A-Level Maths Week 1 Exam Preparation Tips

‘LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, WELCOME TO THE ULTIMATE ACADEMIC BOXING CHAMPIONSHIPSSSSS! OVER IN THIS CORNER OF THE RING, WE HAVE THE ONE, THE ONLY, A-LEVEL MATHEMATICS EXAM!! AND OVER IN THIS CORNER WE HAVE THE ONE AND ONLY *insert your name here*!!’

This may be how you’re feeling about your Mathematics A-level. Or maybe, potentially, you’ve decided to just stop feeling altogether for this subject because you no longer wish to feel pain or you may actually love this subject or perhaps feel neither here nor there about it. Regardless of who you are and how you feel, if you’re reading this blog, chances are you have your Maths A-level exams in a few weeks and are looking for advice on how exactly to go about this.

First of all, for those of you reading this doing your exams in 2022, commiserations. These are your first set of big exams. Your GCSEs were scrapped due to C****-19 and so you never got to do national exams and so these being your first ones might be the cause of some of your anxiety. Don’t worry, you’ve got this.

For others of you, on top of that, you are genuinely wondering what possessed you to take maths, or you love the subject but aren’t sure what to make the exam, or option 3 – you simply just want to get through, move on with this and be able to move on with the rest of your life, whether that’s pursuing maths further or dropping it like it’s hot, even though it’s really, really not (I apologise for you maths enthusiasts, as much as I respect maths as a subject, never, in a million years, will I love it enough to call it ‘hot’).

Wherever you are, hopefully this blog will help. My name is Seyi and over the next few weeks I’m going to walk you through how you can best prepare for your Maths A-Level!

Before we start though, take a breath, hold it for a few seconds, let it out and relax. Yes, these are big exams and yes, you want to do well, but the first step is going to be to not stress. On that note:

Tip number 1: Listen to Shake it off (or any other feel-good song) and dance around your room.

I’m dead serious about this one... You may think I’ve gone bonkers or be thisss close 👌🏾 (the space between the finger and thumb) to clicking off this page but stay with me here. You will do better in your preparation and better in your exams if you release some stress first. For some of you, you may actually need someone to add some stress to you so you get round to doing some work but we’ll get to that later. Before you even start preparing and revising, try to get into a good place, as calm as you can be. Do some mindfulness, get some exercise in, eat some good food and then come back and continue.

Better? Good. Let's go!

Tip number 2: Remind yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing .

The reason why tip numbers 1-2 have not even touched on the subject itself is because of regardless of whether Maths is your #1 love, or you can’t wait to bury this subject, there will be times during your revision where you get tired, bored or ‘just can’t’ anymore. I found revising for A-levels extremely tedious at times, either due to not understanding something, the sheer length of time the exam period tends to last or the sheer amount of time my education till that point had lasted. But what got me through, and what I think will help you get through is remembering why you’re doing this in the first place.

It may be that you need a certain grade in your Maths A-Level to allow you to study at your chosen university or undertake a certain apprenticeship. It may be that you have certain grades you want to get for your own personal goals or that you want to prove to yourself and/or teachers and/or parents and/or best mate bob that you can in fact do it.

Some of you may be like ‘Seyi, I have no reason, I picked it 2 years ago and now we’re here’ – if that’s you, I implore you – find a reason, or set up a goal or treat for yourself, and feel free to take some time (a few days, not too much, your exams are only a few weeks away😅) to think about this and come up with something. Motivation to study will come a lot easier when you have something specific that you’re working to/for.

Tip number 3: Practically prepare for the exam.

Make sure you’ve printed out your exam board specification. Find out the dates of your papers. Use your specification to make a list of topics and go through to identify what you do and do not know/what you are and aren’t confident with. Make a timetable to slot revision times in to (make it for all your subjects, but we’ll focus on Maths here) to enable you to go over all the content you need to.

Tip of a tip: When making a timetable make sure you’re realistic! Don’t schedule super early morning revision sessions if you normally get up at 11am or super late ones if you like to be in bed by 9pm. Be realistic. And this includes adding things you love into your timetable – you’re getting ready for an exam, not going into exile, so put time in to see your friends, play your sport, watch TV etc on the timetable – literally, schedule in your relaxation. You’ll find you probably stay more on track because you have something to look forward to each day.

Once you’ve done all of this, you should hopefully be feeling a lot calmer, have a goal in mind of why you are doing this and know exactly what could come up in your exam. You may not know all the content yet, but you’re in the right place to start revising, and if you’re not sure how – check out next week’s blog post for more information.

Have any questions about how to prepare for your A-Level exams? Having problems with any hard to understand content or tricky past exam questions? Then ask Seyi. Seyi will be hosting a series of Q&A webinars in the 2 weeks before final exams. Post your questions here, and Seyi will answer them in these sessions.