maths revision help please!!

[tiger~torah]

im just coming up to doing my gcse exams...and the one subject i struggle really really badly with is maths.
in the mock i got a grade C and i was sooo disappointed because id worked really hard and i got nowhere
i just really need to revise and work harder at it but i dont know where to start!! what should i do? just do lots of examples? cus thts wat i did before and it just didnt work! im just so frustrated, please help sum1!!

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

This is an obvious starting point:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/math s/

This is less well-known but also useful:
http://gcsemaths.org.uk/

However, the best advice is to ask, ask and ask again. I spent 15 years teaching GCSE maths. The most successful students weren't necessarily those with the greatest aptitude for maths. They were those who constantly asked questions. Hound your maths teacher, both during lessons and after school.

[Buenchico]

Try to identify what your real problem is, so that you can ask the really important questions. For example, if you just ask: "How do I answer this question?", your teacher might say: "Well, we need to use the cosine of this angle . . , etc." You might understand everything he/she says but the next time you see a fairly similar question you've still not got a clue as to whether you should use the sine, cosine or tangent (or even if Pythagoras might be of more assistance). The really important question isn't: "How do I answer this question?; it's: "How do you know whether to use the sine, cosine or tangent? Can you tell me how to see which one I should use?".

Keep asking questions but remember that if your teacher says something like "Well, it's a tangent here ...", you should respond with "How do you know?" Even the best teachers sometimes take prior knowledge for granted. They need prodding to remind them that not everyone finds maths as easy as they do ;-)

Lastly, if you're really stuck with something, post your question here on AB. (If it involves using symbols and equations which are hard to type out, write it out, scan it and put it on Tinypic.com. Just post a link to your image here). We'll do our best to explain things.

Chris

[hammersgirl]

Many years since my Maths degree, and a few years since my daughters' exams, so the fine details of the modern exam escape me. However, one thing that applies to all exams is - if you don't write it down, you can't get a mark for it.
If you use a formula , eg Pythagoras , sine, roots of a quadratic..... then write it down first. Then, if your arithmetic or algebra go wrong, you could get something for knowing which formula to use.
Read the question slowly, don;t panic, and give yourself thinking time. Then draw your diagram, write your formula, etc. You are right to practise as many questions as you can.

[derrynoose]

At this stage it would be most effective if you were to do past papers, a paper at a time, and ask the teacher to correct them and go through them with you. He/She should be pleased to respond positively to your enthusiasm.
You should find that you will see a pattern in the questions, and you can concentrate increasingly on those regular questions which cause you most bother. Good luck! You sound like a serious student who deserves to succeed.

[tiger~torah]

thanks guys this helped a lot :)