HOW TO GET A GRADE 9 IN GCSE MATHS (Top Tricks They Don't Tell You)

Summary

In this video, Smile With Sola shares how she achieved a Grade 9 in GCSE Maths despite initially struggling with the subject. By breaking down complex questions, daily practice, and avoiding common mistakes, she provides a roadmap for success. Key to her strategy is understanding the game of scoring points in exams and the importance of practicing under exam-like conditions. She emphasizes the benefits of facing uncomfortable topics during revision and shares specific techniques to use during exams, like the breakdown method and effectively managing time.

Highlights

• Daily practice with Corbett Maths can mimic the exam scene, making you smoother and more confident in solving questions. 🏆
• Understanding and embracing discomfort in learning signifies growth and better preparation. 🌱
• Avoid easy topics during revision to ensure you're truly expanding your knowledge. 🌟
• Going early to school for math practice can free up your day and strengthen your skills! ⌛
• Use the 'breakdown method' in exams to simplify complex questions into manageable bits. 🧩

Key Takeaways

• Understanding Maths is a Game: Treat your GCSE math exam as a game of scoring points to excel. 🎯
• Daily Practice: Engage with the 'Corbett Maths Five a Day' to consistently practice varied questions. 📚
• Identify Weak Spots: Focus on the topics you find challenging rather than what's comfortable. 🧠
• Exam Technique: Break down questions to their basics and manage time wisely. ⏰
• Avoid Silly Mistakes: Double-check every calculation and ensure answers make sense contextually. 🤔

Overview

Smile With Sola narrates her journey from despising math to achieving a Grade 9 in GCSE, highlighting that anyone can improve with the right strategies and mindset. She emphasizes the importance of seeing math like a game, where scoring points under time pressure is key to success. For those struggling, she suggests focusing on practice to overcome hurdles.

A significant part of Sola's strategy involved understanding why students lose marks - often because the questions are misunderstood or not approached effectively. To combat this, she recommends daily math practice using resources like Corbett Maths, encourages facing challenging topics, and stresses the need to make practice uncomfortable to simulate exam conditions.

In the exam hall, Sola's advice is to keep calm and strategize, using techniques like the breakdown method and efficiently managing time to maximize points. She also underscores the need for double-checking answers for silly mistakes and trusting in the knowledge gained from consistent practice, ensuring readiness for any question encountered.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Personal Experience The chapter titled 'Introduction and Personal Experience' covers the narrator's personal journey and strategy that led to achieving a grade nine in GCSE math in 2018. The narrator initially found math difficult and complex, but shares an effective method that helped them excel. They mention breaking down complicated problems and demonstrating their approach with a specific exam question. The narrator's transition from hating math to excelling in it is highlighted as a significant personal achievement.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Understanding the Game of GCSE Maths The chapter titled 'Understanding the Game of GCSE Maths' discusses the author's journey from struggling with math in year seven to achieving one of the highest grades by year 11. The author emphasizes the lack of guidance on how to study math effectively, which led them to develop their own revision techniques. The chapter promises to reveal the author's personal tips and tricks for achieving a grade nine in maths, aiming to teach readers how to tackle any GCSE math question. The content is structured into three main parts: understanding why students lose marks, learning how to perfect exam techniques, and presumably, additional strategies to enhance math performance.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Importance of Exposure to Different Questions This chapter discusses the importance of being exposed to a variety of questions in math exams, particularly the GCSE. It highlights that succeeding in exams is like playing a game where the objective is to score maximum points within the given time limits. The chapter focuses on understanding why students lose marks and suggests strategies to prevent these losses.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Practicing Maths Daily The chapter discusses the common misconception among students that failing to understand a math question implies a lack of ability or intelligence in mathematics. It emphasizes that misunderstanding questions often stems from insufficient preparation and unfamiliarity with similar problems, rather than an inherent deficiency in math skills. The key takeaway is that regular and consistent practice in mathematics is crucial to improving understanding and performance.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Importance of Revision Guides and Flashcards This chapter discusses the value of revision guides and flashcards in preparing for exams, particularly in subjects like mathematics. Unlike subjects such as English, mathematics is objective, meaning questions will only cover what's in the syllabus or textbook, making it easier to prepare and improve grades. Exposure to numerous practice questions helps students recognize topics and know how to approach them during exams, reinforcing the importance of using revision guides and flashcards effectively.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Avoiding Silly Mistakes The chapter discusses the importance of daily math practice to avoid silly mistakes. It suggests that consistent practice can train the brain to handle math questions more effectively. One recommended method is the 'Corbett Maths Five a Day,' which involves completing five random questions daily to mimic the exam experience and improve performance.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Exam Technique: Moving On and Breaking Down Questions The chapter emphasizes the importance of consistency in studying, suggesting daily study habits to avoid feeling overwhelmed. It advises identifying difficult topics and utilizing online resources provided by exam boards to focus revision efforts on specific areas. A personal tip shared is the practice of dedicating 30 minutes each morning before school to study math, demonstrating a proactive approach to improving exam techniques.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Demonstration of Breaking Down a Question The chapter titled "Demonstration of Breaking Down a Question" suggests a strategic approach to studying math. It highlights the importance of doing mathematical revision in the morning to build math and thinking skills effectively. It warns against an overly enjoyable revision, suggesting that if math revision feels too easy or enjoyable, it may not be as beneficial as intended. The underlying message is that true revision involves challenging oneself in order to attain substantial understanding and improvement in math skills.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Utilizing Partial Knowledge in Exams In this chapter titled 'Utilizing Partial Knowledge in Exams', the focus is on embracing the discomfort that comes with learning and revising new and challenging material. It highlights the importance of experiencing the struggle during revision rather than during the exam itself. This process of discomfort signifies that one is broadening their understanding and preparing their mind for more questions. The chapter advises against spending revision time on topics already mastered, emphasizing that the goal is to ensure familiarity with all topics, particularly in subjects like mathematics, where a diverse understanding is critical for success.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Final Tips for Exam Preparation The chapter 'Final Tips for Exam Preparation' provides useful advice on consolidating various topics, which often catches students off guard. It highlights a personal recommendation for Pearson's revision guides, particularly for maths, which efficiently summarize topics and include quick practice questions with answers. These features make it convenient for on-the-go study. Additionally, the guide offers a free online revision resource, enhancing its utility for exam preparation.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Conclusion and Motivation This chapter emphasizes the importance of targeting weak spots when using flashcards or revision guides for studying, rather than revisiting material you're already comfortable with. The chapter also discusses the common issue of losing marks in math exams due to silly mistakes, which is identified as a frequent and frustrating experience.
• 11:00 - 12:00: Video Outro The speaker discusses receiving a poor grade on an exam due to avoidable mistakes. They emphasize the importance of thoroughly reading and understanding exam questions before attempting to answer them. This includes reading each question at least twice and underlining key words and numbers to ensure they are clearly understood and not overlooked. The advice is aimed at helping others avoid similar pitfalls in exams.

HOW TO GET A GRADE 9 IN GCSE MATHS (Top Tricks They Don't Tell You) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 i feel like this is what truly got me the grade nines so what i'm gonna do is actually demonstrate this method on a question that came up in my paper when you first see this question what do you see the graph that looks absolutely and utterly complicated i'm thinking oh what i'm gonna have to do am i gonna have to work out the equation of the line i'm gonna have to do this let's break it down okay [Music] let's get straight into it so in 2018 i got a grade nine in gcse maths this was an absolute shock of me because i went from absolutely hating maths and being
• 00:30 - 01:00 the worst at maths in year seven to get in one of the highest grades in my year in year 11. this was of course not easy and i really had to teach myself how to revise maths because i feel like no one actually teaches you so i'm gonna let you know all my tips and tricks into how i actually got this grade nine and before we start be sure to give a big thumbs up and comment down below and subscribe for more content like this and watch this video to the end to be able to find out how to answer any question they throw at you in gcse math okay so this video is gonna be split into three parts we're gonna go into why people lose marks how to perfect your exam
• 01:00 - 01:30 technique and also how to be prepared for any kind of question they throw at you so let's move on to losing marks so obviously the reason that people fail maths is because they lose marks on the exam what you first need to understand is that maths gcse is basically a game it's literally a game aim of the game is to score the most points under time conditions so if we think about it this way the way that you get a grade nine is to figure out why you're losing marks and to prevent that from happening so let's talk about the top reasons that people lose marks in maths gcse so the
• 01:30 - 02:00 first and the most important reason which i'm sure you've experienced before is because you don't understand the question if you don't understand the question that doesn't necessarily mean that you're bad at maths or that you're stupid because a lot of people think that a lot of people think because they don't understand most questions because they don't have to answer those questions that they're just not good at math but like it doesn't mean that it just means that you haven't prepped enough before the exam it means that you haven't seen enough similar questions so when you see this question you're completely thrown off because you think that it's something that you haven't
• 02:00 - 02:30 done and you think that you don't have the knowledge to answer that question but you actually probably do maths is objective this means that you're either wrong or right which makes it much easier to improve your grade as opposed to a subject of subjects such as english it's also very limited in what they can ask they can only ask you what's in the specification or what's in the textbook so you have to remember that everything on the paper is something that you've learned at the end of the day you want to be exposed to so many questions that when you see a question on that paper you already start to know what to do you really start to know what topic it requires and you are finding it much
• 02:30 - 03:00 easier to answer questions and the way that you can train your brain and to do this is to practice maths every single day and that sounds crazy but if you feel like you're not naturally good at maths the only way that you can improve is by practice so what i recommend for this is something called the corbett maths five a day it's basically this website by corbett maths and they give you five questions to complete every single day and i think these questions are randomized so it means that you're not prepared and it kind of stimulates the exam experience but only for five questions so this definitely encourages
• 03:00 - 03:30 you to do it daily because it's not too much it's not your overwhelming and as well as this i really recommend that you search topics that you're unfamiliar with or that you find really hard that you're always losing marks on google and then you search exam board and you can find a booklet or pdf on this topic so that you can focus your revision on one topic one major tip that i did that motivated me to do maths every single day was to go to school early this sounds crazy again but 30 minutes a day in the morning it's not that bad like
• 03:30 - 04:00 do it in the morning then you have it open done with before the day you can do whatever you want for the rest of the day it just helps to reinforce your math skills and your thinking skills so honestly i would recommend it and i feel like this is what truly got me the grade nine so another thing that is very very important to realize is that when you're revising maps and you're enjoying it it means that you aren't revising i'm sorry to say it but when you're advising maths and you're really enjoying it you're really finding everything easy it means that you aren't studying properly because at the end of the day when you're revising maths you need to
• 04:00 - 04:30 understand that pain is actually good that uncomfortable feeling is what you need to get used to because it's better to feel this feeling whilst you're revising as opposed to the exam when you have that feeling it means that you're experiencing something new it means that you're testing your brain and that you're expanding your knowledge so that you can be prepared for more questions so yeah just make sure that when you're revising you're not doing stuff that you already know you're not doing stuff that you find easy because this is not gonna help you the aim of revising maths is to make sure that you're familiar with all of the topics because a lot of the questions in the actual paper that you
• 04:30 - 05:00 get in the summer combine a lot of topics so that's why it catches people out because they're not thinking about that one of my favorite revision guides for maths is the ones by pearson i'm not sure if they have them for every single exam but i did excel and i found them amazing like they really summarized each topic and then they put a little question on the bottom and i think they put the answers on the back it just helps you to quickly practice maths on the go like wherever you are and i just really recommend it i think it also gives you a free online revision guide
• 05:00 - 05:30 so definitely check it out if you have time if you use these flash cards or any other flash cards or revision guide you should just use this to target your weak spots you should not be going over things that you understand so let's move on to the second reason why people lose marks in maths gcses and this is such an annoying reason because i'm sure we've all experienced it but it's when you make silly mistakes this was my ultimate nemesis in maths like every single time i really really thought that i got a really good grade i really thought i did something
• 05:30 - 06:00 but then i get the exam back and my grade is so bad and then i looked through it because i made the dumbest mistakes ever and is so annoying and here is my surefire ways to avoid making these mistakes because they're so easily avoidable so my first tip is to read the question this sounds so obvious but when i say read the question i mean read that question you better read that question at least two times before actually attempting it underline the key words underline the key numbers that they give you because at the end of the day all of
• 06:00 - 06:30 these worded questions they put so much rubbish in them just to like throw you off just to get you like sidetracked look at what the question is actually asking you and the units that they're giving you and the numbers that they're giving you because this is what actually matters when you're solving when you read the question properly you can start to see what they're suggesting the topic might be for that question and then sometimes this can help you to see what equation you might have to use for this question another way to make sure you don't make these silly mistakes is to double check your work now at each step
• 06:30 - 07:00 even when you are adding and subtracting things double check that you did them properly because like it sounds really stupid now but in the exam under the pressure in that hot summer haul it's so easy to make silly mistakes and get overconfident and then lose marks so double check at each point of your working out because if you double check it now as opposed to waiting until the end and just flipping through it you can truly see what you are doing and you can truly see where mistakes are being made another thing you want to do is to triple check your answer when you finish
• 07:00 - 07:30 a question look at your answer and make sure that it looks realistic like it seems realistic to you let's say you're calculating an angle in a triangle and you're getting over 180 you must know that you did something wrong like you did something catastrophically wrong for you to get that answer so just be sure to look at your answers and to make sure they're realistic in the context of the question now let's move on to exam technique which is very very important in math so let's imagine this you've put in all of the work you've done all the exam papers you've done all the exam questions
• 07:30 - 08:00 you're ready for this so then you enter the whole you sit down you've got your pencil in one hand you've got your exam paper in the other and you freeze you just freeze all of this work all of your five years of secondary school has been building up to this and you just freeze in the exam and you don't even understand the first question what do we do to avoid this and what do we do to perfect our exam techniques let me show you so first things first if you see a question in your exam paper and you have no idea what they're talking about like you're completely confused and you've
• 08:00 - 08:30 been spending three to five minutes even just looking at it and you haven't even touched the paper with your pen it's time to move on i'm i'm here to tell you that it's time to move on for the edge of the paper move on to the next question because i told you maths is a game you can't be wasting your time on things that you're not going to answer there's always time at the end if you use this method you always have time to end to go back to it when you fold this paper it acts as a reminder that you have to go back to this page before the end of the time so just remember when you're flicking
• 08:30 - 09:00 through and you see this folder paper you need to go back to it and you need to try that question again let's move on to when you somewhat understand the question what should you do then so what you should do is what i call it the breakdown method this means that you break down the question to the absolute absolute absolute absolute basics like i'm telling you like you see a square you need to think okay so all of these have the same sides that's how basic i'm talking because as i've told you before you've been taught everything in that paper it's just that they tried to mask it they tried to make it seem like it's
• 09:00 - 09:30 something bigger than it actually is so you need to break it down so what i'm gonna do is actually demonstrate this method on a question that came up in my paper in 2018 bear in mind i haven't really revised gcses for like three years now so it might be a bit rusty i'm just showing you my exam technique in general so let's get into it so here's the question first of all when you first see this question what do you see the graph that looks absolutely and utterly complicated it looks very confusing you're thinking oh what am i gonna have to do am i gonna have to work out the equation of the line am i gonna have to do this let's
• 09:30 - 10:00 break it down okay so let's do what i said before let's read the question properly and underline the key points so what we have here the shape is made from four identical squares what you should be thinking your head okay so these must have the same size like the size must be the same length we already understand that okay because the square has the same length so now they're also saying that the sides of the square are parallel to the axes this means that they're in line with the axes there's no diagonal thing going on they're completely in line with
• 10:00 - 10:30 the axes now they tell you the coordinates of point a which is here and then they tell you the coordinates of point b which is here the thing that you actually want to aim for and your answer is where point c is so let's look at everything that they actually gave us so they told us that there's four identical squares fair enough they told us the coordinates of two points and now they want us to work out the coordinate of c okay so let's look at where c actually is in terms of squares because in this
• 10:30 - 11:00 question all we have is squares they didn't give us any other information so if you look at it from the x axis c is actually two squares in away from a can you see it so we have one square then we have another square so it must be two squares away and then if we look at it from the y axis c is actually two squares away from b what we have to do first is to work out the length of one side of the square and then we can work out the answer basically so let's work out the
• 11:00 - 11:30 difference between the x coordinates of b and c to work out the overall length so what we do here is 38 minus 6 because that's how you find a difference in any question we get 32 we know that there's four identical squares so if we divide 32 by four that means that we'll get the length of one side so 32 divided by 4 gives you 8. so now you know that the side of each
• 11:30 - 12:00 square is 8. so let's work out the x coordinate so to work out the x coordinate as we said before it is two squares away from a so what we have to do is just add two squares worth to a and two squares is eight plus eight so we got sixteen uh let's add that to six so then you get twenty two so that's the answer for x now let's work out y so we said that the y
• 12:00 - 12:30 coordinate of c is two squares away from b so all we have to do is minus two squares worth from 36. and then we get 20. so the answer is 22 30. very very simple all that required was literally basic maths like just the knowledge that the square has equal sides so when you see a question like this don't be thrown off by all of the theatrics just think about it simply
• 12:30 - 13:00 and use the knowledge that you have to answer the question now back to the tips once you've gone through the questions you can actually do make sure you go back to the questions that you folded over because these are still worth marks whether you can complete them or not so for these questions where you're very confused all you want to do is work out as much as you can even if that means that you can't get to the answer work with what you have and try to get as much marks as you can so what you want to do again is break down the question you have all of the knowledge you just want to break it down until you can answer something so let me give you an
• 13:00 - 13:30 example let's say we have a really long question i'm not really sure what to do but we see this we see that there's a distance of 1000 meters and we see a speed of 50 meters per second alarm bell should be ringing in your mind you should be thinking about speed distance time that little triangle so you must know that from that you can work at the time so just work out the time and leave it at that if you have to because that's one extra mark that you just got from answering something that you know how to work out try to answer everything as much as you can try not to leave things blank because it just decreases your
• 13:30 - 14:00 chances of getting a good grade finally when you're finished the questions what you have to do is look over the questions make sure you've completed everything double check you're working out and then you're good to go so let's move on to the final part of the video which is how to be prepared for any kind of question they might ask you in math gcse with everything that's been said the more you practice maths the more you expose your brains to all of these different kinds of questions and the more likely you are to get similar questions on your exam paper this will train your brain to recognize what you have to do from the question when you
• 14:00 - 14:30 see certain units certain angles certain shapes your brain will naturally figure out what you have to start doing think of maths as a sport would not get better at basketball by reading books about basketball you would get better by shooting hoops practicing daily playing games that's how you would actually improve maths is the same thing you can't just sit there be passive and read the textbook and expect to be better at it you have to constantly be doing maths questions we have to remember an exam especially when you're under so much stress and when you're scared and when
• 14:30 - 15:00 you're nervous and you think that you can't do it is that every single thing that is in that paper you have been taught it and if you haven't been taught it because some teachers may not teach you everything you have definitely practiced it if you've been practicing all this time so when you're faced with this new question you're really confused about what to do just think about it just sit back and think about it don't even think about solving it think about what topic is actually from once you figure that out you can think about similar questions that you've done in the past that you've struggled with and then it's probably
• 15:00 - 15:30 going to be something similar to that but just remember that you're fully capable of answering all of the questions it's just that the question is phrased in an odd way that you're not used to but you can actually do it you've got this and good luck for your exams guys that's the end of the video guys i really hoped it helped you if it did and you're not subscribed yet i actually don't know what you're doing like you actually need to subscribe right now like comment and subscribe for more content like this and also comment down below if you want any other subjects because i really want to know what you guys want help on and then i'll make more videos and i'll see you guys next time bye
• 15:30 - 16:00 [Music] you