These last few months of class time can be key to help students identify any weaknesses, understand any areas they have struggled with, and crucially be able to access that knowledge when it is needed in that exam hall. This selection of resources, created and shared by the talented and generous teacher resource authors on of Tes, should hopefully help this revision time go as smoothly and productively as possible.
Happy revising!
Craig Barton
Tes Maths Adviser
@mrbartonmaths
Unless students know which areas of maths to revise, they might struggle to focus their revision effectively. Here we have formula to learn revision tips and student-friendly specification documents which can be printed out and coloured in or used electronically may really help students out. Yet whilst these resources are designed for GCSE and iGCSE, they are fully editable, so could be customised whatever specification students are working toward.
One of the most significant changes to my teaching over the last few years has been the regular use of low-stakes quizzes. Students work through these in class, mark them themselves and then identify key areas they need to focus on. This ensures students benefit from the act of retrieval and have a more accurate picture of their strengths and weaknesses above and beyond their gut instinct. The best low-stakes quizzes are customised to meet the needs of your class, but here are a few classics to get you started.
Variety is the spice of life and that is non-truer than when it comes to revision lessons. Ploughing through exam paper after exam paper, or working in silence as part of independent revision, can get tedious after a while and as soon as student effort drops, we are in trouble. But when planning revision lessons, I always have at the back of my mind Daniel Willingham’s mantra that, “students remember what they think about”. So, whilst I want my revision lessons to be engaging, I also need to have mathematics at the heart of them. Here are a few of my favourite ideas.
It is important that students experience the kind of questions they will be asked when they sit their actual summer exams. However, in the past I have been guilty of giving students mock and practice papers indiscriminately. I am not sure how useful this approach is. I tended to find that students answered the questions they could do and left out the ones they couldn’t, potentially learning little along the way. Now I try to be a bit more strategic with my choice of exam practice. Here are some cracking resources if you fancy doing the same.
Last minute revision!
It is the night before or the morning of the exam and your students have arrived wanting some last minute help. What do you do? Here are a few options:
