Paul

About

• Prior to joining Save My Exams, Paul was a secondary school mathematics teacher, covering Key Stages 2 to 5, teaching across all abilities and needs. During his career Paul has led a department at Key Stage 3, developing Schemes of Learning and Progress Tracking systems, and similarly led the same department at Key Stage 5, overseeing the major changes from modular courses to linear courses in 2017.

• Paul continues to teach (part-time) A Level mathematics and further mathematics at a local VI Form, specialising at this level since 2019. Paul’s favourite parts of the mathematics course are integration, modelling, probability distributions and connected particles. For the Edexcel further mathematics course Paul enjoys exploring polar graphs using technology and using his love of snooker to demonstrate the collisions topics in further mechanics 1.

• Over the years Paul has developed a particular affection for decision mathematics, a course that he feels is straightforward to start, but tricky to master. A different and relatively modern approach to solving mathematical problems, Paul enjoys associating the concepts from decision mathematics with real world applications, usually by considering simple but relatable analogies. His former students will joyfully recall stories of programming robots to inspect pipe networks, the most efficient route a person would take when making deliveries, or how large companies distribute goods to stores from their distribution centres.

• Particularly since the 2017 syllabus changes, Paul has acquired a mild obsession with calculator technology, and knows his way around many of the common models of both scientific calculators and graphic calculators including Casio fx-991EX and fx-991CW, Casio fx-CG50 and Numworks.

• In between other commitments Paul offers online tutoring for GCSE, A level and the IB mathematical courses. Paul is also an experienced examiner having marked GCSE Higher tier mathematics/statistics papers for over 15 years and KS2 SATs for over 5 years.

Published work or mentions

• Paul has has co-authored some CGP books by writing exercise questions and solutions for various topics in AS/A level mathematics and further mathematics:

  • pure mathematics, mechanics and statistics

  • decision mathematics.

Education

• Paul graduated from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle in 1997 with a BSc First Class Honours degree in Mathematics.

• Following some time working as a computer programmer for a healthcare company Paul embarked on his teaching career, acquiring his PGCE from the University of East Anglia in 2000.

Expertise

• Paul has developed an expertise in both A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics courses, teaching a variety of modules and exam boards including some specialist modules in further mathematics such as decision/discrete mathematics, further mechanics, differential equations and numerical methods.

• Since 2019, alongside creating content for Save My Exams, Paul has taught exclusively at Key Stage 5, gaining many useful insights and expertise on the nuances of the A level courses and acquiring expertise in large data sets.

Top revision quote for students

• "If you’re not stuck, you’re not doing it right!”

• “Revise backwards; start with the trickiest past exam and practice questions first. Use those to figure out the gaps in your skills and knowledge so you can focus on those rather than wasting time revising topics you already know. Take the same attitude to the exam and work through the paper backwards; nailing the harder, 10+ mark questions first!”