Topic Tests for A Level AQA: Pure Mathematics

Realistic, confidence building assessment

– S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

Put progress at the heart of your assessment strategy with these paired, progressive topic tests.

A highly flexible set of tests for every topic!

Maximise motivation! Give students a clear route to improvement by completing paired tests at home or in class. Then they can move to the next level and show their progression using linked content and more compound questions.

Builds confidence through small steps

M Qume, Parent and Happy Customer
  • Three progressive levels of test – Fundamentals, Challenge, and Expert
  • Paired ‘second chance’ duplicate – mirroring the first but with different numbers – allowing resits, reinforcement and greater success
  • Total of six tests per topic means you can tailor your approach for every student with ease!

Highly Flexible…

Incredibly useful... Allows us to set homework that can be self marked but differentiated as well as assess at the end of units

– S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer
  • Option 1 (Simple) – Many flexible uses – little planning! E.g. Revise for homework, Test A ⇨ Class test, Test B.
  • Option 2 – Run two tests at a time on a rolling basis… E.g. 1/2, 2/3, 3/4
  • Option 3 (Sophisticated) – Test three chapters at a time on a rolling basis; use the fundamentals test as starters used with time interval in-between… leaving one test to use at the end for course topic revision

Three progressive levels of test:

Great for quick recapping and could be used for prep/homework...

K  Martin, Teacher & Peer Reviewer
Level 1: ‘The Fundamentals’
  • Focuses on core skills with simple numbers and contexts
  • Students show their understanding of key ideas – motivating for weaker students
  • Reveals fundamental knowledge, skill or language weaknesses

3 levels makes it easy to differentiate

R Clark, Head of Maths & Happy Customer
Level 2: ‘Challenge Test’
  • Progression from Fundamentals and links forward to the Expert Test
  • 50% at Fundamentals difficulty; 50% with increased difficulty & compound questions

Provided real challenge and would be great for exam revision

K  Martin, Teacher & Peer Reviewer
Level 3: ‘Expert Test’
  • Further progression and application to exam-style questions
  • 25% repeated question types from tests 1 & 2, 75% exam-style questions
  • Perfect setup before tackling exam papers

Beautifully written answers

M Qume, Parent & Happy Customer

Plus!

  • Detailed clear solutions with Tips, Alternative Methods and Technique boxes.
  • Cross-referenced to Pearson, Hodder and Collins textbooks – the perfect assessment solution
  • Every point in the new specification covered in the ‘Fundamentals’ tests

The solutions were excellent, really clear and helpful, with lots of concise notes... extremely useful for students who want to work independently

K  Martin, Teacher & Peer Reviewer


What do teachers say about this resource? (8927, 8931, 8943, 8947, 8959, 8963)

A very effective and helpful resource. Just what we needed ... It is well written, and allows for effective practice for Year 13 students ... The duplicate sets of tests allow for effective preparation of similar questions, followed by a closely matched test ... The quality of the questions by the ZigZag authors is excellent ... It is very good value for money, and a useful tool for motivating pupils and monitoring their progress ... It is a strong match for the Edexcel A Level specification, with question style and difficulty that fits the real thing

E Clark, Head of Maths & Customer

An extremely useful bank of differentiated questions ... I kept the fundamental set of questions available to the students to make use of for revision in the study room with the answers ... I set the challenge set for revision homework or standard homework ... I used the bank of expert questions to make assessment papers for testing in class ... The wide range of questions allows students the practice required ... Having the fundamental set and answers in their study room encourages independent study ... Useful resource which saves valuable time

A Chaffe, Head of Maths & Customer

Realistic, confidence building assessment of their pure maths understanding... It can work as assessment or a homework as needed, and the annotated mark schemes make it easy to use with students.

– S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

Useful to use [the Fundamental tests] with lower ability students ... They tend to find this very challenging and this helps them access it better ... It's differentiated very well and graduated well across the resources. I know that every student will be able to answer some questions; while the top students will still find the end questions on Fundamentals interesting ... These questions are so much more accessible than textbook questions; in an international school I had attempted to set "mixed exercises". Some students weren't able to access content at all, scoring 'zero' routinely. I know that won't happen on these Fundamental worksheets when set for homework or as a test ... All students can "access" it - it's so helpful for helping our lower ability students 'across the line' with E/D questions ... The topic tests are incredibly well-designed - and very well differentiated

S Harrison, Teacher & Customer

Very excited to receive it - so very suitable for our need... It's all contained, no additional books necessary... Gives a confidence boost going through the stages... Confidence is really important - and it gives confidence! Matches Edexcel perfectly.

M Qume, Parent & Happy Customer

Exactly what I was looking for. ... The challenge questions allow me to provide work to stretch the majority of my class in preparation for assessment... great revision materials and end of unit assessments ... excellent differentiation and to stretch students

S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

Amazingly accurate… an excellent set of questions and a very useful tool for teachers and students… a brilliant resource.

S Ashton, Examiner & Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (8505, 8506, 8507, 8689, 8691, 8693)

I really liked this resource ... In an International school, abilities tend to be very mixed and language levels are low. The Fundamental pack makes it very much easier to set homework and revision ... It differentiates so much better than the book ... Normally I use [competitor] workbooks for revision and homework; these are vastly better... Very, very, very much better differentiated. Questions at Fundamental level are structured very well - no tricks or weird wording - meaning students can access them. I have used these with grade E/U students without issue... It matches [the specification] perfectly

S Harrison, Teacher & Customer

a good way to stretch students... It provides an easy way to differentiate work... Useful as end of unit assessments, homework and revision for Year 13... cost effective and versatile

S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

Excellent, really helpful... very clear answers... builds confidence through small steps... answers are particularly well worked through with the points awarded.

M Qume, Parent and Happy Customer

Very useful for ensuring students were on track and had a strong understanding of each chapter
... You need a good grasp of the chapter to do well on the Expert set, they are accessible but not trivial ... It gives students a clear understanding of how well they have grasped a topic rather than rewarding a superficial understanding ... The questions are challenging in some cases but reasonable and appropriate ... Concise - about 30-40mins per assessment ... a really good match and I have worked through all the AS Papers and they are excellent in terms of challenge and coverage

M Greenaway, Head of Maths & Customer

This is an excellent resource that is of great use to the Department and our students ... The variety and quality of questions is excellent ... The duplicate sets, with slightly modified questions, allows for effective practice in class before a test ... It is great value for money, and very useful as a source of additional questions ... It is a very good match to the Edexcel Maths specification, with questions that match the style and difficulty of the exam ... excellent

E Clark, Head of Maths & Customer

Excellent resource, lots of questions, comprehensive... Really useful, lots of suitable questions from practise to exam style. Great for revision and for test... Saves time preparing questions ourselves and don’t have to work out answers either... Tiered level of questions and answers already done, they can read the notes.

J Owens, Maths Teacher & Customer

It was broken down topic by topic and even better had 3 levels making it easy to differentiate... Clear worked solutions. Graduated questions... Easy to read, but a lot on one page so printing isn’t too expensive... We used these in the months before the end of year exams as revision. It made it easy to structure the revision period into group topics. Next year we may use them for quick tests earlier in the year.

R Clark, Head of Maths & Happy Customer

It is part of a system which allows it to be tailored to students needs... a cost efficient way to build assessment into the scheme of works

– S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

incredibly useful ... Allows us to set homework that can be self marked but differentiated as well as assess at the end of units.

– S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

Brilliant. A great companion to the A tests ... It allows me to follow up homeworks or assessments with students following revision/therapy, or for revision for yr 13 students ... The annotated mark schemes allow me to support students in understanding what is needed to earn marks ... It is an effective way to re assess students after they have been given the test A

– S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

[Expert tests] provide a good level of challenge for our more able post-16 students... It stretches students and provides them with a chance to practice problem solving... an easy way to differentiate... meaningful end of unit test and homework.

S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

Good level of challenge and good approximation to exam material

S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer

Provides a retest or pretest for students to follow up the initial work ... Allows them to recheck their understanding after therapy strategies have been used ... fits well with the SOW ... can fill a variety of roles in T&L

S Marriott, Head of Maths & Customer