Practice Papers

StudyWell Pure Maths Test Collection

How to Practice for the Exams

When getting ready for exams, it is not enough to just look at an exam paper and read through the questions to see if you are prepared for an exam. You must take the time to actually practice the paper (if they are available) and you should practice more than 1. The more practice you try, the more prepared you will be for the actual exam.

Exam Conditions – The best way to practise exams would be in timed exam conditions. This means finding a quiet area with no distractions and sticking to a set start and finish time.

Marking Exams – It is not helpful to practice exam papers if you do not take the time to mark it and find out how you did. One common mistake that students make is to think they are ready for an exam once they have completed a paper. It is only helpful to complete a paper if you take the time to mark it. Sometimes students believe they have answered a question correctly when they haven’t. Getting an answer doesn’t necessarily mean it is correct. Marking a paper can flag up these areas.

Silly Mistakes – Another common mistake that students make is to falsely correct their silly mistakes when marking their work. If you make mistakes when sitting a practice paper, the chances are you will make a mistake in the real exam.

Mark Schemes – Making mistakes in the real exam can be costly.Mark schemes are designed very specifically and it is possible to lose many marks unless you give very specific answers or calculations. Sometimes this can mean losing marks for all parts of a question because you made a silly mistake at the beginning.

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Notes

For both the AS and full A-Level there is an Applied exam session where both the Statistics and Mechanics Papers are set. This is why you see that they full on the same day.

There are two exam sessions for the AS Exams: one for the Pure Exam (Paper code 8MA0/01) and the other for two Applied Papers (Paper code 8MA0/21 for Stats and 8MA0/22 for Mechanics). See more info.

There are three exam sessions for the full A-Level Exams: two for the Pure Exam (Paper code 9MA0/01 and 9MA0/02) and the final for two Applied Papers (Paper code 9MA0/31 for Stats and 9MA0/32 for Mechanics). See more info.

Until recently, the Statistics and Mechanics papers were given in one Applied Paper as you can see in 2018.