Free · One hour · Watch it whenever suits you
And ten marks gone anyway.
I am a practising A-Level Maths examiner and a Head of Maths. In one hour I will put seven real exam answers on screen — the kind your child writes — and show you, line by line, exactly where the marks went and why. Not one of those seven answers contains a mathematical error.
The problem, in one sentence
Every August I sit in a room and mark A-Level Maths papers. Hundreds of them. I do not spend August thinking this student can't do mathematics.
I spend August thinking: “They knew that. And I still can't give them the mark.”
That gap — between knowing it and being awarded it — is where almost every lost grade lives. It has very little to do with how good your child is at maths, and almost everything to do with habits that take four seconds to fix.
Each one is a real question and a real script. I show you the answer, ask you what you'd give it, and then show you what the mark scheme actually says.
Both gradients correct. Both marks for the reasons gone, because the eleven words that earn them were never on the page.
Correct region, correct values, one mark lost. The question asked for set notation and the last line didn't give it.
The single most commonly dropped mark on the whole topic — dropped by students who have already done all the hard work.
“Doesn't work” is a feeling. The scheme wants a reason, and the reason is six words long.
A line that was never written. Across a full paper, that habit is the difference between an A and an A*.
Half the marks on the question, and not one line of the algebra was wrong. A three-second check catches it.
Fifteen seconds of pencil is the entire difference between full marks and half.
On most A-Level Maths papers, ten marks is roughly the distance from one grade to the next.
So a student who does the hard part correctly, and loses marks only in those seven places, sits down a grade below where they actually are. That is not a maths problem. It is a habit problem — and habits move far faster than understanding.
You will leave with three things your child can start on Monday morning. They cost nothing and they take four seconds each.
It is not for you if you are after a general revision webinar. I will be marking, on screen, in front of you.
She went into the November mocks with a C and came out of the summer with an A. She is reading Dentistry at Queen Mary now. It was never that she couldn't do it.Mia's mother
Statistics was the bit she hated. By the end it was her strongest section on the paper, and she got the A.Aisha's father
It's a recording, not a live call — so you can start it tonight, pause it, and come back. Most parents watch it in two sittings with their child's last marked paper next to them.
One hour. The link opens as soon as you send this, and I'll email you a copy so you can come back to it.
Ace A-Level Maths. Taught by a practising A-Level Maths examiner and Head of Maths at a London secondary school, who holds an enhanced DBS. Not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Pearson Edexcel, AQA or OCR.