#maths resource

HOW TO GET DECENT AT MATHS

Practice - try past papers, do all the questions your teacher asks, do even more if you're not quite getting the gist of it. Using past papers is a great way to practice for your exams because you can treat it like a real exam, and it'll show you how you're doing. It gives you an idea of what you need to improve on, whether it's time management, certain topics, reading the question etc.

Ask for help - if you don't know something as well as you should, your best resource is your teacher. It took me a long time to understand that the teachers are there to help and that it's worth asking questions if and when you don't understand something. Your teacher can go over something in as much detail as you need and you can ask them questions, better than reading a textbook or watching a video if you're completely lost.

Keep your class notes - class notes may not look the part but they can help you remember the time you actually learnt the information. They will be full of examples and definitions and probably more right answers to problems than in your homework. If you don't know where your notes are (I recommend a notepad instead of loose leaf paper so all of your work is together but that's just me) then ask a friend in your class if they can send a picture of that days work.

Repeat questions - repeating questions, especially long winded ones, is one of the best way to stomp out stupid mistakes. You can repeat a question and compare your answers to see if you're still doing things right. If you don't get the same answer then you have two different approaches to a question and only one of them is right, so you can learn more about your thought process by looking at where you did things differently. Are you doing it how it should be done? Check without exam board what you are and aren't allowed to do. Got the same answer but you remembered what you were trying to get to? No, it's not cheating. You remembered the steps you needed to take to get to the solution, it's almost like you're actually learning something.

Annotate long answers - if you have an example from class that you know is right then along one side of your paper annotate the steps you're taking. This will help you remember what you need to do an when, and is especially good for questions where you have to solve things differently depending on what is actually in the question. I used this when I had to remember how to do integration by substitution because I got the steps mixed up really easily.

I found these useful whenever I was stuck:

Khan Academy - YouTube channel, hundreds of videos on many different topics

Physics and Maths Tutor - Great for GCSE and A-level students. Past papers, mark schemes, questions by topic, different exam boards, model answers etc

Exam Solutions - Similar to physics and maths tutor, loads of videos that are really helpful

WolframAlpha - If you have no idea where to go with a question or want to check your answer to something, throw it into WolframAlpha and it'll give you the solutions

HOW TO REVISE MATHS

There's loads of resources for US studyblrs and hardly any for students in the UK so I decided to throw together some tips for A-level maths and resources that I found helpful (also the tips work for GCSE I guess). I understand that everyone learns differently, this is just what I found during my time studying A-level maths and further maths.

Rewrite your notes - a slippery slope to getting overwhelmed by colour coding and copying sentences that you don't understand. Rewrite your notes in order to remember what you need to learn, not to make them look like the aesthetic posts. Making your notes pretty is absolutely fine if you have months until the exam and it's something you want to do, but if you're cramming and copying sentences without understanding them then it can quickly become a waste of time.

Past papers - past paper exams are, in my opinion, the best way to practice for your exams. You can time yourself, find the mark scheme, mark how you did and estimate your current grade using the UMS marks from that year.

Go over your previous tests - look at tests you've done in class and think about the marks you got. I got full marks on this test so I have confidence in myself when answering these types of questions. I got a low grade on this test, why is that? Look at where you went wrong and make a note of it. Get a red pen (or any other colour, red is just scary tbh) and correct your mistake before writing out the question with the correct answer somewhere in your revision. If you don't know where you went wrong then this is also a good way of showing you areas you need to improve on and gives you a reason to speak to your teacher if you're completely lost.

Write instructions - for questions where you need to know a specific process in order to get the marks, it's useful to write down the sequence along with an example. I used this when I had to learn proof by induction - I wrote down the general form of the question, the steps needed to get all of the method marks, and used an example to show accuracy. Knowing how to answer the questions is better than thinking you know where to go with it.

Cue cards - small pieces of information like formulae, definitions and symbols can be learnt by putting the formula/symbol on one side and the meaning on the other. It's also good for groups of similar information, like the SUVAT equations and equations for the sums of finite series. I didn't find cue cards useful for subjects like history because I treated them as just smaller pieces of lined paper and wrote everything down instead of key info, but I found it really useful for learning bits and pieces of maths.

Condense and expand - you have 4 pages of notes on matrices that you spent time decorating. Half of the information you don't think you're gonna remember. What now? It's a good idea to condense the information into what you really need. For example, if you've written a matrix has an inverse if the determinant is non-zero, then there's no need to write underneath it a matrix with no determinant has no inverse - you could figure that out if you already know the first bit. Condense the information you need to learn and expand it when necessary in the exam.

Watch videos - a great way to go over a subject of you didn't quite get it when your teacher explained it, and also for refreshing your mind on content that you haven't gone over in months. If you're going to be watching videos, make sure you have a notepad and pen with you to make notes on things you don't know, have forgotten, or need to speak to a teacher about. If you spend all day with YouTube open with no intention of taking notes, you know you're going to end up watching other videos or just not listening to whatever it is you're trying to learn.

Ask your teacher - probably the best way to make sure you're doing it right. Don't know where the answer from the textbook came from? Not sure how to solve a certain type of problem? Always ask your teacher for help because they know the exam board and what you are going to need to do to get the marks. They're also better than any YouTube tutorial because it's not one sided, you can ask them to go over something again or explain why you need to do things a certain way, in as much or as little detail as you need.