How to ace your upcoming IGCSE board examination?

Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Mathematics A (Higher Tier) January 2021 Timetable

Date - Thursday, 7 January, 2021

Paper Code - 4MA1_1H

Title - Mathematics A: Paper 1(Higher)

Time - Morning

Duration - 2 hours

Date - Wednesday, 13 January, 2021

Paper Code - 4MA1_2H

Title - Mathematics A: Paper 2(Higher)

Time - Afternoon

Duration - 2 hours

Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics (Extended) February-March 2021 Timetable

Date - Wednesday, 10 February, 2021

Paper Code - 0580/22

Title - Mathematics (Extended)

Time - Morning

Duration - 1 hour 30 mins

Date - Monday, 15 February, 2021

Paper Code - 0580/42

Title - Mathematics (Extended)

Time - Morning

Duration - 2 hours 30 mins

Date - Wednesday, 10 February, 2021

Paper Code - 0607/22

Title - Cambridge International Mathematics (Extended)

Time - Morning

Duration - 45 mins

Date - Monday, 15 February, 2021

Paper Code - 0607/42

Title - Cambridge International Mathematics (Extended)

Time - Morning

Duration - 2 Hours 15 mins

Date - Monday, 22 February, 2021

Paper Code - 0607/62

Title - Cambridge International Mathematics (Extended)

Time - Morning

Duration - 1 hour 40 mins

Hello students,

Are you a candidate for the said examinations? If yes, these are some of the last minute preparation and suggestion tips for you. If no, these may serve as guidelines of how to prepare for your future examination.

1. Have confidence in your knowledge

You have not wasted your last two years doing nothing. You have studied. You have studied every subject including Mathematics. You have completed the syllabus. You have revised. You have solved the worksheet questions given by your teachers. You have appeared in the school examinations based on the same IGCSE syllabus. So this is nothing new to you. Therefore, do not panic. Do not believe whatever your friend is saying while group studying. Try to analyze a question and then come to the conclusion about whether you or your friend is correct. You know everything. So, be confident but not over confident. :)

2. Do not depend on your calculator for trivial calculations

You are allowed to take your electronics or graphics calculator with you to the examination hall for appearing in 0580 or Edexcel Mathematics A papers. But you have a non calculator paper for 0607. And even if I ignore the non calculator paper for the time being, do you think it wise to waste your time keying in the numbers in your calculator for multiplication of 6 and 7 or addition of 120 and 240? Why don't you practice a little bit of mental Math? I have faith in you, you can do. Practice doing elementary calculations mentally in this remaining time. Brush up your knowledge of multiplication tables. Why don't you understand, it takes some time to feed the numbers into your calculator, however small they may be. And these insignificantly small times get added up to make a significant time duration of say, 5 to 10 minutes. Why do you want to lose this time when you can do another question in these few minutes? I have also seen students inputting incorrect numbers or operations into their calculators because they have to do them fast. So, think before using your right hand for the calculator, assuming you are always holding your calculator in your left hand.

3. Memorize the formulas and the Geometry theorems

You get a formula list for Paper code 0607 and Edexcel Mathematics A but not for Paper code 0580, though some formulas are given with the questions. But you do not have every formula included in your formula list. For example, the algebraic identity, a^2 - b^2 = (a + b)(a - b) which is very frequently used in factorization or simplification problems. You don't have the circle theorems, the properties of a rhombus, rectangle, isosceles trapezoid or a kite in the formula list. And even if you have a question which needs a formula present in the formula list, why should you waste some time to go back to that page and search for the required formula? Remember, every second is precious during the examination. Therefore, the only solution is to memorize the formulas.

4. Practice past paper questions in one sitting

I do not allow my students to solve past paper questions before completing the entire syllabus. I give them similar questions for practice but not exactly the ones that are there in the papers so that they may practice them before the examination. Keeping full concentration for 2 hours or more is often challenging. You tend to lose your concentration after one or one and a half hours. You want to get up for at least few minutes before starting to write again. You may feel vexed by the very thought that you have to answer so many more questions at that time. As a result, because of your dissatisfaction, you make more silly mistakes, you do not read the questions properly or do not understand them fully. Therefore, you have to practice past papers when you are in a fresh mind in one sitting, with absolutely no external disturbance or distraction maintaining the time limit. If you have not done this till now, try doing this for at least 10 - 12 papers before your examination, you would definitely see the difference.

5. Do not think about any paper after it is over

You have papers of different subjects in an examination with very little or no gap in between the days. It may happen that you do not become completely satisfied with your performance in a particular paper. The paper can be of any subject and your 'not performing well' in that paper can also be for varied reasons. It can be because you may had forgotten some answer or you could not complete the paper or could not do well because the paper was quite difficult (in your opinion). Whatever may be the cause, the fact is that, it is over. It is an event of the past. You cannot change your performance in that paper. Therefore, do not brood over your past performance but focus on your next paper and start preparing.

6. Get sufficient sleep the night before the examination

This is true for every paper of every subject but when it comes to Mathematics, it becomes absolutely essential because you need total mental alertness while writing your Mathematics paper. Be calm and composed and absolutely tension free when entering the examination hall. You are well prepared, you have practiced so many questions, so many past papers, you are confident in your knowledge. Now, is the time to show your knowledge and get rewarded for all your hard work.

7. Keep all the essential items in your bag the night before your examination

Keep your pens, pencils, ruler, eraser, compass, protractor, tracing paper (if you use) in your bag the night before your Math exam so that you do not forget any of these to take to the examination hall.

8. Do not waste your time reading the entire question paper

I know many students who read the entire question paper before starting to answer. You do not have any choice of questions in the question paper. Every question is mandatory. So, why should you be spending time reading the whole paper at the beginning? You may use this time for revising your answers! This habit of reading the entire paper has another drawback. Suppose you come across a single question in the whole paper which you think you would not be able to do. Your mind would definitely have some negative impact on seeing the question. Your concentration would be lost. Subconsciously, you would continue to think of that question even when you are solving some other question. So you are extremely prone to making silly mistakes in those every other question which are quite simple because you are unmindful. And finally you may discover that you are being able to answer that difficult question! Awesome! But! You have already made so many silly mistakes in your whole paper because you were not concentrating! So you lose marks.

9. Read a question twice before starting to answer

Read every question carefully and read them fully twice before starting to answer. I have seen many students saying 'Oh, I missed out that information' or 'Oh, I did not read that part of the question'. Sometimes, as you start reading a question, you realize that you would be able to do it and just jump to start writing your answer. In that excitement of yours, you forget to read the entire question and assume some part of it. Therefore, you come up with a wrong answer even though it was a known question for you. Excess of everything is bad and harmful. Therefore, don't get overjoyed in seeing an easy question, because almost all the questions in the question paper would be easy for you if you prepare well.

10. Do not use a frixion pen for writing

There are some students who are used to writing with a frixion pen. They use those pens because they have to erase frequently. But you cannot write with a frixion pen in your examination. It is not allowed. You have to practice to think what you should write before actually writing that sentence. You have to practice writing your entire answer, with every calculation shown, in the space provided. You have to practice writing smaller if you find the space provided is not enough. But, I am sure, you have overcome this difficulty, if you ever had, by now.

11. Show all your working

Be careful about showing all your working. Every question contains part marking. You get some marks if your working is correct even though you could not get the right answer for some reason. You would be getting marks for the steps which are correct. Also, you won't get marks if you don't show your working even if you write the correct answer.

12. Do the drawing related questions at the end

The question related to linear programming or the question asking for drawing of a tangent in order to find the gradient of a curve at a particular point or may be the question which asks for the center of rotation (in case you use the construction method for finding the center) require more time because they involve some drawings. Even the drawing of a cumulative frequency curve can come under this category. Attempt them after completing all other easy questions. But, I am asking you to do them after attempting the other questions does not mean that you can take limitless time for these. Remember, you may have some difficult questions remaining to be attempted and above all, the revision has not been done!

13. Do not spend too much time on a question

Make it a rule to not take more than 50 seconds to answer a one mark question. 50 seconds is the maximum that can be afforded per mark. Try to complete it in 45 seconds because the questions involving drawing would obviously need more time. Suppose a question contains 16 marks. You have to mentally multiply 16 * 50 = 800 seconds. For converting to minutes, we have to divide by 60, so 800/60 or 80/6 or approximately 13 minutes. Therefore, you cannot spend more than 13 minutes in answering all the subparts of this question. Do not use your calculator to do the said calculation. It will take time. Practice to do it mentally and to do it fast. As soon as you come to a new question, you see the total marks associated with it and then get a rough estimate of the maximum time that you can spend on that question. You have sufficient time for practicing this technique before your examination. But, do not continue using this method, in case you find you are taking a lot of time in doing these calculations. Just continue answering the questions one by one as fast as you can.

14. Do the relatively difficult questions last of all

Keep the questions that you find difficult to solve to be answered at the end, after completing and revising every other question of the question paper. I know you won't have more than one such question or even if I take the worst case, there would be a single difficult question and one or two difficult subparts of another question. Therefore, even if you can do half or quarter of them and do the remaining questions correctly, you can be sure of getting high grades.

15. Do not let your failure to answer a question subpart affect your answer to the next subpart

Almost every question contains several subparts. Suppose you could not find the answer to subpart b) of a question. Also suppose the answer to subpart b) is required for solving the subpart d) of that same question. Should you be leaving the subpart d) (even though you know how to solve it) because you do not know the answer of subpart b)? Definitely not. Start the answer to subpart d) by writing, 'Let the answer to subpart b) be k.' or 'Let the value of the ____ (write the name) be k.' Then do the entire calculation writing 'k' whenever the answer to the subpart b) is needed and give your final answer in terms of 'k'. This would prove that even though you could not solve subpart b), you know how to solve subpart d) and you could give a numerical answer to the question of subpart d), had you known the numerical answer of subpart b). You would not lose any mark for the subpart d) question.

16. Always revise before submitting your paper

There is always a risk of making some silly mistakes no matter however cautious you had been while writing your answers. The last half an hour or 40 minutes should be kept for revising your answers. This is absolutely essential. Never ever decide to submit your paper without going through all your answers once more. That is why you have to restrict yourself to the time limit of 50 seconds for every mark. This would be giving you the required time for revision.

These are some of the few tips that I wanted to share with you. All the best for your coming examination and for your future. I am an IGCSE/IB online Math tutor for grades 9-12. You may visit my website www.nsonlinemathtutoring.com for more details about my services. I would be happy to help you. You may also like to visit my Facebook page www.facebook.com/NilanjanaOnlineMathTutor for viewing many solved sums and mathematical videos. Thank you for giving me time. Bye.