How to prepare for A Levels: one year, month by month
By the Examaced team. , 8 min read
Most advice on how to prepare for A Levels is a list of tips. This is a walk through one year instead: what it tends to feel like, where students usually lose time, and what to do in each stretch. It's written for Cambridge International (CIE) A Levels, but most of it holds for any exam board.
September: the jump nobody warns you about
You arrive with good grades from IGCSE or GCSE and a sense that you know how this works. Then the first homework comes back, and the method that got you an A before isn't enough. A Level questions are longer, the steps aren't laid out for you, and a correct final answer can still lose marks.
That gap is normal. What helps is noticing it early. In the first few weeks, find your syllabus on the Cambridge website, print the topic list for each paper, and keep it in the front of your folder. It's the list every exam question is written from, and it tells you exactly what you'll be asked.
October to December: learn it, then test it the same week
The habit that separates students in the spring is set up now. After each lesson, find two or three past-paper questions on that topic and do them that week, while the idea is fresh. Not the whole paper, just that topic.
You'll get some wrong. Mark them against the official mark scheme anyway, and read the scheme closely: it shows which steps earn marks, not just the answer. If the codes look strange, our guide to reading a CIE mark scheme explains M1, A1, B1 and the rest.
Start a mistakes list now, too. One line per lost mark: the paper code, the question, and why. "9709/12 Q6, forgot the second solution in the interval" is worth more than an hour of re-reading notes.
January: the first honest check
By January you've covered enough to sit a real paper. Pick one from a recent session, time it properly, and mark it strictly. The score usually stings. That's the point: it shows which topics are weak while there's still time to fix them.
Look at your mistakes list and sort it by topic. Two or three topics will account for most of the lost marks. Those become your focus for the next two months.
February and March: topic by topic, weakest first
This is the stretch where most of the progress happens, and where most students drift. The plan is simple: one weak topic per session, 8 to 15 past-paper questions on it, every one marked straight away.
Topical practice works here because you see the same idea asked a dozen ways in one sitting, and the patterns start to show. The topic breakdowns for Maths 9709, Physics 9702, Chemistry 9701 and Biology 9700 show which topics hold the most questions.
Keep lessons going in parallel. Topical practice on the topics you've finished doesn't have to wait for the syllabus to end.
April: the plan tightens
About six weeks out, switch to a structured plan: topics first, then harder questions and your mistakes, then full timed papers. The six-week past-paper plan lays out each week. Save the newest sessions for the end, so your last mocks use questions you haven't seen.
May and June: fewer new papers, more of your own mistakes
In the final weeks, the temptation is to do as many new papers as possible. Resist it a little. Each full paper should be timed, marked the same day and logged. Then go back through your mistakes list and redo the questions you got wrong without looking at your old working.
The night before an exam, read your mistakes list for that paper, not your whole notes. It's short, it's personal, and it's the material most likely to give you marks back.
What matters across the whole year
- Past papers from the first term. Not just in the last month. Small and often beats a panic in May.
- Marking every question. A question you didn't mark is one you only read.
- Writing down scores. "3 / 7, lost both A marks" tells you what to practice next.
- A mistakes list you actually revisit. It's the most useful document you'll make all year.
- Knowing the paper codes. When you can read 9709_s25_qp_12 at a glance, finding the right paper and mark scheme takes seconds.
Where Examaced fits
Examaced is built around this kind of year for five CIE A Level subjects. It splits past papers into single questions sorted by topic, opens the mark scheme beside your working, and keeps your scores, question history and error log in one place. Start with one topic, or pick a subject: Maths 9709, Further Maths 9231, Physics 9702, Chemistry 9701 or Biology 9700.