Practice papers are one of the best ways to prepare for your upcoming maths GCSE. They give you a taste of what to expect on the day of the actual exam and allow you to identify those key areas where you should be focussing your revision efforts. With the right approach, you can use GCSE practice papers to maximise the results you receive.

But how should you use exam papers to get the most out of the work you’re putting in? We’ve got five ways to use the maths GCSE practice papers you have at your disposal.

  1. Practice exam conditions – One of the best things about practice papers is they give you a chance to prepare for the tough exam conditions you’ll experience. Make sure you put away all your other revision notes and stick to the time limits to ensure you’re well prepared for when the big day rolls around. Practising with papers like this can help improve your memory call, get to grips with timings, and hone your general exam techniques.
  2. Understand where marks are awarded – Once you or your teacher has graded your paper, it’s well worth taking the time to go back through it to see where you lost marks. Understanding where you could have picked up a few extra could make all the difference to your final grade, as well as helping you to allocate the appropriate amount of time to each question. On www.schoolexams.co.uk, our resources show you exactly what you need to do to pick up top marks.
  3. Learn how to model your answers – Examiners are looking for certain features when marking your work, for example, how you worked out an equation. Using practice papers to better understand how they mark means you’re in a better position to model your answers to suit their methods. It helps to give you a clearer way to solve maths questions.
  4. Check out how you should be approaching questions – Sometimes, exam questions can be worded confusingly or you have no idea how to approach them. Using companion resources, such as our step-by-step videos can help you easily identify where you’ve been going wrong and a new method that’s logical.
  5. Work together – While practice papers are a great revision option for working alone, they can work just as well in groups too. Going through questions with friends can give you a new perspective on how to tackle questions and when you explain methods, you’ll often find that they’re more likely to stick in your mind.