Most Students Only Study One Specification — Top Students Don’t.

In my teaching and tutoring journey I sometimes come across students/tutees who are aiming for an A* and tell me that constantly.

In regards to what makes an A* student stand out from the rest I can boil it down to the absolute tenacity and hard work as well as willingness to think outside the box. One of these tactics should involve looking beyond your school specification in terms of past papers.

Why look at different specification past papers?

The A-level curriculum is broadly the same across different specifications/exam boards however the way the question is presented can be different at time. This is not inherently a bad thing if you wish to test yourself.

Let me show you an example to highlight this, the first image below is from the Edexcel Paper 1 2024:

2024 Paper 1 Edexcel Q9

This question is challenging as it will mean students will have to understand that the common ratio (r) is equal to u2/u1 which is the same as u3/u2 to generate an algebraic expression which can be solved. The question is however well structured so if you don't get part a then you can use the result to get part b.

OCR A A level Paper 1 2024 Q10

The second image shows a similar topic question from Paper 1 of OCR A specification. There are similarities to the Edexcel as the skills set to answer is more or less the same, however the presentation is less structured than Edexcel which asked you to first get the value of 'k' and then the sum to infinity.

The fact that the OCR paper added convergent into the question also means that students have to be aware the value of r follows this restriction: -1<r<1. This may have an impact on their final solution.

This is not a blog to suggest one board is easier than another- however it shows through an example that its worth looking across different boards and finding diverse and more challenging questions as a worthwhile means to prepare for the higher grades. It will improve your resilience, flexibility and mathematical skills for the real thing.

Most exam boards allow free access to their past papers and so I would highly suggest you discover some and attempt some of their questions. You may also see some different nuances in their wording, style and format which can challenge you through problem solving questions. There is no loss through doing this- ONLY GAIN!