GCSE MATHS PAPER 1 GRADE BOOSTER

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]There are eight months of days until GCSE maths paper one. And for many of you, this will be the GCSE paper that you are dreading the most. This is the last minute advice that I wish somebody had told me. Everything that I recommend you do to revise before paper one. You don't have any time to waste. I'm not about to waste any more of it. If you do like this video, be sure to subscribe because I'm going to be doing this for each one of your GCSEs. Without further ado, let's just get on with it. Okay, so first thing you need to understand whether you're foundation or higher, this is the only non-calculator paper.

[00:00:37]So think about it. Put yourself in the exam board's shoes.

[00:00:41]They are going to test your numeracy, your arithmetic, anything anything that you can do that is not done on a calculator, they are going to ask you to do.

[00:00:49]Can you write a remaining decimal? Can you multiply two two-digit numbers?

[00:00:54]Can you use BIDMAS?

[00:00:56]These are all really important skills and you need to brush up on these before you walk into that exam hall.

[00:01:02]There is no doubt in my mind that you can do Okay.

[00:01:06]There is no doubt in my mind that you can do 24 * 8 on a calculator. Can you do it by hand? Can you do it using the grid method or using whatever multiplication method you use? And can you show your working to an examiner?

[00:01:20]That is what you need to know for this paper.

[00:01:24]Now that's out of the way, if you do take one thing from this video, if you do something differently in paper one than you do in papers two and three, I want you to check every single one of your answers. Either do it as you're going along or I recommend you do it at the end. I'm not to sound like your teacher, but this is the most important paper to do that in.

[00:01:41]Everybody is susceptible to silly mistakes. I get indices wrong all of the time and I study economics at university. I study a glorified maths degree. I will quite frequently write that 4 squared is 8. And it's obviously not. It's not that I don't know how to square a number. It's just that everybody is vulnerable to making these silly maths errors and you are much more likely to do that if you are not using a calculator. So please please please do check all of your answers. In my opinion, this is the most difficult maths paper because remember, anything can come up. In papers two and three, you can sort of in a way predict the questions. Not every question, don't get me wrong, but if you know that circle theorems came up in paper one, then it's quite unlikely to come up again or it's not as likely as other topics. But you don't have that luxury for paper one.

[00:02:37]So you really do need to make sure you are comfortable with everything.

[00:02:41]My top pieces of advice here would be to make sure you have sharpened your mathematical skills.

[00:02:48]Now don't get me wrong. You need to be able to write a remaining decimal. You need to know all of the circle theorems.

[00:02:55]But your ability to do other topics does not rely on whether you could remember what a tangent to a circle is. However, it does rely on your ability to square a number. It relies on your ability to rearrange an equation. You can't do Pythagoras if you can't do indices. You cannot do simultaneous equations if you do not fundamentally understand. I'm not do inverse functions if you don't know your indices rules. So sharpen these fundamental skills and focus on these high yield topics. That's what I really recommend you do for this paper more than anything else. For you students aiming for a grade nine, make sure you are very comfortable with understanding how topics link together. So this is critical for the last question in the paper. I'm not going to lie. I genuinely think that the last paper in question one in GCSE maths is probably the most challenging. So if you can do that, you can do anything.

[00:03:57]And that's because you don't have a calculator with you. It will rely on your really solid understanding of how different topics link so that that's why it's a six-mark question.

[00:04:07]That is why you really need to understand how things link together.

[00:04:10]There is no how-to guide for every type of six-mark question.

[00:04:14]If you are aiming for a top grade at this point and you if you really happy with fundamentally the reasons you're completing the square, then I would genuinely try the most difficult practice paper questions and just keep plowing through them. In terms of revision, if there are any topics that you're struggling with, regardless of what grade what grade you're aiming for, I recommend you do targeted practice questions. Don't just jump into practice questions if you have literally no idea how to do them. Make sure that you're watching some explanatory videos. For maths more than anything, there are so many videos on YouTube teachers explaining how you work out the roots of an equation. How to do the nth term was a big one that I really struggled with. Make sure you watch a video on it, you make some notes that make sense to you and that you review it just before the exam. There are any formulas you always forget, I could never remember the cosine rule formula.

[00:05:11]Make sure you review it before the exam.

[00:05:14]Like I was saying, there really is no one-size-fits-all method for maths, but you need to do practice questions more so than literally any other GCSE. You need to learn the theory, learn how to do these topics in maths that you're struggling with, then apply it immediately. There is no alternative.

[00:05:37]You need to understand how to do an exam question on it, particularly for maths.

[00:05:42]You need to be able to apply that knowledge and thoroughly understand why you're doing what you're doing. Make sure you work on your weakest areas and if you just want to revise everything, make sure you do an entire practice paper and make sure you go over any questions that you get wrong at this point. You need to identify whether you got it wrong because it was a silly maths error. You'll learn not to do it in the real exam. Did you get it wrong because you actually just realized that you actually didn't understand what the quadratic nth term was. If so, it's okay. Go watch a video on it. Go get your head around it and try some more questions. You won't get it wrong in the real exam. And the last thing that I want to say is just don't freak out. I know that it's daunting and I know that maths is a GCSE that a lot of people struggle with.

[00:06:28]However, do your best. Make sure you do practice questions before the exam and make sure you do an entire practice paper. It's only It I mean it it will take you less than two hours. You just need to make sure you have practiced everything, you've identified if there's anything you really didn't understand, and you need to go over your weakest topics. I'm just hopping on here because I was filming um the next video. I want to remind you about timings. Keep an eye on the clock. You don't want to run out of time. If you don't understand how to do something, leave it. Okay, maybe you don't just completely leave it empty.

[00:07:05]Maybe you whack down a formula.

[00:07:08]You might get a mark for it, but don't waste time trying to do something you have no idea how to do.

[00:07:13]Don't hold yourself up because there might be questions later on in the paper that you are more than capable of doing.

[00:07:19]Keep an eye on the clock. Do not spend 25 minutes doing a three-mark question.

[00:07:26]Do not over write any sort of explain questions. Do you not spend ages, I don't know, drawing a cute diagram. It's unnecessary. Make sure your answers are legible, don't waste your time.

[00:07:39]Now that's done with, this is the real end of the video. Best of luck for paper one. Remember, you can do this. Please check your answers. Make sure you're comfortable with your core fundamental mathematical skills, your arithmetic, your numeracy. You will smash it. I believe in you. Best of luck for the exam. Be sure to like and subscribe for more GCSE advice videos.