Acing Mathematics

So this subject is completely conceptual (you'll have to learn a few formulas though lol).

For maths, I mean it when I say, start from day 1 because this subject requires quite a lot of practice. Without it, the easiest concepts will seem very hard.

Just do as many questions as you can. But follow an order. Don't jump to the past papers as soon as you start covering the syllabus. Wait for it to finish and save the yearly papers for the end. YES. Save them for the last seven months. Because you see, all the questions that appear in the CIEs are not from the same topic. Each part demands application of various concepts from very different portions of the syllabus. So I won't recommend doing the yearly ones at least.

Until then, just do the questions given in the books' exercise. And if you have the time, do the examples too. Also attempt questions from the workbooks. If more than half the syllabus is covered, do topical past papers (I said yearly before). Not all the questions from there though. Just do a few (4-5) from the previous topics you've studied to keep them fresh in your mind.

After the syllabus is finished (make sure you are done with it 8 months before the paper), skim through all the books and do a question or two on the way to see if you remember everything. Once you are satisfied, grab a paper from 2002. You should be having at least 7.5 months to go at this point. Do an untimed paper. Take it as a diagnostic test just to see if you need more revision for any topics.

And don't forget to note down the questions you get stuck in. Even if you are getting a question wrong because of a silly mistake, mark it. You won't want to make that same mistake in the paper you know.

Keep doing so until you have solved them until  November 2010. You should still have 4 months remaining at this point. From then onwards, time yourself for both the papers and keep practicing until there's two weeks to go for the first paper.

In the last two weeks, skim through the papers (the paper that's scheduled first) and look for the questions you had gotten wrong. Resolve them to make sure you remember what you did wrong. And if you still have time left, skim through the books once more.

Once you are done with one of the papers, prepare for the remaining by just going through the papers once more.

And that's that.