Expert Tips to Boost GCSE & A-Level Maths Grades: Proven Strategies for Success

Podcast Episode Description

🎙️ Welcome to another exciting episode of Wisdom Whispers! 🎙️

In today’s episode, our enthusiastic host, Wolfy Lloyds, dives deep into the world of Maths with the incredible Kevin Ramchurn, a dedicated Maths teacher with over 7 years of experience helping students ace their GCSEs and A-Levels in London, UK. Whether you're a student, a parent, or just someone who loves learning, this episode is packed with expert tips and practical strategies to boost your Maths grades and build confidence.

Kevin shares why GCSE Maths is so important for developing critical thinking skills, and he breaks down the common challenges students face—like the infamous Maths anxiety—and how to overcome them with practical solutions like mastering the basics and practising under timed conditions. 🧠⏰

We also discuss effective study techniques such as:

• Active learning through problem-solving
• Using visual aids to simplify complex concepts
• The power of spaced repetition and group study to enhance retention.

📚 But that’s not all! Kevin highlights some fantastic resources to help students on their journey, including:

• Maths Genie for past papers and revision
• Corbettmaths for on-the-go learning.

Finally, we tackle the all-important topic of exam preparation. Kevin shares his top exam tips - from creating a study timetable to managing stress and staying positive on exam day.

So, whether you're prepping for your GCSEs/A-Levels or simply want to improve your Maths skills, this episode is a must-listen! Tune in, get inspired, and let’s conquer those Maths grades together! 💪🎧

Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with anyone else who could definitely benefit from these incredible insights. Let’s keep learning, growing, and whispering wisdom into the world! 🌟

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another fascinating podcast episode from Wisdom Whispers,
where we explore the realms of education which are quite amazing and yet very insightful tips
and trying to inspire you or trying to do our best to help you achieve academic excellence.
Who am I? I'm your host, Wolfy Lloyds and today we have an amazing and very dear guest with us
Kevin Ramchurn. Hi Kevin, who is Kevin? I'm so sorry everyone, I cannot really spill the
beans. I think Kevin will steal the spotlight. So Kevin, could you share a few things about yourself?
Yeah, sure, Wolfyy. So I'm really glad to be here to first of all, Wolfy. It's
a pleasure to actually share some useful tips with your listeners. Now, a bit more about myself.
So I've been a Maths teacher for quite a while, about seven years right now and mainly in London
because it's more of a diverse community over here. And while teaching in London is mainly Maths
GCSE, I recently took A-Levels in the last two years and I'm trying to improve my teaching style
and see if I can convince some students to take more Maths for the next year and be quite good to
have them. Okie dokes. In that case, then everyone, thanks Kevin for sharing this intro.
So let's hold our breath, our breath, but not for too long because we have to dive right in
and Kevin, this is the multibillionaire question. Why is Mathematics or Maths as well,
Such a crucial subject? Because some people, some students may think, 'nahh', it's highly overrated or
you know what, why don't we don't take Chemistry or perhaps History as
another critical crucial subject? So Kevin, over to you, Senor.
That's fine. I agree with most people that Maths is a crucial subject. I mean, we can't deny
other topics like Science. I mean, they are crucial. But the reason why Maths is quite crucial in
this context is because of the jobs that you're trying to apply for. So for example, if I were to
apply for a data analyst, I need to have a basics of statistics and a basics of using number
calculations in my work. So it's very important that you have those skills to be able to apply
those types of jobs. I'm not just saying stick to data analysis because there are other jobs like
Actuary you even got teaching, you also got some science jobs that involve some Maths as well.
So for example, my sister is doing research, she's doing research cancering and it's a lot of heavy Maths involved; where she needs to actually measure the amount of doses that she gives to the patient for
her research and she needs to make sure that she gets all the correct numbers of which one
are passing and which ones are failing just to make sure that we can get an accurate
probability of the cure being successful. So I wouldn't say Maths is strictly restricted to only Maths jobs, but it's actually diverting to different roles in other industries as well.
And that's actually very much exciting. So everyone, I'd like to invite you right now to take a
pose and slide tilt your head all the way up and look above you. Now if you are able to see
the sky, that's because the sky is the limit when it comes to choosing maths. You don't have to be only teaching, when it comes to careers, as well as being an actuary, could be finance, or could be research as well
as Kevin has mentioned. Now Kevin, something I'd like to now ask your expertise, since you've been
teaching London, a quite diverse community and also a place to be. Now what are some of the most
you would observe or most common difficulties that students might face, during their
GCSE exams? And on that note, that's a problem. How will they be able to overcome these hurdles
or obstacles? What do you best suggest, Kevin? There are two things I do normally when I've found
difficulty in the students. Now when this difficulty is mainly one or two problems, the first problem
is whether the student has the skills already for them to do the question. So for example,
are they able to do a percentage of amounts if they're doing a problem-solving question that
involves them to find how much this car value, how much deposit I will put for this car if it's
2,000 pounds, and I have to pay a 10% deposit. So those types of questions, you're going to want to ask,
do they have the skills? That's the first problem. Now if they have the skills, they can find a
percentage of the amount, and then the next one is to actually do they understand the question. Because a
lot of the time is the students don't know what the question is asking them, even though they have
the skills and the knowledge to be able to do it, it's just one of the things that they need to
practice a lot on. And I think what they tend to do with my students is I always show them the
skill first and then I show them the problem-solving one where they have to read in context and try
to get the information from the context to apply to my skills.
I understand. Thanks, Kevin, there's actually some really good and great points from my perspective
at least. Now something I guess many, many parents will be craving for this question.
Are there any effective study techniques that students in collaboration with the parents?
Obviously, perhaps with their siblings or their close peers, they can embrace or use to improve
their Maths grades, whether it's going to be from an academic perspective or perhaps boost their
confidence. What do you think, Kevin? Well, there are actually 14 tips that I can give you
for this particular thing. The reason I wouldn't say your parents need to be involved is because it's
mostly up to the students themselves. Because the parents, even though they're here, they're just
here to support just to give you a bit of a notch. But it's up to you as a student to make those
changes. So if you want to, I can start with the main, the first one. So the first one that I would
say is of all one or two of them, so the first one I would say is to get enough sleep, very,
very important. You wouldn't understand how many students are getting classes that are half
asleep just because they were trying to stay awake, revising the night before. And it doesn't help
because I'm trying to teach you something. And then you're coming back half asleep, so you're
half engaged with the content. Then when you're half engaged with the content, are you actually able
to retain that content? Because normally when we retain something, we only retain a small
percentage of it. Now, if you only listen half-way, you will retain less of the content and
origins that you have. So it's very, very important that you sleep. And also, the second one is to get a lot,
a lot of help. Now, I don't just seem to say I just get a lot of help from your teacher only
because your teacher may be able to help you a certain amount of a certain amount of time.
Because obviously, you're finished with a finished school about four or five or a clock.
After that, it's really hard to get a whole new teacher. So what we suggest is to try to get yourself
into a small group of pairs where you can work together in the library after school or before
school. Or you can have this and where I had some students who already created a WhatsApp group.
So if you ever get stuck on that, they just message each other and say, "oh, they're stuck on
this question". "Can you help me with that?" And this is what I've seen from my students recently.
And it will be quite good if you do get yourself help. Now, if you can't get help from other students,
they're also your parents. I mean, your parents are actually willing to pay for tuition classes
or teach them yourself if they know the topic to actually progress because they know
themselves that education is very important to push you in future careers.
Now, I know I only said two things. Now, Wolfy, do you want me to say any more or do you want me to
keep the pace as well? Actually, actually, Kevin, I think I'd like to create a bit of a gradual
suspense for our audience and also for our listeners so that we can actually create
her nose in another episode. So we can actually delve into this. On that now, everyone,
we're going to enclose more resources, more information, just in case you can actually find more
details on the podcast episode. On that now, Kevin, speaking about prepping tips. Now,
another good I would say is subsequent question would be what kind of resources would you
recommend for students who are really keen to boost their Maths grades? That's very, very good
question because I will give you four things that I can think up in mind. So let me tell you just
right now. So the first one is exam material. You really, really, really important to have exam materials.
I don't just talk about the papers themselves, but the mark scheme as well because the mark scheme
gives you great tips on the question that you're answering. Now, the second one I would suggest
is revision cards. Revision cards are very important because they're really quick and easy to
access and it's easier to check on the answer at the back when flipping full pages of books,
checking what was the answer for this. And the other two are mostly websites that I have. So
the first website is called Maths Genie. With Maths Genie, you can access the exam papers, but also you
can get great topics. So let's see if you were a grade seven student who is trying to get
harder questions. You can go straight to Masths Genie and find those harder questions
but go to grade A or grade nine. But also what's really good about this Maths Genie website is
they give you the mark schemes as well as the exam papers. As I said, the exam papers
are already given. But when you do the other question, they give you the solutions,
which is something that other websites don't give you. So it's very important that you look at
the written solutions so you can look at the step-by-step guide on how to answer each question.
Now, the final website I'm going to give you is more of practising applied questions
because there are a lot of questions that it's just focused on problem-solving skills,
but not problem-solving in context. So if you want to get more... what's you called
more skills, if you want your skills to be tested within context, go to Corbettmaths. That's one
of the websites I use mainly for my students where they finish the skills,
and need to apply it in context. So it's a very, very good website. We'll make sure we add it to
this section at the end. Now, there's most stuff regarding the revision cards. I know I
just said you can create your own revision cards, but if you go to the actual website for your
example, so for example, if you do Pearson or Edexcel or AQA, some of those websites
already created those revision cards. So instead of you wasting writing for hours and hours,
you could just buy them online. It shouldn't be too expensive. I think if I remember correctly,
the last time I checked was around 10 to 20 quids (£) for just revision cards, and they're very good
because we're more focused on the exam papers that you're going to take. So if you ever get a
chance to buy them, I'll recommend to buy them. Small investment for a priceless outcome.
It's not restricted to Maths as well because they do have four of the subjects as well. So
let's say for science, I have seen some science departments buying those revision cards for
their students, and it did boost the scores up. So it's very, very highly recommended to get one.
So this is really good actually, Kevin, because in this case, that means we have a wide range of
options, not only exclusive to Mathematics but also in different subject areas. Now, Kevin, we approached the end of our session and speaking of our exam preparation,
I know some people may find it really heartening or they say, come on, Kevin, we have so much
fun right now. So how could you share any last tips when it comes to getting ready for the
GCSE maths exams or A-Levels? Why? Because some people like to prepare ahead of the game. Some
people like to prepare at the very last minute. So what do you think? Any hints or tips for people
who like to cram things while with before the exams and others who like to pace themselves
throughout the academic year? Right, there are two things I'm thinking. Now, with the people who
have decided to take this last bit, I wouldn't recommend it, but if you do come yourself to be a last-minute person, there's only one option for you which I highly recommend. And that is exam papers
and maths schemes. So when I come to a situation where I need to do quick revision and it's the last
minute revision, I always go to the exam papers, complete an exam paper and then start looking at the
maths scheme. Because the maths scheme is what tells you, it tells you exactly where people are
getting wrong and it tells you exactly what you can fix yourself. So for example, I remember a
couple of years ago when I was at Uni, I was doing this course for maths which was about probability.
So I found it very difficult to understand it. So what did I've done all the past exam papers
and looked at the maths scheme and the maths scheme actually told me what the students were struggling
with and which question was the most popular question that people tend to get wrong and those are
the questions that are practised and looking on those, I reflected and those were the questions
that actually came up in the exam. So I was quite lucky. Yeah, we're really quite lucky on that. But
generally, if you do that, you generally do improve on the skills, on the knowledge that you're
missing out anyway. So if you're doing it last minute, just do the exam papers. Now if you're doing
the long-term prep, I would say do the exam papers now, then wait for a couple, I wouldn't say a
couple of months, but wait a month later and redo them and see whether you have improved or not.
Does that make sense? So let's say I've done the first paper today, a paper one.
Now I'll go 50% on that. Now I just go on my mark scheme, look on my mark scheme, look at 
where the questions that go wrong and see whether I can fix those mistakes. Now I will leave them on the
side, focus on other things, then come back the next month and redo that paper and see whether
any changes have been made because our memory tends to drop quite quickly. So we learned something
and then we only remember about 70% of it. And as time goes on, remember less and less. So it's
very important that you keep repeating the exam practice because then it shows a lot of confidence
because you can come to the exam and say, I've done a lot of papers and I can do this in a short
amount of time. And I'll give you another tip as well, when you practice papers,
you actually reduce the amount of time it takes you to complete the papers, which gives you more
time in the exam to check over your answers. Okay. Yeah. So I think everything is also a beautiful
thing which says that along the lines, practice makes excellence. I think because you mentioned
by iteration, you mentioned once you do something once to be able to ensure this is being
refreshed or stays up there. Nice and friendly, happy,
and practised. I think a lot of times right? So Kevin, thanks so much for those incredible
and valuable tips. I think Wolfy it was great to be here anyway. I'm pretty confident that our listeners
will be craving for another episode with you, Kevin, just to get more hints and tips about
different maths topics besides mathematics is a quite vast area to explore. So Kevin,
I think the rest of all of you that's it for today for wisdom whispers. If you really enjoy
this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share with anyone that you hold dear,
perhaps just make some noise. Until next time everyone, keep learning and don't forget to stay inspired!