Using A-level maths past papers to ace your exam prep

Feb 2025 Medium Read: 5 Min

Support for students

A-level maths past papers can be an extremely useful tool when you’re revising for exams.

In this blog, we explore where you can find past papers, how to use them effectively and what makes them so beneficial in helping you prepare to get the best possible grade. We also share some resources and expert tips on how to maximise your chances of exam success.

How to find A-level maths past papers by exam board

There are plenty of places online where you can access A-level maths past papers from different exam boards.

Maths Genie, for example, has dedicated pages for:

In addition to the papers themselves, you can view solutions, mark schemes, grade boundaries and formula books. The Edexcel collection even includes links to in-depth exam walkthrough videos.

You can also visit exam board websites to get more information. AQA, for example, has its own A-level maths assessment resources section that includes question papers, mark schemes and other useful materials.

Using A-level maths past papers effectively

There are various ways you can use A-level maths past papers, from concentrating on particular questions or topics you’re looking to strengthen, to working through an entire paper under timed conditions.

If your revision is focusing on calculating means and standard deviation, for example, you could test your knowledge by finding relevant questions in a statistics paper. The parts you find difficult could be a good indicator of topics you might need to prioritise ahead of your exam.

Past papers also give you the opportunity to test how efficiently you can work in exam conditions. You could try to replicate the exam hall experience by setting aside a block of time, switching off your phone (and any other potential distractions) and working through a paper you haven’t looked at before.

Afterwards, you can use the mark scheme to check your answers and see where you’ve done well, where you could have gained more marks by presenting your work differently, and what topics you need to work on.

Other A-level maths resources to boost your exam prep

There is an enormous range of resources available online to support your maths revision and help you get ready for your exams.

On YouTube, for example, you’ll find channels such as Bicen Maths. Mr Bicen has been teaching maths since 2010 and has produced more than 1,400 videos, attracting over 17 million views.

His videos cover topics such as:

Casio Education will also be offering lots of support during exam season. That will include student revision webinars for A-level pure and applied maths on May 29th and June 16th, respectively.

These events will focus on using the fx-CG50 graphic calculator to answer exam questions and tackle topics such as binomial distribution and hypothesis testing. For more information, visit our webinar page.

The benefits of practicing A-level maths past papers

One of the top benefits of incorporating past papers into your A-level maths revision is that it allows for practical application of all the theory you’ve been learning.

Both teachers and students work hard to cover the curriculum and build understanding of essential topics and concepts.

It’s during exams that all this effort and learning should really pay off. For that to happen, it’s important to know what sorts of questions you’ll face, what the different question formats and styles are really asking you, and how to present your evidence and solutions in the best way to get the most marks.

Working through past papers also gives you the opportunity to answer exam questions with the mark scheme alongside them. This makes it entirely clear what you have to do to achieve maximum marks and where it could be easy to drop marks due to small mistakes.

Expert tips for A-level maths exams

Our top priority at Casio Education is to support teachers, students and schools in every way we can. That includes talking to lots of experts and sharing their advice on A-level maths exam techniques and other relevant topics.

Tip 1: Use your calculator to check your work

This is a tip we’ve heard many times from experienced teachers and educators. The calculator can’t do the work for you – you won’t get any marks for solving an equation if you don’t show your method, for example – but it can provide reassurance that you’ve got the right answer.

It can also help you save time once you’ve done the theoretical work required to answer a question, and then need to do the necessary calculations to get the solution.

Tip 2: Show your evidence

Another useful pointer we’ve heard from an experienced senior examiner and A-level maths teacher is to not just show your working, but show evidence.

That means presenting a very clear trail of the process you’ve gone through and the steps you’ve taken to get to your answer. This approach makes it easier for the examiner to see that you understand the theory and have applied your knowledge effectively to solve the problem.

Tip 3: Practice, practice, practice

This is something you’ve surely heard many times from your teachers. The importance of regular practice applies not only to doing exam questions and past papers, but also to using your calculator. The more you practice, the more familiar every task, function and operation will become.

For more exam tips and links to resources, keep an eye on the Casio Education blog. And good luck for exam season!