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16 HOURS to Go!Your step-by-step guide to the best preparation for your GCSE Maths Exam

Plan ahead

Get ahead

Stay ahead

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Brought to you by the UK’s #1 Maths Tutor, award winning examiner and outstanding teacher of mathematics

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How to prepare better than your rivals and maximise your success in the final 16 hours before your GCSE Maths Exam.

This guide is going to show you a step-by-step method for

managing your final 16 hours in the run-up to your exam.

If you happen to be super-organised and are reading this

well in advance then firstly, congratulations for having

an awesome attitude and secondly you will reap greater

benefits if you read and then use all of the information

contained here ahead of time.

16 hours to go • wickedmaths.co.uk

Plan

Competition

Olympians

Maths Education

Savvy Teachers

Exam Technique

Taking a Penalty

Fear or Excitement?

Manage Your Chimp

Being Selfish

Be WICKED

Ninja Revision

Inner Assassin

The Final 16 Hours

Chimp Brain

Contents

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PlanMost people do not have an exam day plan, in fact most people go about their day to day business with no planning at all. That is why the majority are not in the ‘super-successful’ category. Observe those characters in your life who are winners, be that in relationships, sport, business, school etc. What do you notice about them?

How do these people seemingly get so much more done than everyone else? Like the saying goes;

“ If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.”

This is counter-intuitive right? The last thing you would expect. So why does it also happen to be true?

It’s simple. They plan ahead.

Things may not always go to plan, but having a timetable, a plan, a schedule makes the odds far more in your favour.

16 hours to go • wickedmaths.co.uk

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CompetitionGCSE Maths is one big competition. Yes, that’s right, it’s a competition. There is no pre-set pass mark. In order to decide the mark or percentage that you need to get a Level 5 (a decent grade C) the examiners wait to see the data and then decide what the grade boundaries should be – that’s why they move each and every year.Essentially, what all this means is, you are up against every other student who is sitting GCSE Maths this summer – typically, that’s over 650,000 candidates.

That’s one hell of a competition!

Think back over your life now, about all the competitions, big or small, that you have ever entered. There may well have been times when you entered or took part in a contest on the spur of the moment, but probably not often. The likelihood is that you signed up for a competition some way in the future and along with your coach, tutor or teacher immediately began to make a plan to execute to perfection on the day.

“ Olympians don’t just rock up once every four years and wing it!”

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OlympiansSportsmen and women have been onto meaningful, performance-standard preparation, for generations. Do you know where they begin? With what is required on competition day. Obviously!

They, along with their coaches and managers, meticulously take-apart the requirements of the competition and build a training programme that aims to not only make them competitive, but is geared towards beating off all the rest.

Take gymnastics. These guys don’t just practise a load of skills on the parallel bars, rings and pommel horse. They engage in meaningful, dedicated and specific practise of the exact routines they will be expected to perform on the BIG day. They pursue, with laser focus, the aims and objectives of their ‘win Olympic Gold’ programme, day after day.

In short, their not-so-secret weapon is planning and preparation.

“ My secret is practice.”David Beckham, former professional footballer, Manchester United, Real Madrid and England.

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Maths EducationHow does this compare with your maths education to date? (Cough!).

If your experience of high school maths was anything like mine, then you probably spent most of your 5 years (maths classes 3/4 times a week, every week…zzzzzzzzz) learning a series of seemingly unrelated and pointless skills (especially when the calculator on your smartphone can do most of that stuff these days anyway!).

Then, all of sudden, with around 8 - 10 weeks to go until your actual exam, you experience the most crazy, turbo-charged teaching and learning of your life. At once the finality of your GCSE maths exam

becomes clear to you and your Year 11 maths teacher. You find yourself engaged in an almighty battle against the clock to master something called exam technique and you realise why you haven’t been getting the grades / levels you think you deserved / expected all along. You’ll be saying to yourself (lots)...

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?”

Do you know what? You’re right.

The final weeks of your high school maths life are spent learning how to pass the very test, you’ve been there all along to try to pass. Now that’s crazy!

16 hours to go • wickedmaths.co.uk

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Savvy TeachersThis term may be an oxymoron, at least in your opinion…(by the way, go look that ‘oxymoron’ thing up in your dictionary - wait a minute - I mean, Google it! It’s not okay to read on when you don’t understand something that you could easily look up. Your English teacher has taught you better, I’m sure!)

…you DID just look that up now, didn’t you? Hmmmm, thought not! Do it NOW.

Thank you.

There are some super-savvy teachers out there, who do think like coaches and treat their students as a kind of academic athlete. These men and women are truly awesome, they are the ones who are not on some kind of personal crusade to make you love their subject. Instead these guys have your back, they are looking out for your best interests. These teachers know that not everyone wants to work for NASA, or The Bank of England and that for the vast majority, GCSE Maths represents some kind of unpleasant hurdle that needs to be cleared in order for you to go on and do the things you really want to do.

Savvy teachers read examiner reports. These are annually published reports, readily available to anyone on the websites of all of the exam boards. Contained in these pages are the insights of the examiners who marked the particular paper the report is referring to. It tells us which kinds of questions were answered well and not so well by students from all over the country. ‘With it’ and hungry teachers, consume this information and look for areas where their students can outperform the National Average.

It’s all about POPULAR!

16 hours to go • wickedmaths.co.uk

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If your maths teacher is switched the hell on, they will be flooding you with past-paper questions, in particular with those popular topics that come up every year, ‘the perennials’ (dictionary / Google moment). They’ll also be priming you in your areas of strength, stuff you can already do and do well. Focusing on the topics that you are best at and ensuring that you do close to every previous exam-question ever written (and then some). This makes it FAR more likely that you will pick up those marks on the real thing.

Scatter-gunning is fine for the last 15 – 20 minutes of your exam. That is assuming you have completed all of the questions that you know you can do well, plus you have already attempted - to the best of your ability - the questions that you sort-of remember how to do. At this moment taking a few pot-shots or spraying the paper with chancer answers is fair game, but woe betide you if that is your strategy from the outset!

Scatter-gunning

“Teach a little, teach it well.”When it comes to the crunch (Easter holiday up to your final exams), it is vital that you consolidate what you already know. The time for brand-new learning has passed. You could still learn new things for sure, but at what cost? Sophisticated teachers will be encouraging you to firm up existing knowledge and ensuring that you perform to the full, with the information you reliably have. New learning is spreading your resources wafer-thin at this stage of the game. Your energies should be put into acing the areas that you know well. If you consistently score maximum, or nearly maximum. marks on certain types of questions then you will automatically get a better grade / level than those students with a scatter-gun approach.

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Exam TechniqueIf your teacher / tutor hasn’t talked to you at all about exam technique, or exam strategy then don’t panic. There are some things you can still do…

Several weeks to go before your exam;

Finish reading this guide.

Check out the Wicked Maths Top Ten GCSE Maths Hacks on YouTube.

Shop around for a high-quality maths tutor.

Take the Wicked Maths “6 WEEKS to Go!” revision programme. If you have less than 6 weeks left, you can still catch up. The course is 10 questions per week, so go and make room for it in your revision plan.

Download the Wicked Maths App, open the catalogue and work your a$$ off!

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Just days to go before your exam;

Read this guide in full.

Check out the Wicked Maths Top 10 GCSE Maths Hacks on YouTube.

Take the Wicked Maths “6 DAYS to Go!” revision course. If you have less than 6 days left, you can still catch up. The course is 10 questions per day, so go and make room for it in your revision plan.

Only hours to go before your exam;

Read on, follow my advice to the letter and we’ll make the very best of it.

Check out the Wicked Maths Top 10 GCSE Maths Hacks on YouTube.

All Wicked Maths revision materials have been geared towards helping you build your own personalised exam-strategy, whilst at the same time practising previously unseen (9-1) exam-standard GCSE questions. The video solutions are littered with hints, tips and hacks from a professional maths teacher and current GCSE Maths examiner.

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If you have...

“ It’s not about luck. It’s not about chance. It’s about performing a skill under pressure.”Gareth Southgate, England Football Team Manager discussing penalty kicks 04.07.2018

CompetitionEnglishmen have sucked at this for a very, very long time. I’m an England football fan, so I should know! Tournament, after wretched tournament spent hiding behind the sofa until the final disastrous penalty was missed – a seeming inevitability… until something changed.

Back in ancient history a talented and respected England defender (centre-back) called Gareth Southgate (now the England Team Manager) stepped up to take the deciding penalty kick in the semi-finals of Euro 1998. (I’ve just gone cold writing that, goose-bumps have actually sprung up everywhere!) The penalty was saved and England’s best football team, possibly since 1966 and certainly since 1990 were knocked out of the tournament. The young man was devastated and so was the Nation. It hurt.

As someone who has also missed a penalty in big finals (twice, one in hockey and once in football), I know how that *%!*£ feels! Gutting. Absolute devastation. Like nothing else will matter ever, ever again. Not something I’d wish to repeat, for sure.

Interestingly I was often the designated penalty taker in football, so I must have scored lots of times from the penalty-spot. Trouble is I can’t remember any of those times, I can only remember the two I missed!

The impact that the missed penalty in 1998 had on Mr. Southgate can only be guessed at, but mistakes only define you, if you let the mistake(s) win. Gareth had absolutely no intention of allowing that to happen.

Fast-forward to World Cup 2018 in Russia and Gareth Southgate is now the man in charge, he is the manager of the England Football Team.

Responsible for leading a group of young, talented, underrated and hungry players with bags of confidence. England have somehow made it through to the round of 16, if they win the next match, a place in the quarter finals will be theirs. The match is against Colombia and it finishes 1 – 1 and is still level after extra time, which means one thing. Penalties...

Eric Dier steps up to take the final penalty and smashes it home for an England victory 4 – 3 ON PENALTIES?! HOW?!?!

The country went WILD and I do mean WILD! All of those hideous, hideous nights as an England fan were washed away with this one extraordinary moment.

As for me, I hadn’t flinched. From the moment the game went to a shoot-out I knew England would win. I knew it.

Why? Gareth Southgate.

I was supremely confident that Mr. Southgate would have made darn sure of one thing – that his charges wouldn’t choke under penalty-kick pressure. If ANYONE was going to have made sure the players in his care were properly trained and prepared for a penalty shoot-out it was him. No one goes through what he went through and remains the same. An experience like that changes you – for better or for worse. For some it will crush you and for others it will make you. I had no doubt which category Mr. Southgate belonged to.

I can honestly say, for the first time in FOREVER it was a pleasure to watch the England Football Team take penalty kicks.

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WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH MY GCSE MATHS EXAMS?Good question!

My point is GCSE Mathematics teaches you a series of skills that can be used to solve problems. Anyone can learn these skills with the right teaching and an outstanding attitude to learning. These exams are an opportunity to demonstrate your skills under pressure. Just like England’s penalty takers, the more you prepare and practise the better you get.

If you view your exam this way – an opportunity to demonstrate your mettle under pressure – then you have already begun to take ownership of the situation. Ownership is everything.

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FEAR or EXCITEMENT?Call it what you like; nerves, anxiety, fear, terror, apprehension, anticipation, excitement… the word you choose rather reflects your character and /or mood as opposed to the actual situation. I choose excitement because somewhere deep down I like to be challenged, I like to be tested and I love the feeling that I overcame adversity. There is something alluring and intoxicating about the process of facing a scary situation, going through it and then emerging from the other side of it – win, lose or draw. You see…

“It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better.The credit belongs to the man who is in the arena; whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause and who, if he fails, at least fails while bearing greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt.

…basically, if you get in there and give it your best, at least you will have felt what it is like to really live, so, no matter what happens, no one can call you a coward.

Or in super-short-hand “MAN-UP!”

Channel that anticipation, that excitement, those nerves and use them as your energy to get into that exam hall and do the business. At the end of the day, you’ve nothing to lose. If you mess up, you will go and find out why and then make a better plan for next time. So, don’t be listening to your chimp brain – more on that in a moment – suck it all up, soak up the pressure and use it to fuel your performance.

We see professional 100m sprinters in the Olympic Final, under enormous pressure in the starting blocks, whilst waiting for the gun. They have around 9-11 seconds (depending on gender) to produce the performance that they have been working on for at least the last 4 years. That’s roughly ten seconds to show the world what they can do, from thousands and thousands of hours of really hard training, nutrition, strength work, sports-psychology etc. You’ve got roughly 3 lots of 1.5 hours to showcase what you can do from around 5 years of ‘work’ and many, many less hours than those poor Olympians. So, stop feeling sorry for yourself and start getting into the right head-space.

People your age / not much older have been to fight wars! (The author does not necessarily agree with this policy, however, thinks it worth bearing in mind when you’re freaking out about sitting down for an hour and a half in front of a piece of paper!) #JustSaying!

NEWSFLASH

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Chimp BrainWe all have an area of our brain known as the ‘primitive’ section. This is the part that keeps you alive. It is your early warning system, that alerts you to danger. It also is the part that encourages you to over-eat, but right now we’ll just worry about the danger side of things.

The chimp will go APE if it recognises a threat to its existence, which was extremely useful back when we lived in caves, wore leopard-skin nappies and crushed rocks with our clubs. However, it’s not quite so useful in today’s world, unless you happen to be trying to cross Tottenham Court Road on foot!

Chimp Brain, if left unchecked, can cause you to go into full-on melt down (drama teacher style) during exam season. There is, however, no need for this. You can absolutely control your chimp’s behaviour by placating it (doing a deal!). Once your chimp is assured that it is not in mortal danger (assuming no one gets feisty with the compasses in the exam hall), then it will go back to sleep and allow your human to take charge of the maths exam – much better than monkeying it!

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Reassure it

(Inspired by Prof. Steve Peters – The Chimp Paradox)

Manage Your Chimp

Tell your chimp that this exam is not the end of the world. It really isn’t. Yes, it matters to you right now, but the sky won’t fall on your head if you fail. So, tell it to go back to sleep and remind it that once the exam is over it can enjoy some well earned RNR (rest and recovery) chimp style. (Mine likes to eat burgers, so I go with the ‘burgers after’ bribe).

Molly-coddle itPamper your chimp the night before the exam with good food, favourite music, magazine, reading book (not a revision guide) and so long as the light goes off nice and early, your human will still be in great shape the next day. This cotton-wool treatment will win your chimp’s trust, so that when you have to kick it’s a$$ in the morning, it will fall into line as it knows you’ve got this.

Discipline itYour chimp is like a small child, it will kick-off and throw a tantrum from time to time which is completely normal. This, however, is absolutely not acceptable on exam day but very likely to show up none the less. Watch out for phrases like; “My head hurts.” “I feel sick.” “I think I’ve got a temperature.” “I don’t feel well.” Blah, blah blah.

This is complete BS and like a small child, the chimp needs to be reminded of its responsibilities and of your high expectations of it. Respond to these thoughts with “BS, chimp. Back in your box, today I have an important job to do. Go back to sleep, I’ve GOT THIS.” And MEAN IT. By stopping the negative, loser chatter nice and early, your human can get on with the task at hand.

#WeGotThis

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Being SelfishIt’s perfectly okay to be a little bit selfish at this time. You are under possibly the most pressure you have ever been under. Many of you will be taking somewhere near ten different subjects and the exams all come at once. Anyone who doesn’t understand your need to be selfish at this time is a moron and I suggest you spend as little time as humanly possible with these people (trust me, I know that’s hard especially if they share the same home as you!). #BeenThere

Do what you have to do to give yourself every possible chance of producing your very best performance on the BIG day(s). Make it your mission to be single minded and laser focussed on the execution of your maths exam strategy. The other stuff can wait.

16 hours to go • wickedmaths.co.uk

Be WICKEDSuccessful people are wicked. They embrace their wickedness. Wickedness is in all of us, but most people deny it or refuse to acknowledge it.

Uh… Yin and Yang, anyone?

Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the most successful football managers of all time (Manchester United 1986 – 2013) is remembered fondly these days. “What a terrific chap he is, what a lovely man…” Yeah, right! Anyone whoever worked for him still to this very day calls him ‘boss’. Do you think there might be a reason for that?

When you retire from your successful career people begin to wax lyrical about you (blow sunshine up your bottom), when the reality is the success you enjoyed was as a direct result of being a ruthless and tenacious leader and in some cases an outright [insert expletive of choice here]. At his pomp, he most certainly was not ‘a lovely man’ to work for!

According to Sam Wallace, Chief Football Writer for The Telegraph on 27th May 2016 (three years after the glorious reign of Sir Alex ended).

“ …One individual at the club [Manchester United]…said; the biggest failing in the Ferguson succession was not recognising that ‘if you lose a bastard, you have to make sure you get a bastard to replace him!’ ”

Like I said, successful people are WICKED.

Wanting to do better and be better than others is more than okay, it is natural. I’d encourage you to go further. Treat GCSE Maths like the competition it is. Focus on having the best plan, being the best at sticking to the plan. Centre your attention on your mathematical strengths and allow yourself to feel good about being better than others. Then take a look, if there is time, at some of your weak spots and obsess about improving in these areas.

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Ninja RevisionSneak off, like a stealth-Ninja and revise maths behind everyone else’s backs and revel in the feeling of pulling ahead of your rivals. Every additional question you do is taking one step further than another candidate sitting the exact same exam as you!

Use that little bit of nastiness, your little bit of WICKED that is already inside you, to drive your preparation and give you that extra bit of determination to achieve your true potential.

I used to play in central midfield (football) and all centre-mids know about ‘nasty’. It’s us or them. Most football matches are decided in the middle of the park between the central midfielders of the opposing teams. My central midfield partner and I used to go out every match with the intention of bossing the game – we seldom came up short. Part of my job was to make the first tackle count, if you know what I mean, and I relished my role, positively delighted in it in fact. Using my little bit of wickedness to edge the game and make sure the opposition knew they were in for a torrid afternoon.

WARNING! Wickedness is dangerous, so use it intelligently (no good getting sent off for the first tackle now, is there?!)

Channel Your Inner AssasinChimp managed, wickedness in your pocket, it is time to focus on you (your human). This is the most important part. Control YOU and you control the game. Channel 007, Jason Bourne or whoever you rate. What are they like and how do they act in high pressure situations?

Elite security professionals, be they military or civilian, often talk about their brain being their only real weapon. This is because they cannot 100% predict the future situations they will face. They may be in charge of protecting a VIP and be placed in challenging environments without an actual weapon. In these instances (and arguably even with an actual weapon), the brain and its capacity to think creatively is all you have – quite literally the difference between life and death.

Your brain is your weapon.

Most of us, thankfully, will likely never face such abject danger. However, we can learn some general principles from some of these amazing people.

So, what are they like?

Elite operators are calm, steely and clinical. Having total control over their emotions (chimp) and their thought patterns at all times. They reject negative thoughts and focus on one task at a time and at the exclusion of EVERYTHING else. They treat situations like puzzles to be solved. They think methodically and use logic liberally. They check their options thoroughly and train laser-like focus on their immediate objective. Be that diving out of the nearest fire escape or launching themselves through a glass window, if options have become seriously limited!

Slow down your thoughts, make sure they are taking you in the direction you need to go. One thing at a time. Laser focus switched on, ready to respond to anything and be calculating and measured at all times. 19

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The Final 16 Hours

Here is your 16-hour plan to enable you to perform on exam day.

There should be no activities that require your attention after 5pm on the night before your exam. So, if it is football or band practice. Tough. If you’re serious about success in your Maths GCSE, whatever other commitments you have, consider them cancelled. Period.

5pm - Final RevisionSpend this time alone, in as quiet a place as you can find. This is the last quality piece of mathematical prep that you are going to get and in order to maximise it you need to be able to focus fully. Temporarily turn off all notifications from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, WhatsApp etc.

If you are on a Wicked Maths revision programme (e.g “6 DAYS to Go!”) now is the time to complete the “1 DAY to Go!” questions. Don’t rush and make sure you are happy you understand the solutions before you stop. If you are not on one of the Wicked Maths programmes, go to the Wicked Maths APP Catalogue and work on the topics you know well, for around an hour. If you have neither, then find some GCSE Maths Exam questions that you have done before and re-do them. DO NOT attempt questions that you cannot immediately understand, this is VERY unhelpful at this time. It is also important that you know where to find the correct answers to the work you have set yourself, you do not need the extra hassle of having to go in search of the answers when it is time to mark.

If you finish your questions / marking before an hour is up, or you simply cannot concentrate enough to do any at all, then perhaps visit or re-visit the Wicked Maths Top 10 GCSE Maths Hacks on YouTube. Whatever you do, don’t read a revision guide, I’ve never seen any evidence what-so-ever that reading about maths helps you to do maths! #WhatRevisionGuide

Finally, do not let this hour-long revision session spill-over by more than an extra half hour.

Maximum time spent should be 90 minutes.

16 hours to go • wickedmaths.co.uk

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6pm/6:30pm - Chow TimeDinner / tea-time. Time to eat a proper decent meal. If whoever looks after you is a terrible cook perhaps you can have dinner out, so long as it doesn’t take more than 1.5 to 2 hours. If you are blessed with parents, guardians or grandparents who can cook, arrange in advance to have them cook your favourite food.

What you eat the night before a morning performance matters.

Olympic rowers report that they often throw-up breakfast on the morning of an important race, but this doesn’t worry them as it is the plate of pasta, they ate the night before, that will give them the fuel, they need to pull those oars to the finish line. Ben Hunt-Davis famously won Olympic Gold in the Men’s 8 (rowing) after barfing up all his breakfast on the way to the race (nice!).

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7pm/7:30pm - RelaxTry to avoid box-sets (dangerous), gaming (super-dangerous) and talking BS on social media. Lots of often well-meaning, but very unhelpful, advice circulates the evening before big exams. Ignore ALL of it. You have your strategy in place and you’ve no need to listen to the self-appointed GCSE Maths ‘experts’ who ‘know it all’. #JogOn

It is also not the time to get involved with your best friend’s love life, health issues or anyone else’s issues at all. You’ve enough on your plate, it is time to look after number 1.

Computer games are lethal, as if you do well, you’ll want to play onto the next level. When I sat my GCSEs, I had to get my brother to hide the CD-rom (old tech, where the game software was stored) for 98-99 Ultimate Soccer Manager. I was well on my way to taking Macclesfield Town to the Finals

of the Champions League – I did and we won… but not until after the exams were safely out of the way!

It may also be wise to avoid parasites (my teaching term that refers to anyone younger than a year 10). Parasites can be insensitive / oblivious to the challenges of public exams so I find they are best avoided. That is, unless playing Barbie with your little sister happens to relax you, if that’s the case go right ahead :)

Some light music practice, if you play a musical instrument, can be a win here or if you love sport perhaps watch highlights of a game you are interested in. Alternatively, you may wish to catch-up on a favourite podcast or take the dog for a brisk one around the block.

10pm - Lights Out!Set your alarm for 7am, turn the lights out and the music off. You don’t have to sleep right away and it doesn’t matter if you don’t feel sleepy. Lying down will at least rest your body and eventually the mind will follow. This is not the time to be over-thinking things, the best thing you can do is to think about an upcoming event that you are looking forward to, perhaps a holiday or a party and drift off and dream about that. Nightmares about pi, the 7-, 8- and 9-times tables, or about your calculator spontaneously combusting are not desirable.

9pm - BedroomThis is the time to switch off all social media, shut out the dog, cat, any parasites that live with you and especially your parents. It is now 100% YOU time. By all means listen to music, read a magazine (not on an electronic device), read a book (NOT a revision guide, or a set text – sorry English!). Do whatever it takes to begin to move yourself towards a good night’s sleep. Electronics are very unhelpful to our chances of a good sleep and sleep is your best friend when it comes to performance. Real Madrid Football Club spent a fortune on a ‘sleep doctor’, who personalised sleeping conditions (different light levels, mattress’, pillows etc.) for each individual player. This was to ensure the best possible rest and recovery from training and hence higher level performances at the next match. Now, I’m not suggesting a full re-fit of your bedroom but at least switch off the smartphone and make the room as dark as possible.

7am - WAKE UP! I don’t care if your chimp is still sleepy. Get up. Depending on your school your exam is between 2 and 2.5 hours away and we need to get some food and drink down. Stop arguing and just do it.

I don’t care what you eat or drink so long as it is something and so long as you take water into the exam with you. What you ate last night is more important and, in any case, you will have adrenalin to help you through.

Stick to your morning routine as much as possible (unless this involves eating nothing) and ensure you check your exam kit BEFORE you leave!

Exam Kit Checklist

Pen

Spare pen

Pencil

Spare pencil

Ruler

Eraser

Protractor

Pair of compasses

Calculator (for calculator papers only… obvs!)

Water – take the label off (in case you happen to have the answers to all of those questions you haven’t yet seen, written in miniscule…yeah, right!) #SearchMe

** I always used to take a packet of fruit pastilles in with me. I’d take all the wrappers away and use a clear plastic sandwich bag inside my see-through pencil case – helps to keep the pencil shavings away from your sweets. My school had a no eating / no drinking policy (except water) which I flagrantly ignored as GCSEs are public exams, so as long as you don’t break any external exam rules (e.g. taking paper in with you) there is actually nothing that can be done about it. My chimp likes fruit pastilles and I was ensuring that it was content, so that I could get on with the serious business of taking the exam paper apart.

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8am/9am - Final Equipment Check, Loo Run!Once you are at the exam test centre (school / college for most) do a final equipment check. Your moronical mate ‘Barry’ or ‘Shawn’ has probably nabbed your spare pen while you weren’t looking or has hidden your calculator for a laugh (yeah, nice one ‘mate’!). Once you are sure you have everything, if it is a calculator paper then reset it now. Buttons may have accidentally been pressed on your journey to school or whilst waiting outside the exam hall. The last thing you need is your calculator in True / False mode or on some other ridiculous setting. See below for instructions or visit the Wicked Maths YouTube channel for a quick and easy ‘how-to’ video. Oh, and make sure you really know how to do it…without the video in front of you! You need to be able to do this under pressure and your best mate may well thank you for knowing how to do this too.

Finally, go take a leak, whether you need one or not. It kills a bit of time and reassures your chimp that all bodily functions have been safely accounted for! You don’t want your chimp whinging that it needs a wee wee half way through!

How-to Reset your (Casio) Calculator (Do EXACTLY as it says and don’t think about it!!)

Press [SHIFT]

Press [9]

Press [3]

Press [=]

Press [AC]

#CalculatorSorted

Still Struggling? Watch This: https://youtube.com/channel/UCutY8c3uDvpwZRXnj9zuLJw

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9am/9:30am - SHOWTIME!Get in there with an ‘I’m going to SMASH this’ attitude. It’s a game. Would you go into a football match expecting to lose? You’d better not, I certainly wouldn’t have you anywhere near my team. I’ve only ever gone out there to win. Play hard, play the game and do everything in your power to WIN. We can deal with what went down later, we can let the critics do their carping then. At least you had the guts to get in there and give it your all. Anyone can be a critic, but it takes Kahooners to step into the arena and leave it all out there. I’ll be waiting when it’s all over vociferously defending anyone who had the guts to keep their stuff together and get the job done. If someone has a problem with that, send them to me.

Afterwards

Get the hell out of there. Unless you have to stay for another exam (in which case go hide from your friends in the loos, by the lockers - anywhere), get away from the hoards of people talking absolute crap about their answers. None of that stuff matters now, it’s OVER! Move on. Besides they’ll be a certain someone who is expecting his / her reward. Your chimp has done well, so it is time to reward it!

Well done, you survived! Now you only have to do this twice more for your two calculator papers ;). Once they are complete, to the above standard, you’re there.

Time to properly celebrate with your chimp!

Afterwards – yes, there will be an ‘afterwards’

16 hours to go • wickedmaths.co.uk

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Additional AdviceI hope you have found this guide useful and that you use elements of it for all of the exams you ever sit… one way or another there will be plenty more of these throughout your life. The key aspects are planning, preparation, practice and chimp management and it will always be so. Keep at it and don’t let anyone tell you any different.

More Info?If you would like more information, visit us at: www.wickedmaths.co.uk

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Check Out:Our Wicked Maths Top 10 GCSE Maths Hacks at: https://youtube.com/channel/UCutY8c3uDvpwZRXnj9zuLJw

Top 10 Maths HacksAll available on YouTube

How-to Re-set Your Calculator

Your Tracing Paper is a Mirror!

The Lesser Spotted ‘1’

Channel Your Inner Assassin

Don’t Take the Bait!

K.F.C.

9 Time Table Cheat - No Fingers Required!

Why You STILL Fail at Area of Triangles

Circles, Cylinders and Cones - it’s all a piece of CAKE!

Multiplying Decimals - WHAT are you Doing?16 hours to go • wickedmaths.co.uk

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About the author

Sarah Hollins is a fully qualified teacher of mathematics, rated as ‘outstanding’ by the LEA and Ofsted. A former deputy head of maths, a current GCSE mathematics examiner and private tutor. She has recently (2018) received an award from the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) for services to examining.

Sarah has played cricket for two counties, football for one and has represented England and UEFA as an Assistant Referee (football) in places such as Sweden, Russia, Lithuania and the USA. She retired from refereeing in 2012 after officiating in the 2010 Women’s League Cup Final, the 2011 Women’s FA Cup Final and the 2012 Cheshire Senior Cup Final (men’s football).

Since retiring from refereeing, Sarah has earned two black belts (2nd Dan) in Olympic Taekwondo, First Class status in Target Archery and is training for her first Marathon in Oslo in September 2019.

She mostly resembles an asthmatic ant with two left feet and therefore knows that anything is possible and that any attempt to prove otherwise is just an excuse.

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