AS LEVEL Maths : C2 and S1 tips

gam3r · 9 May 2006 at 18:27

Do you guys have any general pointers in the way of these two such as in revision? I know the best thing is to do loads of past papers but are there any other exam secrets i should know of?

Thanks guys!

Stringy · 9 May 2006 at 18:28

Rub mustard on your calculator.

Seriously though, the best bet is lots of past papers. Not a lot else you can do.

gam3r · 9 May 2006 at 18:29

Past papers i got loads of them. Do you think it's essential to re-read your textbook? I've been doing this quite a bit for S1 since the exams on 24th this month :eek:

Amp34 · 9 May 2006 at 18:32

Only have a look at the stuff your having difficulty with in the textbook, unless you have lots of time spare. As others have said just lots of past papers and if your bookk has summaries at the end of the chapters have a look at those too.

spirit · 9 May 2006 at 18:43

erm get a formula book & familiarise yourself with it, theres a suprising amount of stuff that you don't actually need to know/can work out from that book.

do as many papers as you can (include p1/2 from previous years as you will only have a couple c2s) practice on your weak spots and confidence is the most important part of any exams, any questions and such dont hesitate to ask someone / ask people in here

those exams are suprisingly easy, but a few mistakes will take ** UMS down a fair amount

Seft · 9 May 2006 at 18:46

Like everyone else, lots of past papers.

Ask your teacher about questions that you are consistently having difficulty on.

spirit · 9 May 2006 at 18:55

oh and alevels are very very formulaic so dont think we are all wrong advising you to just hammer out those past papers

Alex_L · 9 May 2006 at 18:59

as said, look at the past papers, you should easily be able to pick up what topics are guaranteed to come up by going through past papers and looking through your text book/syllabus.

in my experience at a levels it was the same topics coming up every year just with different data or in a different order in the exam.

gam3r · 9 May 2006 at 20:36

Thanks guys, i was just summarising all the formulae in C2/S1 onto 2 seperate pages, its good to know them but its better to know how they work which is much more difficult. I think its called "Seeing the maths" some people are highly gifted at this..some arent.

spirit · 9 May 2006 at 20:40

gam3r said:
Thanks guys, i was just summarising all the formulae in C2/S1 onto 2 seperate pages, its good to know them but its better to know how they work which is much more difficult. I think its called "Seeing the maths" some people are highly gifted at this..some arent.

haha if you don't understand how they work, check the book, ask teachers, post on here, but if you can do it don't worry about it too much unless you plan on doing something at uni that requires you to be good at maths.

gam3r · 9 May 2006 at 21:06

I'm not really planning to do it at uni but i want that A at Alevel

Gonna be hard work, as anything is these days.

Shamrock · 9 May 2006 at 21:10

I agree with lots of past papers and practice questions.

Also, for S1 it might be worth purchasing a graphical calculator. I found it very helpful on nearly all the questions. In fact, it felt like cheating.

Final tip, which is a bit more general, READ the question CAREFULLY. I seriously messed up and dropped 10 marks by misreading a question in my S1 exam and answering it completely wrong. Turned out it was simple if only I read it properly!

LeperousDust · 9 May 2006 at 21:39

Do past papers, millions of them. AS and A levels aren't about the subject anymore its very much about doing the exams.

Being good in lesson and being good at the exam are completely different.

You should be doing papers over an over again on C1 (Known to me as P1

) until you are confident you WILL get 90% (really only dropping one question). Just keep doing them in the specified time. What you get wrong revise over. Do millions, there is nothing better. I can tell you because i did this, my teacher was excellent as well mind.

gam3r · 9 May 2006 at 21:41

Shamrock said:
Final tip, which is a bit more general, READ the question CAREFULLY. I seriously messed up and dropped 10 marks by misreading a question in my S1 exam and answering it completely wrong. Turned out it was simple if only I read it properly!

I do that quite a bit but i've been trying to read the question properly recently and it helps.

I don't think millions of past papers exist

But no, loads of them do exist. I got a whole little booklet of them for S1 and C2 which i had to pay my sixth form £1.20 for each booklet. Shame i didn't get the answers with it either...