How to do extremely well in further?

[nerdmmb]

Hey everyone,
last year I completed general maths advanced however I still make silly mistakes in stats which is why I decided not to do further this year.

What can I do this year to prepare myself for it next year and hopefully avoid silly errors? Thanks

[Professor Polonsky]

Read every question carefully before attempting it, highlighting important/tricky parts. Feel free to scribble all over the page if it helps your thought process - explain to yourself what you're doing. Never spend too long on any one question, you want to collect as many marks as possible. Mark answers you're unsure about, especially if the question involves anything particularly tricky, so that at the very least you can go back to them. I would aim to finish the paper within no more than two-thirds of the allotted time, though.

[nerdmmb]

Read every question carefully before attempting it, highlighting important/tricky parts. Feel free to scribble all over the page if it helps your thought process - explain to yourself what you're doing. Never spend too long on any one question, you want to collect as many marks as possible. Mark answers you're unsure about, especially if the question involves anything particularly tricky, so that at the very least you can go back to them. I would aim to finish the paper within no more than two-thirds of the allotted time, though.

Thank-you very much Polonomial! I will definitely start doing that! and congrats on your incredible scores!

[MagicGecko]

Just expanding a bit on what Polonomial said.

Read every question carefully before attempting it

I cannot stress this enough! Read the question 2 times 3 times if you have to, JUST MAKE SURE YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND IT! This is what separates an A+ from an A and generally distinguishes students with SS's between ~45-50.
Another nice way to minimize those silly mistakes is to calculate you answers twice, never use your initial answer as accuracy because you might have pressed a wrong number the first time, who knows, this is crucial in MC type questions though since you don't get consequential marks in them. Also, don't rush, take things slow and pace yourself.

[Yacoubb]

Don't underestimate it. Also read every question! Just look at the last q of graphs & relations exam 2 for the definition of trick question.

[zhujunyan]

Practise makes perfect.
I did about 35 past year papers and I got a perfect 50. Tell you a little trick. After 10 sets of exams, I just browsed through the questions without doing them. If I picked up some questions that I thought might be problematic, I tried to solve them. Otherwise, I just ticked them.

Good Luck

[nerdmmb]

Practise makes perfect.
I did about 35 past year papers and I got a perfect 50. Tell you a little trick. After 10 sets of exams, I just browsed through the questions without doing them. If I picked up some questions that I thought might be problematic, I tried to solve them. Otherwise, I just ticked them.

Good Luck

Thank-you!

[Yacoubb]

I'd recommend really learning an effective strategy that I acquired about two weeks prior to my Further Mathematics exams. A week before, all the practice exams I completed, I completed with (a) no reading time (b) not checking over the exam and (c) correcting it immediately once I had finished. Initially, I intended to do this purely because I had very little time and wanted to study for Biology, or perhaps complete other Further Maths exams, etc. However, I found this so effective because I found exam 1 rather tricky, and time-consuming questions got the better of me. I was not able to check over my paper once; not even once. But because I had the mentality that I have one shot to get this question right, I got most of the paper correct.

Also, don't assume that doing hundreds of practice exams correlates to getting a 50. I know friends who did nearly 100 practice exams in total, were scoring close to 100% on each paper, and ended up with scores they were disappointed with. Its all about learning strategies. Your mantra when doing practice exams, is strategies.

Best of luck

[nerdmmb]

I'd recommend really learning an effective strategy that I acquired about two weeks prior to my Further Mathematics exams. A week before, all the practice exams I completed, I completed with (a) no reading time (b) not checking over the exam and (c) correcting it immediately once I had finished. Initially, I intended to do this purely because I had very little time and wanted to study for Biology, or perhaps complete other Further Maths exams, etc. However, I found this so effective because I found exam 1 rather tricky, and time-consuming questions got the better of me. I was not able to check over my paper once; not even once. But because I had the mentality that I have one shot to get this question right, I got most of the paper correct.

Also, don't assume that doing hundreds of practice exams correlates to getting a 50. I know friends who did nearly 100 practice exams in total, were scoring close to 100% on each paper, and ended up with scores they were disappointed with. Its all about learning strategies. Your mantra when doing practice exams, is strategies.

Best of luck

Thank-you Yacoubb! That seems like a great strategy that can be used for all subjects I'll definitely  try it out!