Straight to the Top: How to Get a 9 in GCSE Maths

Written by: Dr John Adam for Medic Mind

Maybe you’re happy with your progress in Maths and are feeling confident that you’ll pass your GCSE exams, but how do you get to the next level? Here’s our advice for getting that coveted level 9 in GCSE Maths. 

1. Revise from the start
2. Use past papers
3. Know the formulae
4. Be realistic with yourself
5. Get creative

1. Revise from the start

Often people hear the word ‘revision’ and think it can only be done once you’ve covered all the course content. This actually isn’t the case, and the top scorers in any subject are the people who revise from the very beginning of the course. If you spend as little as an extra 20 minutes per lesson consolidating your knowledge, you will see incredible results when exam season approaches.

Remember that revision is a process. Every question you complete and every minute you spend improving your command of mathematical concepts further cements them in your memory.

2. Use past papers

While using past papers may seem obvious, it’s how you use them that makes all the difference. Here’s our advice on making the most of past papers in your GCSE Maths revision:

• Review your mistakes and your successes. Just because you got a question right doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be learned. Could you have done the question faster, did you sufficiently show your working, or did it highlight something you weren’t sure about and had to guess? All of these considerations can be avenues to improve your score next time.
• Revise the mark schemes and make note of any techniques that will gain you more marks. You can then implement these techniques in future past paper practice, and eventually in the exam.
• Do the papers more than once. Just because you’re not seeing the papers blind doesn’t mean that there’s no value in doing them again. If you can achieve 100% in a past paper, you’ll know that you’ve really understood the concepts within it. 

3. Know the formulae

There are some fantastic cheat sheets online for different exam boards, so it’s a good idea to find the one relevant to your exam board and commit it to memory. For example, you can find the Edexcel and OCR formula sheetS posted on their website.

However, it’s  not just about memorising. If you’re looking for a grade 9, it’s important to understand the reasoning behind the formula. This will help you to manipulate the formulae in order to apply it to different problems in the exam.

4. Focus on your weakest areas

It will be difficult to achieve a grade 9 if there are question types, or even whole topics, that you are not confident with. Focusing on your weakest areas can be challenging and even demotivating, because these questions won’t be as satisfying to answer as the ones that you’re good at. However, it’s crucial to push yourself to practise these difficult questions to ensure you have the breadth and depth of knowledge necessary to excel in the exam. 

There are a host of free educational resources online, listed below, that can guide you through the topics and question types that you are struggling with: 

• Khan Academy 
• BBC Bitesize 

5. Be creative

While practising past GCSE Maths papers and questions is important, there are a range of other revision techniques you can use to really give you the edge on the exam day. Here are a few other ideas on how you can expand your knowledge, understanding and problem solving skills:

Here are a few different ideas for revision to get started:

• Try questions that aren’t from GCSE papers: if you start looking at A-level difficulty questions, or further maths GCSE papers, you’ll move your knowledge to the next level and even the hardest GCSE Maths questions will seem comparatively easy.
• Try writing your own questions: this process will teach you a lot about what the examiners are expecting from you.
• Teach others: If you don’t know what knowledge you’re missing, try teaching others. This will highlight the areas that require more revision because you will find yourself struggling to explain the topics you’re not as confident in.