A Level Maths

Exam Tips
Mathematical Modelling
A mathematical model is a description of a
real-life situation using maths. Generally, you
are expected to reduce the situation to a set
of equations that you then solve.

Models usually rely on assumptions. These

are things that we have claimed to be true
about a situation to make the maths easier.
Common assumptions include things such as
there being no air resistance in mechanics
problems, or no limit on population growth –
as these things are unlikely to affect the
outcome of the model too substantially
compared to real life.

Sometimes, you will be presented with a

model and asked to IDENTIFY the
assumptions that have been made.

Sometimes, you might be asked to criticise or

improve a model. This will involve tweaking
the model either to remove an assumption or
to include new information.
Problem Solving
There are 5 steps to tackling a problem
solving question.
1. Find out what the question is asking of
you – this is particularly important for
wordy questions, where the meaning
could be made difficult to interpret by
context-specific terms.
2. Gather information from the question –
similarly, this will require some
interpretation of the terms in the
question.
3. Do the calculation(s) – Once you know
your aim and have all of your information,
you can do the maths to answer the
question.
4. Interpret results – Put your results from
the calculation(s) back into the context of
the question.
5. Repeat (if needed) – Some problems
have several steps, so you need to do
this over and over again until the whole
problem is solved.
Formula Booklet
You are given a formula booklet, so you don’t
need to memorise its contents. However, it is
important to be familiar with its contents so
that you know how to use it effectively.

Calculations
When doing calculations, make sure you give
your answer in a sensible form – in particular,
if your answer is a decimal you should make
sure you give it to an appropriate number of
decimal places. Sometimes the question will
direct you on this, other times you must use
your own initiative.

Don’t round until the end of the question,

however. To store really long decimals, you
can use the store function on your calculator.

You can check your answer to a question by

doing the calculations backwards and making
sure you get back to the right numbers.
Do You Have the Right
Calculator?
You MUST have a calculator that can perform
iterative formulae (usually any calculator with
an ANS button can) and compute summary
statistics and probabilities from the binomial
and normal distributions. You MUST NOT
have a calculator that can manipulate
algebra, do symbolic differentiation or
integration, or have common formulas pre-
stored in them (even if these formulas are in
the formula booklet!). If you are not sure if
your calculator is suitable, check with the
exam board.

Once you have a suitable calculator, it is vital

that you familiarise yourself with it before the
exam, particularly how to do iterative
formulae, summary statistics and probabilities
from statistical distributions – these are
relatively complicated tasks and every
calculator will perform them in a different
way.
 Key Terms
Below is a list of terms that come up in
questions over and over again.

Term Meaning
Find / Calculate / These are general terms – just that you need to answer
Determine the question. Make sure to show your working.
Solve Find the value(s) of the missing variable(s) in the equation.
State / Write down No working – just write down what the question asks for.
Show that You have been given the “answer” and you have to show
that it is the answer.
Explain This requires a little more words than just showing your
working – you have to say why you do each step.
Prove You need a logical argument for why something is true.
Sketch Draw a diagram – not necessarily to scale but it should
include all of the mathematical ideas the question
concerns.
Plot ACCURATELY mark points or ACCURATELY draw a line of
best fit.
Verify Show that the solution you are given is a solution – but
not by working out the solution. Usually this means
substituting the solution into an equation rather than
solving the equation.
Hence Use previous parts of the question to answer the
question.
Hence, or You could use previous parts of the question to answer
otherwise the question – however another way to solve it exists, and
both ways will get full marks.
Exact This means do not round your answer. Often, this could
involve presenting an answer as an expression that
contains 𝜋, 𝑒, or a surd.
Exam Structure
The structure of exams varies depending on
the exam board, but in all exam boards, there
are three exams, each of which is worth 100
marks, lasts 2 hours, and makes up a third of
the qualification.

AQA:
Paper 1 – Pure Mathematics
Covers: Proof, Algebra and Functions, Coordinate Geometry, Sequences
and Series, Trigonometry, Exponentials and Logarithms, Differentiation,
Integration, Numerical Methods

Paper 2 – Pure Mathematics and Mechanics

Covers: Proof, Algebra and Functions, Coordinate Geometry, Sequences
and Series, Trigonometry, Exponentials and Logarithms, Differentiation,
Integration, Numerical Methods, Vectors, Kinematics, Forces and Newton’s
Laws, Moments

Paper 3 – Pure Mathematics and Statistics

Covers: Proof, Algebra and Functions, Coordinate Geometry, Sequences
and Series, Trigonometry, Exponentials and Logarithms, Differentiation,
Integration, Numerical Methods, Data Presentation and Interpretation,
Probability, Statistical Distributions, Hypothesis Testing, Correlation and
Regression
OCR:
Paper 1 – Pure Mathematics
Covers: Proof, Algebra and Functions, Coordinate Geometry, Sequences
and Series, Trigonometry, Exponentials and Logarithms, Differentiation,
Integration, Numerical Methods, Vectors

Paper 2 – Pure Mathematics and Statistics

Covers: Proof, Algebra and Functions, Coordinate Geometry, Sequences
and Series, Trigonometry, Exponentials and Logarithms, Differentiation,
Integration, Numerical Methods, Vectors, Data Presentation and
Interpretation, Probability, Statistical Distributions, Hypothesis Testing,
Correlation and Regression

Paper 3 – Pure Mathematics and Mechanics

Covers: Proof, Algebra and Functions, Coordinate Geometry, Sequences
and Series, Trigonometry, Exponentials and Logarithms, Differentiation,
Integration, Numerical Methods, Vectors, Kinematics, Forces and Newton’s
Laws, Moments

Edexcel:
Paper 1 – Pure Mathematics 1
Covers: Proof, Algebra and Functions, Coordinate Geometry, Sequences
and Series, Trigonometry, Exponentials and Logarithms, Differentiation,
Integration, Numerical Methods, Vectors

Paper 2 – Pure Mathematics 2

Covers: Proof, Algebra and Functions, Coordinate Geometry, Sequences
and Series, Trigonometry, Exponentials and Logarithms, Differentiation,
Integration, Numerical Methods, Vectors

Paper 3 – Statistics and Mechanics

Covers: Data Presentation and Interpretation, Probability, Statistical
Distributions, Hypothesis Testing, Correlation and Regression, Kinematics,
Forces and Newton’s Laws, Moments
Large Data Set
The large data set is a spreadsheet
containing data tables pertaining to a specific
topic. You should be introduced to this during
the A-level course. By the exam, you should
be familiar with the context and trends of the
data set and be able to produce summary
statistics and statistical diagrams based on
the whole data set and samples of the data
set.

The large data sets for each exam board

pertain to:

AQA – Vehicular emissions

OCR – How people travel to work
Edexcel – Weather conditions
Time Management
The number of marks for a question tells you
roughly how long to spend on a question.
Each 2 hour paper contains 100 marks, so
you want to spend 6 minutes on every 5
marks. For example, if a question is worth 10
marks, it should take you around 10 minutes.

You don’t have to do the paper in order, so if

a question is stumping you or you fear
wasting time on it, come back to it once you
have done other questions.

Finally, when doing

indefinite integrals…
Don’t forget +𝑐