Get ready for exam season

Exploring the best features and materials as you prepare your classes for SATs, GCSEs and A levels.

With Easter fast approaching, your thoughts will already be turning to how best to support your classes to prepare for assessments, tests and exams this summer. But how do you get their learning to really stick, and what are the best resources to help you revisit topics and embed pupils’ knowledge and skills? Here we pick out some of our best features, podcast episodes and materials to inspire your planning as exam season begins in earnest.

SATs

Doing exactly what it says on the tin, this NCETM feature about preparing your pupils for their SATs gives you a detailed breakdown of the resources we have for each topic. Covering everything from geometry and statistics to long multiplication, it’s a hand-picked list of what you need to ensure your planning gives pupils the best possible chance to succeed in maths this summer.

• READ: Prepare your Year 6 pupils for SATs

Your planning is likely to involve working through past papers and analysing exactly what the questions are asking pupils to do. To help, here is  a broken down question about perimeter and one about fractions from a past paper, with explanations of what the exact demands are on pupils.

• READ: The answer is only the beginning

There are a wealth of resources on the NCETM website. In a recent podcast episode focusing on Year 6 teaching, Debbie Morgan spoke to an Assistant Maths Hub Lead and trust maths lead across a trust of 25 primary schools. The discussion focused on which materials the trust uses for Year 6 planning, and the benefits of the Ready-to-Progress materials for pupils’ progression in maths.

• LISTEN: Teaching Maths in Year 6

You may have already checked out the NCETM Year 6 curriculum map and all the units of the Curriculum Prioritisation materials. But don’t forget that there are also assessment questions, arranged by ready-to-progress criteria. They will help you gain a detailed understanding of exactly which topics your pupils know, and which ones need more time spent on them this term.

• EXPLORE: Year 6 curriculum map and assessment questions

GCSEs

If you want to know what’s available across the internet to help you with planning revision lessons, our feature picks out some of the best resource-based websites and podcast episodes to give you what you need for the coming months.

• READ: Ten resources for GCSE maths revision lessons

Chances are your classes have already done mock exams, and you’ve been using their results to figure out which topics to focus on when it comes to revision. We have found a selection of websites which offer revision resources and help you with results analysis. There’s even a letter to send to parents which you can personalise with your students’ results!

• READ: Five resources for planning your post-mock exam lessons

When it comes to exams, who better to share their view than representatives from the exam boards themselves? In this podcast, AQA, Edexcel and OCR talk about which topics students typically do well on, and which are still proving tricky. While the conversation took place a few years ago, there are still useful insights for teachers preparing students for exams.

• LISTEN: An audience with the exam boards

If students you teach are aiming for top grades at GCSE, have you used number lines with them yet? In a podcast discussion, we discover five ways to use number lines with KS4 classes, including how to use them to stretch students looking to secure grades 7-9. There are also diagrams and linked resources – what more could you want?

• LISTEN: Using number lines in secondary maths

A level

Tom Button from the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme (AMSP) shares his thoughts about A level students’ use of calculators. He gave us ten calculations that definitely require a calculator, and shared more of his experience of A level teaching.

• READ: Ten calculations A level students should do on a calculator

The NCETM has a dedicated page of post-16 resources and has dozens of links to features, podcast episodes and professional development aimed at those teaching A level (and Core Maths). Why not take a look and see what might help you with planning this term?

• EXPLORE: Post-16 resources

AMSP also has lots of useful resources to help you prepare your classes for their summer exams. Check out the resources section on their website to find out more.

• EXPLORE: AMSP A level resources