How to Maximise Success in IGCSE Maths

Get to know your exam

First things first, you need to know what it is you’re studying!

The two most popular IGCSE maths courses are CIE IGCSE Mathematics (0580) and Edexcel IGCSE Maths A, so if you’re studying IGCSE maths, the likelihood is that you’re studying for one of these exams. If you’re not sure which exam board or specification your course follows, the first thing to do is to check with your teacher.

There are a lot of similarities across different IGCSE maths courses but there are also differences that you need to be aware of. For example, although both Edexcel and CIE have two papers that you need to sit, CIE has one calculator and one non-calculator paper, whereas calculators are allowed for both exams in Edexcel. 

The content covered in these qualifications has considerable overlap but there are also a few significant differences. At Save My Exams we have you covered with Revision Notes, Topic Questions and Past Papers that are tailored specifically for the individual course, Edexcel or CIE (2025 syllabus).

Therefore it’s important that you know which qualification it is you’re studying for, so you can be as prepared as possible.

Six top tips for effective maths revision

One of the key ways to make sure that you are prepared for your IGCSE maths exam is through revision of the course content. There are many ways that you can revise and over the years of working with students I’ve realised that some techniques are more effective than others in making sure that your maths learning is fully embedded.

1. Practise, practise, practise!

Unlike in some other subjects, writing or highlighting notes in maths is limited in its effectiveness. I’ve found that students who have spent a long time writing notes often feel as though they’ve done a lot of revision but then, when faced with a question, they don’t necessarily know how to tackle it. They’ve read a lot and written about it but they haven’t actually applied their knowledge. Only by doing maths will you improve your maths.

2. Break it down by topic

There is a lot of content in your maths IGCSE that you need to get to grips with, which can be a daunting task. In my experience, breaking this work down into manageable chunks can make it feel much more manageable. Make sure you cover all the topics in your revision and don’t be tempted to skip over those you find a little tricky!

At Save My Exams, we’ve broken down the content for you. For example, our Edexcel IGCSE Revision Notes are broken down into main topics, e.g. Number, Algebra, and then broken down further into concise and easy-to-follow notes with worked examples and videos. You can track your progress as you work through these Revision Notes so that you know what you have covered and what you still need to look at. The same breakdown occurs for our Topic Questions, which are broken down into topic areas and then separated into three levels of difficulty so that you can gain confidence in practising your maths skills in all areas.

3. Teach someone else

A well-known French essayist and moralist, Joseph Joubert, once said:

‘To teach is to learn twice over.’

As a teacher myself, I know that I improved the depth of my understanding of a topic considerably when I taught it for the first time. So, if you happen to have a younger brother or sister who could use some help with their maths homework then helping them out could also help to improve your understanding of the topic. Alternatively, why not team up with a study buddy from class and take turns explaining a mathematical concept or the solution to a question that one of you is struggling with?

4. Talk to yourself 

This piece of advice may seem a little ‘out there’ but trust me – talking maths to yourself can be hugely beneficial to your understanding! 

In the classroom, a student would often put their hand up and tell me that they were stuck on a particular question. I wanted to challenge them to solve the problem by themselves rather than just giving them the steps to solving it, so I started to ask, 'Tell me what the question is asking you to do?' and 'What steps have you taken so far?'. As they started to say their answer out loud, it would frequently be accompanied by an 'Ooh… so I need to do that!' or 'I get it now!'. 

Articulating your thoughts out loud somehow seems to bridge a gap in your understanding, so if you’re stuck on a tricky question, try talking to yourself. By reading the question out loud you may take more notice of a particular keyword that helps, or by talking through what you’ve done so far, the next steps you need to take may become more clear. Just remember that you can’t talk out loud in the exam!

5. Tackle past papers

If you have been revising by topic area regularly, you should have increased your confidence that you know the content of the course. As it gets closer to the exam, you should then move on to trying past papers. Past paper practice will make you more familiar with the style of questions asked, it will give you experience in jumping between different topics and you can work on exam technique as well.

Starting from the front of a paper can ease you in, as the questions are more basic at the beginning and then increase in difficulty as you progress through the paper. However, in my experience, when students dedicate a specific amount of time to revising maths and use the time to work on a past paper, they usually start from the beginning and then frequently don’t reach the end of the paper. This can lead to them only practising the more simple questions and spending less time tackling the more difficult problems. Shake your revision up – sometimes start from the front and sometimes start from the back of a paper.

Completing a whole paper in one sitting in the allocated time can also be hugely beneficial as you will get used to the timing of the exam and how to pace yourself. Doing this a few times before your exam can give you a good sense of how to manage your time. I suggest that when sitting a whole paper, you start from the front and pick up easy marks as you go through, but if you find that you’re starting to spend more time on a tricky question, put a star by it and move on to the next question. When you’ve reached the end, you can work through the paper again, revisiting those starred questions. 

6. Embrace your mistakes

Throughout your revision journey you will encounter difficulties and you will make mistakes.

James Joyce, the irish poet and novelist, wrote:

'His errors… are the portals of discovery.'

Don’t let making mistakes get you down. Instead, reframe the way that you think about mistakes. Mistakes can be tools for helping you to deepen your understanding. If you make an error, work out what went wrong so that you don’t make that same mistake again. One of my teacher friends likes to ask her students just before they go into their exam: 'Can you remember the last mistake you made? If you do, don’t do it again!'. 

What you should do just before your exam

Now that you’re faced with actually sitting your exams, trust in your revision, in the preparation and hard work you’ve done!

It’s important that you’re well rested before each exam so try to avoid staying up too late cramming the night before. When I worked in a boarding house, on the night before a maths exam I would make sure that I popped in to help students with their final bits of maths revision but I would always encourage them to stop a little while before bed so their brains had a chance to wind down and they’d be more likely to get a good night’s sleep.

Feeling prepared, both in terms of your revision and in the knowledge that you have everything you need, can make the world of difference to your stress levels. So, on the morning of an exam, make sure that you have a fully stocked pencil case with all of the equipment that you need. A pencil and pen is essential and black is best as it will mean that your work will show up better when it’s scanned. Edexcel requires you to use a black pen but CIE will let you use a black or dark blue pen. Don’t forget to have a spare or two so that you don’t run out of ink!

A ruler, pencil and eraser are also key basic items you need to be able to draw diagrams for certain questions. Again, make sure that you have a spare pencil in case the lead breaks. Don’t forget those maths specific items of protractor, compasses and calculator, too. I also advise my students to make sure that the compasses are nice and tight so they help you to draw those curves more accurately. You can usually do this with a small screwdriver. 

Finally, make sure that you have your calculator with you (unless it’s a non-calculator exam!). Throughout the course and during your revision, you should have used it to solve problems so you should be confident that you know how to use your calculator efficiently. Don’t forget to make sure that it is set up correctly before entering the exam room. I did once have a student who only realised at the end of an exam that they did not have their calculator set to degrees mode. Don’t let this happen to you!

As you go into the exam room you may feel a little anxious, but take some deep breaths and remember all of the hard work that you’ve put in, and you’ll do great!