5 top tips when using previous question papers

Completing Grade 12 previous question papers is a popular and effective study technique for your final exams. We have listed some of our top tips to help you with this approach to revision.

Find the papers you need

Which websites are the best for finding Grade 12 previous question papers? Unfortunately we couldn’t find one great website… so we used them all and combined what we found into what we hope is the best previous question paper website. Find all the Grade 12 previous question papers for South Africa’s NSC (national senior certificate) here. We have both the government (DBE) and private school (IEB) papers in one easy-to-navigate location.

Complete grade 12 previous question papers early

The sooner you begin practicing, the more you will learn and understand. Students who get higher grades in exams do not memorize how to solve a problem, they learn to apply the knowledge they have been taught. If you start revising early you can commit enough time to actually learn how to solve a problem, rather than just memorizing a solution or method. It also helps you to get familiar with the types of questions and answers that only appear in exams.

Set mock exams

Set a mock exam. Be strict, do not have any notes or computer or other devices near you. Shut yourself off from all distractions whilst you sit the exam. Time yourself! This way you will be able to improve your time management and practice on focusing hard for long periods. Often exams can go on for 3 hours! Train your brain to be ready for this.

Mark your answers

Download the marking guidelines or the memo for the past paper you completed. Then mark it yourself or get a friend or someone else to mark it for you. This will help you to spot where your weak areas are. It’s also a great indication of how well/badly you are doing so you can use the mark to identify your weak areas and plan your revision schedule and where you need to focus.

Find a tutor or teacher to help you

If you do seek help, then make sure you have attempted the past papers on your own first. This way you can maximize the time with the person helping you by actively approaching them with the questions which are hardest for you and the concepts you struggle with the most. Tell them what you need to learn – this empowers them to be more helpful to you. Sometimes you can only understand something when somebody explains it to you in a different way.

If you cannot find a tutor or teacher to show you how to answer the questions you don’t know, or you cannot afford their time then, sadly, will not be able to do this. However, there are alternative solutions with online learning. Here at Advantage Learn we have filmed Trish Pike answering the IEB and DBE 2015 and 2016 past Maths papers. If you need help with Maths then we highly recommend you use this resource called Maths Online which, along with past paper video solutions for Maths, includes topic specific paths to support you to close knowledge gaps in areas where you are struggling.

From us at Advantage Learn, we wish you all of the best with your exams. Work hard and the results will follow.