decision. Choose a revision system that suit you. There isn’t a ‘better’ way. I like to incorporate both.

Why Sleep Is Important During Exams

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Sleeping is important during revision for two reasons: memory retention and memory recitation. I’ve explained what each of these things mean below:

1) Memory Retention – Memory retention simply means the ability to store information. You probably heard of the cliche ‘sleep on it’ many times before but it’s actually true. As you know, the brain never ‘sleeps’. It continues to ‘digest’ the information that you’ve just put in front of it when you’re sleeping. That’s why I would recommend that you revise your notes page just prior to going to bed. Let those important concepts flow through your mind until you drift off to sleep. Then, let your brain do all the rest.

2) Memory Recitation – Memory recitation is very important too. It just means how well you can recall things. The information is stored in your mind but your brain has to retrieve it. I’m sure you’ve been in the situation before where someone has asked you a question and you know the answer but you just cannot locate it in your brain. You don’t want this to occur in the exam. You don’t want to say to yourself: ‘I know this but I cannot remember that all-important step or formula’. After a good night’s sleep, memory recitation is stronger. The brain is able to dive more deeper into the temporal lobe (the part of the brain where memory is stored) and see what information is currently there.

These two factors are very important if you want to achieve an A or A* in GCSE maths. As you now know, sleep can play a huge part in improving these two things. Never sacrifice sleep during revision. Sleep should be one of your highest priorities. If you have to free-up time, sacrifice other things.