Ever heard the saying, ‘Preparation is key’? Well, whoever said that likely had a healthy dollop of AQA GCSE Maths past papers in their hands (it’s possible, right?)!
In practicality, revision time spent on practice papers is highly effective toward peak exam performance. If you are sitting AQA, all the publicly available papers are right here.
You should aim to work through as many of these as possible. It will help shape your question-answering technique, hone your topic-specific skills and familiarise you with the marking criteria.
Remember, Paper 1 is a non-calculator paper whereas Papers 2 and 3 are calculator papers.
On the mark scheme, you will see some abbreviations. It’s important that you understand these for two reasons: you need to be able to mark your work accurately but you also need to know what the examiners are looking for.
Let’s look at the different types of mark available.
M method marks
These are for a correct method, such as the grid method for multiplications.
A accuracy marks
These are for a correct answer. Unless the question requires you to show your working, the correct answer also implies the correct process or method.
B unconditional accuracy marks
These are marks purely for the right answer if there are no marks for the method or process.
All the other abbreviations are relatively self-explanatory. There is a table at the start of the mark scheme which explains each of them.
AQA GCSE Maths past papers
Foundation Papers
Higher Papers
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