Absolutely! I achieved my A* (I know it sounds it now, but I’m not that old) without the help of any tutors. In fact I hardly did a full week of school let alone have additional private tuition.

So how did I get an excellent set of grades and, most importantly, how did I get a level 9 without the help of a GCSE Maths tutor?

First, let’s get your intention right:

When it comes to academic stuff, you need to understand that your school grades or your school attendance does not define you as a person.

You are not a level 7, or a level 4. That’s just one thing you are doing currently and it reflects your current skill level in that one thing.

Please don’t make the mistake of letting your school work and your exam grades determine your worth as an individual. That’s the start of a slippery slope down to anxiety and depression and all kinds of mental/physical health issues.

Your ethics, your principals, your honesty and the joy you bring to yourself, your family and anyone else you interact with is immeasurable and that is a much better way to determine your value as a person.

You have value and are valued simply because you exist and are part of our human society.

So what is the point of studying and doing exams then?

Because the more we learn and the more good habits we develop, the more useful we can be to others and the more we can contribute to making our communities better.

So if you are aiming for a level 9 in maths, this is a good goal if you do it for the following reasons:

1) Being that good at maths can benefit you and other people depending on the career you choose

2) Learning how to pass an exam at a high level is a useful skill

If you are aiming for a level 9 because you think your parents will love you more or because you think it will make you a better person, or because you are worried about what someone else will think, please stop studying and have a real talk with your friends, parents and any other mentors you can find. Those are not good reasons to set any goal.

Just like any goal, you start at the end.

You want a level 9 in your GCSE Maths, without a GCSE Maths Tutor.

How many marks do you need in the exam?

Let’s aim for 95% -100% because this way we account for any weird questions or being sick on the day.

(Always aim above the target you want to hit. This works for all aspects of your life)

So the question is how are you going to get that many marks in the exam?

Well there are around 36 topics in the GCSE Maths syllabus that they can ask you about in the exam.

So you need to master all of those.

Next Question: How much time do you have?

Also: How long will it take you to master each topic?

Depending on your current maths ability it will take you about 2 hours to 7 days to master each topic.

How do you master a GCSE Maths topic? You need to do several practice questions on each topic that start off easy and get progressively harder and more similar to exam questions.

This is usually around 50 questions per topic.

Yes. Its a LOT of work. Which is why a level 9 is a recognised and well deserved accolade.

So, if you are reading this and you are currently in Year 11, you have a lot to do. You will need to study everyday for about 2 hours, maybe more on the weekends.

If you are in year 9 or 10, great, you can do about 10mins to 30 mins per day and by the time you get to Year 11, you will be working at a level 9.

Where do you find all these practice questions?

A good textbook: CGP do a fat textbook that covers all the topics and has a good amount of questions

When you have completed enough textbook questions start doing past papers for GCSE Maths. I will cover this in more detail in a separate page.

I hope that helps! Any questions, just let me know.

Of course if you do want a GCSE Maths Tutor to help you through this process, contact me or just google ‘GCSE Maths Tutor’ to see who is available.