You may know from previous posts that I used to attend some masterclasses in maths, but I soon found myself struggling to keep up as I was a couple of years younger than everyone else attending. So, since temporarily stopping going to those classes about a year ago, I really haven’t done any maths at all. Recently, though, I’ve decided to start studying for my maths GCSE, as next September – when I’ll be starting at sixth form – is drawing ever closer!
I’ll be sitting the exam next summer. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be doing the GCSE or IGCSE, the difference being the GCSE has a paper that you sit without a calculator. I don’t think my mental arithmetic is my strongest point in maths so I may decide to go for the IGCSE, which has longer papers that require a calculator. I’ll have to decide closer to the time which I’m more comfortable with.
If you’ve been following along for a while, you may know that I did my physics GCSE last year in just 6 weeks, and then my biology and Latin GCSEs a few weeks ago in a few months. I don’t want to be in that situation with maths, where I’m trying to cram as much of the syllabus as possible into just a few weeks. Hence why I’ve started my maths studying a bit earlier (although I would have started over a year ago if I were at school!). If everything goes to plan, I’ll have 8 months max to study the curriculum, and then a couple of months to practise on past papers before I sit the exam. I’m not worried about getting behind though, because it’s only been a couple of weeks since I started and I’m already about an eighth of the way through the textbook.
Which brings me to my next point – I’m not doing this with a tutor or online classes or anything, I’m just working through the GCSE textbook. At the beginning of the week my mum goes through the content of a chapter with me and then gives me some questions from the chapter to do by myself during the rest of the week while she’s at work. So far I’ve been doing about 7 or 8 hours a week, but we hope to be able to cut that down to 6 hours once I get into the swing of it.
So far I’ve been finding the content pretty easy, but I think it will get harder, so I’ve left myself time in those 8 months to spend longer on any more difficult topics. Unlike schoolchildren, and indeed a lot of home ed children, I haven’t been working through the Key Stages since I was five, but nor do I consider myself disadvantaged due to that. In fact, I’m relieved that I didn’t have to sit through hours of what used to be my least favourite subject when I was so little – now that I’m older, I can learn those basic topics way faster, so all those years of maths would have been unnecessary anyway. Plus, I’m actually really enjoying my maths studies now and am considering doing it as an A-Level.
I’m pretty confident in my ability to get a high grade in maths. As I’m considering either a UK degree in something like PPE or a degree in America where you aren’t even allowed to drop maths until you pick your major, I think this GCSE and possibly an A-Level would be really beneficial for me. 🙂