Oxford Revise – Maths GCSE Revision and Practice Guides – A Review

For years, we’ve had the same old revision guides. Too much information on a page, not focusing on key information and trying to group Maths topics by grade, where that isn’t even possible! This were the issues I had when I was in school, and the issues I had as a teacher, and Head, of Maths.

You can imagine my relief when I came across the OUP guides, then! Here was a revision guide which was clear, coherent and didn’t try to approximate grades to topics. The layout of the revision guides are certainly in line with common understanding of cognitive load theory and dual coding. The pages are clutter free and maintain a focus on a key learning point. This is exactly the type of book students need to be using, and exactly what I wish that I’d have had at school!

From a deliberate practice perspective, the guides have clear models followed by specific deliberate practice on the same topic area. Once again, the questions are clear and in line with the models just provided. Questions are also copious, and follow exam formats too, which is very helpful.

I was fortunate that when I was Head of Maths, I could change our revision book offering over to OUP. These guides sold like hot cakes too, with most students in both Year 10 and Year 11 getting themselves a copy. What should also be noted are the prices these can be purchased for through OUP. You’d expect them to cost a fortune, but they really don’t!

I’d strongly recommend checking out these guides, and recommending them to your students before anything else that is out there.