Mathematics resources for students and parents
Practical guidance drawn from teaching Cambridge and Edexcel mathematics: how to revise the subject properly, what examiners actually reward, and where students most reliably lose marks.
Everything here is free to read. If you would rather have the answer applied to your own child, the diagnostic session does exactly that.
Four things that change mathematics results
Most of what separates a good result from a disappointing one comes down to these. None of them require a tutor to put into practice.
Revise by attempting, not reading
Re-reading notes and watching worked solutions feels productive and changes almost nothing. Mathematics improves through attempting questions unaided, getting them wrong, and understanding exactly why. If a revision session produced no wrong answers, it was probably too easy to be useful.
Read a real mark scheme
Every board publishes its mark schemes free. Read one alongside a paper your child has attempted and the pattern becomes obvious: marks sit on identifiable steps, not on the final answer. Students who have never seen this guess at how much working to show, and guess low.
Practise against the clock
A paper attempted untimed tests knowledge. A paper attempted under time tests what will actually happen in the exam. Give every question a time budget in proportion to its marks, and practise the decision to move on — because that decision is what saves the last two questions.
Classify every lost mark
After a mock, sort each lost mark into one of four causes: knowledge, method, arithmetic, or time. The dominant category tells you what to work on next. Most students skip this step and revise everything evenly, which is why their grades move so slowly.
Fix algebra before anything else
Weak algebra makes every other topic harder than it needs to be, because attention is spent on manipulation rather than on the problem. It is the single highest-return thing to repair at IGCSE, GCSE and O Level, and the thing that most often derails students at A Level.
Write the reasoning down
“Show that”, “explain” and “prove” questions award marks for a written argument. A correct number with no justification scores nothing. Students who practise writing the argument, not just reaching the answer, pick up marks across every paper they sit.
Ten topics, each with its own guides
The library is organised around the exams students actually sit and the problems that actually come up, rather than as an undifferentiated blog feed.
From the library
Longer pieces on exam technique, revision method and the topics students find hardest.
Choosing a tutor rather than revising? The guides for parents cover whether tutoring is needed, what to ask, and how to tell whether it is working.
Guides are published here as they are written. In the meantime, the frequently asked questions cover lessons, roadmaps and progress reporting in detail.
Free downloads
Checklists and planners written to be used, not skimmed. Each is a PDF, each is free, and we ask for an email so we can send you the link.
Downloadable worksheets are being added here. Ask on WhatsApp if there is a specific topic you would find useful.
General advice only goes so far
The free 40-minute diagnostic session applies all of this to one student: which topics are weak, which of the four error types dominates, and what to do about it. You leave with a written plan.