If you’re revising for Edexcel A Level Mathematics (9MA0) or AS Level Maths (8MA0) in summer 2026, the biggest mistake most students make isn’t lack of work. It’s lack of structure. Sitting random papers in the wrong order, skipping weak topics because they’re uncomfortable, marking your own work generously — all of it adds up to a grade or two lost.
This is a complete five-phase revision plan for Edexcel A Level Maths, built around the resources that genuinely move your grade. Each phase has a job. Each one fits a specific point in your revision timeline. Follow it in order, and you’ll cover the most ground in the least time.
Quick answer: How should I revise for Edexcel A Level Maths in 2026?
Use a five-phase approach in this order:
- Drill topic by topic to find weak areas fast — Examwizard topic tests.
- Sit Edexcel’s own mock sets — gold-standard practice written by the actual examiners.
- Mirror the real paper with shadow papers — real exam style, real difficulty.
- Predict and polish with 2026 predicted papers — fresh unseen questions for your final fortnight.
- Mark like an examiner using worked solutions and examiner reports.
Skip to whichever phase you’re in. Or use the Edexcel A Level Resource Finder to jump straight to specific products.
First — get the 2025 papers
Before anything else, make sure you’ve got the most recent past papers. The June 2025 Edexcel A Level Maths papers are the closest thing to an actual 2026 exam in style, difficulty and topic emphasis — they’re built off the same syllabus, marked by the same examiners, and reflect current question trends.
If you haven’t sat them yet, do that first. They’re the most valuable single resource you can use, and they should be the foundation everything else builds on.
👉 Browse all 2025 Edexcel A Level Maths papers in the Resource Finder →
Phase 1 — Drill topic by topic
Find your weak topics fast without sitting a full paper to discover them.
Topic tests are pulled from Examwizard — they collect every past exam question on a single topic into one document, with mark schemes. Five trigonometry questions in a row will tell you whether trig is fine, faster than a full mock paper will. Sitting a full Paper 1 to find out you need to work on integration is a wasteful use of 90 minutes.
Use topic tests 4–8 weeks out from your exam, when you’ve finished the syllabus but want to identify gaps quickly. Mark them ruthlessly. Make a list of the three topics you scored lowest on. Those are your priorities.
The resources
- A Level Maths Examwizard Topic Tests — topic-by-topic tests covering the full A Level spec, with mark schemes.
- AS Level Maths Examwizard Topic Tests — AS Level equivalent.
Phase 2 — Sit Edexcel’s own mock sets
Mock sets are sample papers Edexcel created for tutors to set as school mock exams. They’re real Edexcel questions, written by the same examiners who write the real exams. They were never sat in a public exam series, which means most students haven’t seen them before — even if they’ve done every past paper.
That’s what makes them gold-dust practice. You’re getting unseen, examiner-written, exam-difficulty questions that most of your competition won’t have touched. Sit them under timed conditions, mark yourself against the official mark scheme, and treat them as if they were the real thing.
Most schools have only set one mock set across two years. There are several more sitting unused — sit all of them.
Use mock sets 3–6 weeks out from your exam, after you’ve drilled your weak topics. By this stage you want full exam-length practice, but using fresh material rather than a past paper you’ve half-memorised.
The resources
A Level (9MA0):
- A Level Maths Mock Sets 1 + 2 + 3 (bundle) — three full Edexcel mock sets. Best value if you’ve sat zero or one of these before.
- A Level Maths Mock Set 4 — full mark schemes included.
- A Level Maths Mock Set 5 — the most recent Edexcel mock set; most likely to mirror current exam style.
AS Level (8MA0):
- AS Maths Mock Set 1 · Set 2 · Set 3 · Set 4
Phase 3 — Mirror the real paper with shadow papers
Shadow papers are written specifically to mirror the actual exam paper — same difficulty, same question style, same mark distribution, same time limit. They’re written by tutors and examiners who’ve spent years studying past Edexcel papers, and the goal is to produce something indistinguishable from the real thing.
Shadow papers are your closest substitute for additional past papers when you’ve run out of real ones. By the time you’re 2–4 weeks out from the exam, you may have done every official past paper at least once — shadow papers extend your stock of fresh, exam-style practice.
The resources
A Level (9MA0):
- NEW for 2025: A Level Maths June 2025 Official Shadow Papers + Schemes — the freshest shadow papers available, in current Edexcel format.
- A Level Maths Shadow Papers 2019–2024 — six years of shadow papers when you want volume.
AS Level (8MA0):
- AS Level Maths June 2025 Official Shadow Papers + Schemes — fresh from June 2025.
- AS Level Maths Shadow Papers 2019–2024 — AS archive.
Phase 4 — Predict and polish (final stage)
Our 2026 Predicted Papers are 100% original, unseen questions — written from scratch by our team, targeted at what’s most likely to appear in May/June 2026. Unlike past papers (which you’ve already done) or shadow papers (which mirror old papers), predicted papers test you on fresh, exam-style content you genuinely haven’t seen before.
That’s why you save them for last. In the final week or two before the real exam, you want to test whether your revision is genuinely working — not whether you can recall a question you’ve already seen the mark scheme for. Predicted papers give you that test.
Use predicted papers in your final fortnight. Sit each one under timed conditions, mark yourself ruthlessly, and treat any mistakes as last-chance feedback before the real thing.
The resources
- Edexcel A Level Mathematics 2026 Predicted Papers (9MA0) — Pure 1, Pure 2 and Statistics & Mechanics. Full mark schemes included.
- Edexcel AS Level Mathematics 2026 Predicted Papers (8MA0) — AS Level version.
- Browse all 2026 predicted papers across subjects →
Phase 5 — Mark like an examiner
This is the phase most students skip — and the one that fixes the most marks. A paper you’ve sat without marking properly is half-wasted. Worked solutions show you the methodical approach to questions you got wrong. Examiner reports tell you exactly what mistakes lost students marks last year — read them like cheat codes for the real exam.
Mark every paper you sit. Compare your working to the worked solution, not just your final answer. And before the real exam, read the examiner reports for the most recent papers — they identify the most common mistakes students make, in the examiners’ own words.
Worked solutions
- A Level Maths 2025 Official Solutions — highest-quality solutions to the 2025 papers. Fresh and detailed.
- AS Level Maths 2025 Official Solutions — AS Level version.
- A Level Maths Worked Solutions 2018–2024 — seven years of worked solutions covering every past paper you might sit.
- AS Level Maths Worked Solutions 2018–2024 — AS Level archive.
Examiner reports
- A Level Maths June 2025 Examiner Reports — the examiners’ own report on what students got right and wrong in June 2025. Read these and avoid last year’s mistakes.
- AS Level Maths June 2025 Examiner Reports — AS Level version.
The bonus pile — extra resources
For overachievers, completionists, and the genuinely curious — additional resources beyond the core five-phase plan:
- A Level Maths Practice Sets — extra non-shadow practice papers.
- AS Level Maths Practice Sets — AS Level version.
- A Level Maths Specimen & Sample Papers — Edexcel’s original specimens for the 9MA0 spec.
- AS Level Maths Specimen & Sample Papers — AS Level version.
- A Level Maths Textbook Solutions — worked solutions to your textbook exercises.
- AS & A Level Maths + Further Maths Official Practice Sets & Unit Tests — the everything bundle.
How to time your phases
Here’s how to fit the five phases into your final weeks:
- 8+ weeks out: Phase 1 (topic tests). Finish the syllabus first if you haven’t.
- 4–8 weeks out: Phase 2 (mock sets) + start 2025 past papers.
- 2–4 weeks out: Phase 3 (shadow papers). Continue past papers from earlier years.
- Final 2 weeks: Phase 4 (predicted papers). Drill any remaining weak topics.
- Throughout: Phase 5 (mark every paper using worked solutions and examiner reports).
If you’re shorter on time — say 3 weeks total — compress: spend week 1 on topic tests + 2025 past papers, week 2 on mock sets and shadow papers, week 3 on predicted papers and final weak-topic targeting.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between a shadow paper, mock set, and predicted paper?
A mock set is a real Edexcel-written paper, originally created for tutors to set as school mocks. A shadow paper is written by third parties to mirror the actual exam in difficulty and style. A predicted paper is an original exam-style paper written from scratch, targeting topics most likely to appear in the upcoming exam series. All three are useful at different stages of revision.
When should I sit predicted papers?
Save predicted papers for your final fortnight. By that point you’ll have exhausted past papers and you want fresh, unseen exam-style questions to test whether your revision is genuinely working — rather than recalling questions you’ve already seen.
Are Edexcel mock sets the same as past papers?
Not quite. Mock sets are written by Edexcel themselves but were created as sample papers for tutors to set as school mocks — they weren’t sat by students in a public exam series. They use real Edexcel-style questions written by the same examiners.
How many past papers should I do?
At minimum every paper from 2018 (when 9MA0 started) to 2025 — eight years of Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3. Top-grade students typically do each twice: once early to identify weaknesses, once in the final weeks under timed conditions.
What’s the difference between 9MA0 and 8MA0?
9MA0 is the full A Level — three papers covering Pure 1, Pure 2 and Statistics & Mechanics. 8MA0 is the AS Level — two papers covering Pure Maths and Statistics & Mechanics, typically sat at the end of Year 12.
Want to browse every Edexcel A Level Maths resource we offer in one place? The Edexcel A Level Resource Finder lets you jump straight to past papers, mock sets, shadow papers, predicted papers, worked solutions and examiner reports for both A Level (9MA0) and AS Level (8MA0).
For past papers, predicted papers, mock paper sets and worked solutions across GCSE, IGCSE, AS and A Level, visit tyrionpapers.com — affordable, exam-board-specific revision resources.