Are Maths Resits Harder?
Bothered about the answer to this question? Then you’re in the right place. Nothing can be as disappointing as realising that you failed your maths exam. But then, it’s no reason to beat yourself up, as this is not the end of the world.
Remember you have the option of resit. The problem, however, is that most students worry that a resit maths exam is usually harder than their first attempt. This is not true. The questions remain the same, you need only to get a better mark this time.
Resiting your maths exam can be quite easy if you prepare better for it this time. Nothing happens without a reason, likewise, you couldn’t have failed without a cause. Here are some possible reasons why students fail their maths exams.
Reasons Why Students Fail Maths Exams
1. Memorisation
Maths is a very unique subject. As a result, the techniques of memorisation which may have worked for you in other subjects will not work here.
You need to understand the concept of each formula and their rules from the root. You do this by discovering the ‘why’ of each rule and learning the meaning of the symbols used.
In more complex equations, in addition to understanding the formulas, you also need to know the derivations that led to that formula. To do this, you have to understand the simpler formulas and be able to derive the more complex formulas from them.
2. Lack of Adequate Practice
The saying that practice makes perfect wins a trophy in maths. Maths is a subject that requires effective and continuous practice to pass. You can do this using workbook, past papers, supplementary questions in textbooks, etc.
With maths, you need to practice adequately and consistently. From my experience, it benefits you more to practice an hour or two every day, than five hours in one day and none in the coming days. With a dedicated online maths tutor throughout the year you can be certain to receive a great deal of support and sufficient levels of practice that will give you the confidence to answer a variety of past exam questions.
Many students who find a resit difficult, are those who do not practice often. It is such students who tend to benefit from one of our GCSE Maths Revision Courses which take place during the half term holidays and are held in Central London.
3. Late Revision
Whether due to overconfidence, unseriousness or procrastination, many students don’t begin revising for their exams until the time tables are out. The repercussions of this are doubled-edged.
This is because at this stage they become flustered and edgy as a result of the numerous topics they are yet to cover. This will greatly affect their confidence in the forthcoming exam and ultimately their performance.
Other Possible Reasons
4. Failure to Work on their Speed
Many students study brilliantly for their exams but fail to work on their speed of answering exam questions.
Every exam has a stipulated time within which to finish, and so students who fail to train themselves to finish the exam questions within the allotted time, end up losing some marks to unanswered questions.
To ensure that your resit is not harder, you have to begin now to work on your ability to answer the exam questions within the allotted time. You can achieve this by giving yourself 15 minutes less time than the usual stipulated time during your past paper revision.
5. Not Showing Full Working
When you answer your maths questions without fully showing the process with which you arrived at your answer, you lose valuable marks. This is because each question has an allotted method mark which you lose if you lump up your answers.
To ensure that you smile after this resit, endeavour amongst other things to show full working during the exam.
Conclusion
Your maths resit can only be harder if you believe it to be. Find out the possible reasons why you failed the first time and work on them. See this resit as a challenge requesting for your best effort, give it and watch yourself smile when your results get out.
Of course, if you are looking for some help then our maths revision courses, will give you an insight into how to answer some of the harder questions and help you prepare for the upcoming exams
Should you require support throughout the year then you can use a maths tutor offering online tuition at both A Level & GCSE. Also, our classroom based courses cater for a small group of students at any one time and are highly bespoke catering towards student needs.
Our Revision Courses For A Level Maths take place in a variety of locations including Manchester, Lymm, London, York and due to the current situation we are now offering maths revision courses online too.
Our courses take place during half term holidays and we are currently taking bookings for all our courses. With exams in England taking place in 2021 we expect our next February 2021 GCSE & A Level Maths Revision Courses as well as our GCSE & A Level Maths Easter revision courses to be both very busy in 2021. With the current situation with Covid-19 this course will of course be online. The course will be packed full of information to help students prepare for their exams in summer 2021. It is hoped that we can offer our traditional group based maths revision courses as soon as possible.
If you, or your parents would like to find out more, please just get in touch via email at info@exam.tips or call us on 0800 689 1272.