Studying for your Maths A level exam can be extremely stressful, but it can be made easier with a good organized plan and effective resources.below are some techniques you may find useful, I say may as everyone has preferences when learning but more about that later.

• at the back of each chapter in your maths book can be a good place to start, the summary at the end covers the most important parts of each chapter and often has question relating to what you have previously learned and a mini test.
• Now this is a must! Ask your teacher if they have any old exam papers you can borrow, old exam papers are an excellent revision tool for example did you know that your A level maths exam could very well have questions with in it, that are in the old exam papers.
• If you go online Edexcel and OCR websites will often have past exam questions for you to download.
• Another little gem is keeping a learning journal, not only will it help your revision you will find it also helps in organizing your learning strategy and focus, after study make a note of what you did, then any points that warrant extra attention and so on it’s a very useful tool.
• Try to use your learning, in your life for instance try and teach what you have been learning to someone in the family or friends, this will probably bore them at first but it really is an excellent method. If you are interested in what you are learning then people will pick up on your enthusiasm and listen to what you have to say.
• In your notes take key points down, as your knowledge grows use your notes to assess your self, and rewrite them you will find that your notes become smaller and more specific.
• Get online - Whatever did I do before the internet I used books of course, but seriously the internet is phenomenal and the only real gripe I have is the information that you read can often come from inexperienced sources however it will help your investigation into further learning and lead you in the right direction I often use the internet to research an idea and then back it up with books from the library.

There are many approaches to revising! One method that suits one student may not suit another student, it is a very personnel matter. For instance I find that just reading out of books has little to no use for me and to better understand something I have to cross reference what I am reading with another source of information. Other students may find that reading their notes and rewriting them helps them to understand their A level study, and others may need to research further to grasp the concepts. The main point here is that to better understand your Maths a certain level of experience is needed.

You see we all have a different style of learning and if we all, as students spent a little time understanding our own learning styles, we would not only speed our growth as maths students but also as learners as well.

To better understand what your learning style is, you could try Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and the Learning Style Inventory which is tool to help you understand your learning style. Also Blooms taxonomies of learning objectives which details a system for taking your learning beyond the memory recall level of reading, listening and watching presentations.

Leave a Reply