GCSE Maths Tuition

Introduction – new grade system

The specification has been updated in 2015 with the first exams
under the new specification taking place in 2017. As part of this change, a new
grading structure was also introduced to give sixth forms, colleges,
universities and employers the opportunities to better distinguish between
students of different abilities. Here is the breakdown of the grades and the
corresponding level equivalent.

We can therefore see that grade 7 to 9 is equivalent to the
grade A/A*. 

So, how do you secure the top grades (A/A*) for GCSE Mathematics? We break it down in 8 steps split between 5 free strategies and 3 paid approaches.

1. Understand Your Current Situation (Strengths/Weaknesses and any Gaps in Knowledge)

Most students in the UK undertake the Edexcel Examboard for GCSE Mathematics so we will be using this as a means of explaining of how to secure the best grades for GCSE Maths.

For the Edexcel Examboard, Maths is divided into 5 big chapters, namely being Number, Algebra, Ratios – proportions and rates of change, geometry and measures, statistics and probability. The Edexcel examboard gives us an outline of the weighting for each chapter for GCSE Maths as seen below.

Within each chapter – there is a whole list of GCSE maths topics that need to be known. We can see that GCSE Algebra makes up approximately 1/3 of the Higher GCSE Maths examination. It is therefore essential that you make sure you are confident in this chapter as it has such a huge weighting in GCSE Maths.

It is also crucial to understand your strengths and weaknesses so that you could focus on the chapter or topics within GCSE Maths that you struggle with most. A mistake that students tend to make is they spend many hours doing GCSE maths questions and topics that they already know. To improve your grade and help you secure the A/A* grade (7 to 9), you must focus on your weak maths topics!

So how do I figure out what my weak maths topics are!? This is discussed in the next point.

2. Do LOTS of Maths Exam Papers

Doing exam papers is THE quickest way to help boost your grade as you’re doing practice for a variety of different maths topics in one go.

Exam papers not only help boost your confidence, exam techniques and improve your timing with exams, but they also help you identify the maths questions that you struggle with most and help you identify any missing gaps you may have in GCSE maths. For example, you may realise that you get all geometry questions correct but struggle a lot with graph questions. So you now know that you need to do questions by topic for graph questions till your confident! (see point 3)

As a tip – do make sure you self-mark your own maths exam papers so that you can track your GCSE maths grade or score. You can also obtain private GCSE maths tuition to get your work checked and marked by a qualified tutor.

3. Do Questions by Topic for your Weak Topic(s)

Once you’ve completed a GCSE maths past paper and have a list of topics you need to work on, you need to do lots of maths exam questions for these weaker topics till you understand and feel confident with the topic. The website we recommend to use to obtain a list of GCSE Maths exam-style questions and answers for a specific topic is Maths Genie.

An important point is if you are in Y11 and have exams round the corner then to make sure that you don’t spend TOO much time doing questions just for one maths topic and overlooking the other maths topics, otherwise that won’t be as helpful in boosting your GCSE maths grade and you won’t have time to cover everything else.

So, you may have tried doing exam questions, and questions by topic for GCSE Maths but are still struggling or are running out of time – what do you do then!?

This is where we recommend the paid options being GCSE Maths tuition, courses and academic coaching (see below).

4. Attempt ALL questions and show FULL working outs

Students tend to lose SO many marks in GCSE Maths because
they don’t show their working outs. Don’t skip steps and try doing things from
your head as you will lose so many marks – more marks than you would have
thought. As a Maths tutor, I’ve seen this so many times. I’ve also realised
that when people show their working outs it helps them answer a question that initially
seemed very challenging and one that they had a feeling to skip. To achieve
grade 8 and 9 you CAN’T miss or skip ANY questions. EVERY mark counts!

5. Understand the mistakes you do and NEVER do them again!

7. Fast track with GCSE Maths Courses

•       CONDENSED summary of different types of GCSE maths exam questions for EACH topic

•       Video solutions for all different types of GCSE exam questions booklet

•       Get ALL 3 GCSE Algebra Tests AND Answers

To purchase this GCSE maths course or to find out more information on the contents then click here!