you know it's been a minute been a minute since  i made a video on maths and seeing as i made one  

on gcse maths and hug online then two years ago  i thought it was only right to make one on how  

to get an a star in a level maths because i also  did the same thing for those of you that have been  

here since i just said the umass video i hope  you appreciated that little cameo yeah anyway  

getting straight into it this is exactly how i  got a start in a-level maths and exactly how you  

can get it yourself you can also apply all of  these methods and tips to a-level further maths  

but it's all in this one video okay six so first  of all a few things to know about math as opposed  

to other subjects is it isn't subjective you get  the answer right or you get it wrong which means  

it's a lot easier to revise in some of the other  subjects like the humanities which has memorized a  

bunch of information and then hope that you can  put it into an answer that the examiner likes  

because with this it means that the same of  fundamental mathematics and the same methods  

underpin every type of question for example there  aren't two different methods of integration that  

give you two different answers there's one method  and it gives you the one correct answer however  

the problem lies in the questions and exactly how  they ask them because sometimes the way they ask  

them what masks the methods do you need to be able  to solve that question but you might not be able  

to initially identify the path that you need to  take to get to an answer so even though you have  

the fundamental understanding of the content and  of those methods you can't apply it because you  

don't know what to apply so taking all of that  into consideration there's only three possible  

areas you can use marks or three reasons why you'd  lose marks the first being a lack of understanding  

of the fundamental mathematics or those methods  so even if the question is explicit in asking  

you to apply that method because you don't have  the fundamental understanding of that method  

you can't answer the question and you don't get  the marks now the second reason why you lose  

marks is the inability to see what the problem  is actually asking you might have the fundamental  

understanding of the methods behind the question  but you can't figure out what methods to apply to  

reach an answer because the question might be  asked in a really inexplicit way that might be  

just like find this answer but you don't know how  to get to that answer so even though if someone  

told you all the sets you needed to take you'd  be able to apply it because you know the maths  

you can't figure out that path for yourself and  you can't get the marks and then the third and  

final reason why you lose marks is literally  just stupid mistakes like you might write an  

answer to the wrong number of significant figures  or you might just not write down the answer you've  

got and that's something that's really easily  solved or something that's really easily solved  

and those are the three key reasons why you lose  marks in this revision method i basically try to  

eliminate all of those reasons to give you  a better understanding of the mathematical  

content to enable you to find those paths to the  solutions and methods that you need to use to get  

there and then also help you to eliminate those  stupid errors so what is the method okay right  

well there are two aspects of this revision method  the first aspect and the first thing that you need  

to do is whenever you finish a topic in maths you  need to go home you need to make cue cards outline  

the content and then the methods you use to solve  questions relating to that content so for example  

if you're making a cue card on integration what  you want to be doing is first of all outlining  

the reason for integration's existence  the sole purpose of integration is to find  

the area beneath the curve when you've got that  down you then want to write down the method used  

for solving integration questions for example  you might write down when asked to integrate a  

x to the power of n what do you do and then on  the back of the q card you literally just write  

a x to the power of n goes to ax n plus one over  n plus one but to make those cue cards you need  

obviously the information and you can either get  that information from the notes you take in class  

if you feel like you take detailed enough notes  but what i did was take notes from intel because  

my school actually paid for interval for all of us  now i don't actually recommend buying in school if  

you don't already have it through your school i  recommend a textbook like this it basically just  

explains all of the math topics and then gives  you a bunch of practice questions for each of  

those topics i'll actually link this one in the  description below and that's what you want to  

be doing every single time you finish a topic in  maths because that helps you then to solidify your  

fundamental understanding of the maths you're  in a better position and you know all of the  

methods required to answer any questions then the  second thing you want to be doing is blasting out  

thousands of exam papers and pass questions  and by doing past paper questions i don't mean  

just answering them and then leaving it i mean  answering them going through the mark scheme  

marking all of your answers and seeing  what you get wrong because in doing this  

not only are you helping to better your  understanding of the content by applying  

what you've learned or what you've looked over in  your cue cards but you're also helping to develop  

your ability to identify paths to a solution in  questions where those methods might be slightly  

masked for example if you don't get an answer or  you don't know how to tackle a question you look  

at the mark scheme you identify the process that  they've used and exposing yourself to all of those  

questions and all of those answers will put you in  a better position to begin to identify those paths  

for yourself unlike my physics and my chemistry  methods while doing these past paper questions  

you also want to be making cue cards on the stuff  you get wrong for example if you haven't seen the  

maths in the context of a specific question  and you don't know how to answer it when you  

look at that mark scheme and you realize how  to answer it you want to make a cue card to  

re-trigger that understanding so on the front of  the cue card it might let you through the question  

how do you answer it and on the back of the  cue card you'll literally outline the process  

because then when you're reviewing those  cue cards you're improving your ability to  

identify paths to solutions and familiarizing  yourself with a load of different situations  

ultimately helping you to identify the paths to  answers on questions that you've never seen before  

and then doing both of those first two processes  you're tackling the two main reasons why you drop  

marks on the exam the lack of understanding of  the content and then the inability to find a  

path to the answer but then obviously there's a  third reason why you lose marks and that's just  

making stupid errors with this all you have to do  is just double check and then triple check all of  

your answers when you're doing any of those past  paper questions and then in the actual exam and  

while you're doing those past paper questions  if there's any stupid errors like for example  

swapping a plus with a negative or not writing  it's the correct number of significant figures  

you want to note that down make a cue card on  it so that when you're reviewing your cue cards  

that's getting ingrained into your mind so as to  not make that mistake in the exam for example if  

you know you're making loads of mistakes with  significant figures write a cue card on it  

and then when you go through those cue cards  you're constantly telling yourself check for  

significant figures and then when you're in the  actual exam you do check for significant figures  

so check while you're doing practice questions  and make you guys on that and then in the exam  

leave time to check because so many times have i  been back through my exam paper and found like 10  

to 15 marks which could be the difference between  a grade c and a grade a is mad check will do your  

answers but yeah those are the three aspects  of my revision method that help me to get that  

a start in maths and obviously it also applies to  further maths but for maths i probably made about  

i probably made about 400 500 cue cards and it  took so long but these are all in the description  

below if you do want to check them out however  snap revise today's video sponsor has actually  

put together this set of 200 cue cards that covers  the entire a level so let's see what they're about  

okay so these are the cards inside the box and  they're laid out exactly as the a-level physics  

ones if you did see the last video but essentially  there's a content space that tells you exactly  

what topic is on every one of those cue cards and  they're all numbered so if you just want to go to  

a particular idea you can look at the content see  which card it's on and go straight to it unlike  

with my cue cards where you just have to flick  through them all and try to find where that idea  

is this is a massive time saver in that regard  and then the actual cue cards themselves they  

have that information on the front like i said  basically outlining the fundamental understanding  

of that mathematical topic and then on the back  they have a question and then the exact method to  

solve that question so with this you can get  a quick reminder of the mathematical content  

and turn it around and then answer a question  by covering up the answers attempting the  

question and checking to see if you got it  right and then if you didn't either making  

additional cue calls on something like anki to  familiarize yourself with exactly why you got  

it wrong or just putting the card to one side and  attempting it again later and that's how you can  

work through these cue cards and essentially just  use them as your all-in-one with reason resource  

using additional past paper questions etc on top  if you wanted to but then as always we've got  

the sacrifice course the course is basically  just the complete package and can be used to  

teach everything you need to know or conjure users  revision you basically just work your way through  

all of the topics by first taking a quiz on each  this quiz determines the subtopics you struggle  

on and then highlights those topics in orange for  review you then review each with the bite-sized  

videos before attempting a new quiz continuing  this cycle until you've mastered every subtopic  

for each there is also a set of exam questions  for additional practice so if you do want to check  

out those cue cards or the course and depending  on when this video is out the free maths cheat  

sheets that basically summarize the entire course  then hit the top link in my description below and  

also if you use the code snap revise jake you can  get a 14 day free trial on both the pro and the  

basic subscriptions for that course otherwise that  is it for me today i do hope you found this video  

helpful you can also check out any of my other  gcse level videos up there and yeah we've got a  

hell of a lot more content coming just like this  and then of course all of the university vlogs  

so if that sounds like content you want to be a  part of i'd go down and absolutely obliterate that  

subscribe and like button i appreciate that anyway  thanks for watching i'll see you in the next one