How to Revise for Maths GCSE
Exams are just around the corner, so make sure you follow these tips to make the most out of revising for your Maths GCSE’s!
1. Complete a RAG sheet to see which areas you need to improve on
Content is going to vary somewhat depending on exam board, so make sure to check which exam board your GCSE Maths exams will be using (if you’re unsure, ask your teacher). The big important thing here is that every exam board has their own ‘specification’ – a massive document with a big list of all the Maths content you could be asked about.
It may look daunting, but bear in mind that this is all of the content – you don’t need to know every part perfectly. And if you’re on the Foundation paper, the specification will tell you exactly which topics you do and don’t need to learn.
Our RAG sheets follow each specification and give you the space to highlight your confidence level in each specific topic. Print one off and make sure to have it each time you revise!
You can also find specifications for the four major GCSE Maths exam boards in England and Wales here:
2. Make a ‘Map of Maths’
As mentioned previously, the specification is pretty long and overwhelming, so I recommend making a ‘Map of Maths’ with all the different areas you need to know. Whether this is a mind map, an actual country-style map, or just a list with subcategories, it is up to you. You may want to use the specification or a textbook to help determine a system of categorisation.
For example, most exam boards categorise everything under the following 6 headings:
Number
Algebra
Ratio, proportion and rates of change
Geometry and measures
Probability
Statistics
A Map of Maths helps to break down the topics into subcategories to make revision easier to organise and recall. You could also include colour-coding, diagrams, or separate files for each category.
3. Learn your formulas!
Usually in the back of a specification is a list of all the formulas you need to memorise for an exam. If you are doing the Foundation paper, make sure to check if there are any formulas that are Higher-only (you won’t need to learn these).
I would recommend printing off the formula list, or writing it out yourself, and then using flash cards to practise.
Note that some formulas (e.g. the volume of a sphere) will usually be given to you in an exam, and whilst it’s useful to be familiar with using these, don’t bother to memorise them if you don’t need to!
4. Make your own revision materials
Different techniques work for different people here, so you should use whatever works best for you. Here are some examples of revision materials you could make:
Mind maps – this could be for a broad topic, like algebra, or something more specific, like all the different types of graphs and diagrams you need to know.
Flashcards – great for memorising things (e.g. definitions or formulas), as well as for practise questions.
Mnemonics – if you’re struggling to remember something, especially a process with multiple steps like solving a trigonometric question, this could be the solution for you!
Practise questions – consider making practise questions for some topics you are confident in now so that, later on, you can use these to help your recall once the material isn’t as familiar.
Summary notes – make a short, colourful summary of a topic, so that you can look back on these notes and quickly remember the basics of the topic. You don’t even need to limit yourself to paper (for example, you could make a PowerPoint presentation or even an audio recording)!
5. Work with your friends
This tip actually has numerous benefits. One obvious one is that it’s nice to hang out with your friends. But additionally, having to explain a topic to someone else is a really effective way to refine your own understanding or realise areas you need to revise further.
Moreover, sometimes other students can explain a topic better than a teacher could, because they are familiar with your level of understanding and can explain it in terms that make sense to you.
Finally, you may find it useful for you and your friends to share resources with each other. For example, you could coordinate between you to make revision materials on different topics, so that you can cover more ground if you work together.
6. Make the most of resources that other people have already made!
There are a lot of learning and revision resources out there (especially on the internet, and often for free); you should make the most of these! While the process of making resources can in itself be a form of revision, sometimes it’s a better use of time to just use the resources that someone else has already made.
Below are a handful of examples, but please do take the time to go and explore for yourself what’s out there and what works for you:
Websites with specific hands-on learning tools, like MathsPad
Graphing or calculator websites/apps, like Desmos
Huge lists of practise questions
Quiz apps/websites, like Kahoot
Flashcard collections
Exam past papers
Explanatory YouTube videos
Topic notes
Online tutoring services, like Scholearn!
(Note: be careful if using AI tools like ChatGPT for revision, as these will often make strange errors, even when they sound confident! AI can be useful for certain tasks though, like coming up with a suitable revision timetable.)
7. Do practise exam papers
Cynically, the grade you get for GCSE Maths is not about how good at Maths you are, but about how good at Maths exams you are! You should be able to find plenty of past papers online to practise (remember to stick to your specific exam board wherever possible).
These are more useful as a revision tool later on, once you’ve already covered lots of content and are ready to start getting everything in check. Exams are particularly useful for evaluating strengths and weaknesses, noticing any mistakes you keep making, getting used to the wording of exam questions, and getting used to the timing of exams (although, at first, you may wish to do exam papers without a time limit, until you feel confident enough to do a paper under time pressure).
You could either mark your own practise paper or get someone else to (a friend, tutor or teacher); it’s probably good to do one of each of these methods, as there are certain advantages to both approaches. Self-marking gives you greater insight into how exactly marks are awarded and what you’re doing wrong, whereas getting someone else to mark your work (especially a professional, like a tutor) will give you a more accurate grade and might pick up on things you wouldn’t, like illegible handwriting or incorrect use of terminology.
Book our Exam Marking and Feedback service here for expert feedback.
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8. Make a list of lost marks
Try making a list of all the marks you lose in practise papers to see which areas you most need to revise.
There are three different ways you can lose marks: mistakes, lack of knowledge, or running out of time. I recommend using different colours or separate lists to make the distinction between these clear.
Mistakes are things you accidentally got wrong, like forgetting to include units, multiplying numbers when you meant to add them, or not answering the whole question because you didn’t read it properly. These are easy places to pick up marks again, if you can stop making the same mistakes.
On the other hand, some marks are lost because of gaps in knowledge: these are things that require much more effort to fix, so your list of errors will help you to prioritise revision on the topics that are losing you the most marks. If you’d like, you could even use your Map of Maths from earlier to visually mark out the areas that you’re struggling with the most.
9. Practise the things you are bad at!
A really common mistake students make is not revising the topics they find the hardest, because they’d prefer to do stuff they already feel confident in. Please don’t do this! The best way to improve is to work on the things you struggle with the most.
Refer to the red areas especially on your RAG sheet to ensure you’re revising topics you struggle with the most.
10. Keep coming back to the topics you’ve covered
It may seem like a contradiction to what was just said, but you should also, to some degree, keep revising the things you already know, so that you don’t forget them. Perhaps every month you could make some notes summarising what you’ve learnt using a Cornell Method Worksheet, or do a quick quiz that you find online.
Rather than having to constantly relearn things you’ve completely forgotten, spend just a little bit of time every now and then recapping past content. It will dramatically improve your recall and save you time and energy in the long-run!
11. Manage your time in a balanced way that works for you
Don’t feel that you have to do all the revision activities suggested on this page! This article is simply giving you all the tools you might need going forward and it’s up to you how you use them.
That includes how you manage your time: you don’t want to do too much all at once and end up burning out, doing less over the long-run than if you’d just kept a steady pace. However, you also don’t want to do absolutely nothing until the week before the exam and then try to cram everything – that will not end well.
Obviously, some strategy in the middle is going to be the best, where you take breaks but also have some amount of structure. Work out how to manage your time effectively. You could start by creating a revision timetable (download and print one here for free!)
12. Ask for help when you need it
Finally, it’s important to ask others for help when you need it, especially if you have a tutor, as this will allow them to support you as best they can. If you’re struggling with something and can’t figure it out on your own, one of the worst things you can do is to not get help with it, be that Maths or anything else in your life.
There are always people and resources available to you when you look for them. If you are struggling with your mental health or another issue and you’re unsure where to go, check out our list of helpful websites here.
How do you revise Maths content best? Let us know in the comments!
