11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi,

Can anyone suggest practice papers for Edexcel GCSE maths? There are some past papers on the web and i have found one CGP book with three practice papers.
There is a lot of practice material onj the web, but as DD is fairly competent already, I am looking for material tailored to exams.

Thanks!

The edexcel website will have all their past papers,I would have thought, along with mark schemes.

You are right, only the 2014 papers require a login. How far back do you think the papers are relevant?

All will be relevant to some extent - 2012 onwards are best though as QWC (quality of written communication) questions were introduced then Use the modular papers as well as the linear. They lock the 2014 papers so schools can use for mocks ...

IME doing the exam then going through the mark scheme is invaluable, so the student can see exactly how and where they dropped marks. (For GCSE it is possible to get all the right answers and still drop grades if you don't show workings).

Also there are stock phrases for the explanation parts which come up year after year. Much time is saved is you can reel these off parrot fashion. Eg; "overlapping ranges", "The opposite angles in a cyclic quadrilateral add up to 180 degrees".

Doing past papers is a good way of improving grades.

Also read the examiners reports ... very useful. Mark the papers yourself (as you will be stricter) then go through the paper with them.

If you're really desperate for more papers:
* use both the syllabus A and syllabus B papers; the main difference between them is the structure of the exams, not the mathematical content.
* use papers from different exam boards; the aware that there are some differences between the syllabuses. Remember there are 4 exam boards in England, Wales and NI other than Edexcel: AQA, OCR, WJEC (currently rebranding itself as Eduqas) and CCEA. Don't try the Scottish exams, they are very different.
* there is an organisation called TES which allows you to download materials for free including some exam-like questions.

Thanks a lot for all your very helpful suggestions. I am finding the mark scheme difficult to interpret- didnt have this problem for science. A bit overwhelmed by all this but dont know if I can find a tutor to do all this.
What are Examiners reports?
I dont want to waste time going to a tutor who only does papers mechanically. Feel I understand what she needs more but dont have the background knowledge to hit the ground running.

There is an explanation of the symbols at the beginning of the mark scheme e.g. cao (correct answer only)

The examiners reports are on the exam board website:

http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qu ... -2010.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

under course materials

Guest55 wrote:Also read the examiners reports ... very useful. Mark the papers yourself (as you will be stricter) then go through the paper with them.

Very true this is extremely useful especially when the answers are brief. Also it gives you an idea of how hard the question was and how other students coped with it.

Does anyone know if they remove the older papers? Halfway through Highr June paper 2010 with DS and now can't find it.