Past Papers and Where to Find Them.

Past papers are a great way to revise. Find out why.

When it comes to revision for the A Level or GCSE, one approach is to use past papers and their mark schemes. These resources are freely available and really help out a student when they’re struggling to give their revision some direction. Working through past papers has some big benefits.

Get to know the types of questions that come around every two or three years.
Become familiar with the layout of questions, which will save time in the exam.
Learn the structure of a typical exam paper so you know how everything is laid out.
It is good to know in advance how questions are worded and the typical vocabulary.
Some subjects will have information handed out with the exam paper, such as a maths equation sheets. Knowing where to find the data saves time.
Help judge the pace of an exam by completing a past paper under exam circumstances.
Use the mark schemes to see how markers score an answer.
Study the mark schemes to see what the examiner is looking for and refine answers
Find out which areas of the subject can be answered confidently and where the revision needs to be targeted.

Generally, using past papers are a great learning exercise for the big day. Learn from what goes well and not so well, then try again.

The three main exam boards, or awarding bodies, publish a large number of past exam papers. Just googling the awarding bodies will very quickly throw-up search results for papers. England’s schools use OCR, AQA or Edexcel (Pearson).

Once you’ve found the past papers, pick the subject, then the type of qualification. Typically, this is going to be GCSE, A Level or AS (the first year of a two year A Level course).

After this, it can get a little more complicated. Take care with going too far back in years because often the specification can have changed. However, earlier specifications can have similar questions, which can be very useful. Also, you may need to know if it’s the A or B specification but for most school awards, it is A.

If you’re looking for more information, get in touch with the school or ask a tutor. At Shires Tutors, we’re always happy to help.

The Shires Tutors Team

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07931 541 146