Exam technique - TMUA Practice

The format

Two papers of 20 multiple-choice questions, 75 minutes each, taken one after the other. Options run A to H (usually 5 to 8 of them). One mark per question, no negative marking: never leave a blank.
No calculator, no dictionary, no formula booklet. Rough working goes on the question paper; only the answer sheet is marked, so transfer answers carefully (in pencil) as you go rather than at the end.
Paper 1 tests Section 1 (AS pure plus Higher GCSE) as applications; Paper 2 tests reasoning: the same maths plus the logic and proof of Section 2. Both papers carry equal weight and grades run from 1.0 to 9.0 on the published conversion tables.

75 minutes for 20 questions is 3 minutes 45 seconds each. The papers are roughly ordered easy to hard, so bank the early marks quickly: aim to be at question 10 by 25-30 minutes.
Two-pass strategy: on the first pass answer anything you can do in under 4 minutes; mark the rest, put a provisional answer on the sheet, and return. Never let one question eat 10 minutes.
Use quick-fire's per-question stopwatch and the sprint mode to calibrate your pace before the real thing.

Options are information. For 'find the value' questions, test the options (substitute back, check a boundary value, check signs and units). For 'complete set of values' questions, test one number from each candidate interval.
Eliminate: an option that fails a sanity check (negative area, a probability above 1, a root that makes a log argument negative) is gone. Then guess among what is left.
Statement questions (I, II, III): decide each statement independently, hunting for a counterexample before believing 'must be true'. The eight-option list is always the same, so you only need the pattern.
Draw. Sketching the graph or the sign chart is usually faster than algebra for 'how many solutions' and inequality questions.

Phrase	Meaning
if A then B; A implies B; A only if B; B if A	A ⇒ B. Whenever A holds, B holds. Says nothing about what happens when A is false.
converse	B ⇒ A. Not equivalent to the statement.
contrapositive	(not B) ⇒ (not A). Equivalent to the statement.
A if and only if B	A ⇒ B and B ⇒ A.
P is sufficient for Q	P ⇒ Q (P is enough to guarantee Q).
P is necessary for Q	Q ⇒ P (Q cannot happen without P).
for all / for every	Refuted by a single counterexample.
for some / there exists	Proved by a single example; means 'at least one'.
the negation of ...	Swap 'for all' with 'there exists', 'and' with 'or', and negate the inner statement; not(x > 3) is x ≤ 3.
counterexample to 'if A then B'	A case where A is true and B is false.
the first error occurs on line ...	Find the first line that is not a valid deduction from the lines before it (dividing by zero, squaring, sinα = sinβ ⇒ α = β, multiplying an inequality by an unknown sign, assuming the conclusion).

√(x²) = |x|. Squaring an equation or an inequality can add solutions; taking a square root can lose the negative one.
Extraneous roots: solutions of a log or surd equation must be checked in the original.
Counting solutions of trig equations: count the periods in the interval, check the endpoints and whether the interval is open or closed.
Definite integral versus area: a region under the axis contributes a negative integral.
The trapezium rule over-estimates a convex curve and under-estimates a concave one.
Percentages compound multiplicatively; two successive 10% rises are 21%.

Sit the most recent official papers under full timed conditions (use the online marking to get the real grade).
Run the formula-recall deck until every card is 'easy' - there is no booklet.
Reread the notes for your three weakest topics in the planner and redo their needs-work questions.