How to Get an A* in IGCSE Add Math (0606)

An A* in Cambridge IGCSE Additional Mathematics 0606 is not a talent prize. It is the predictable result of three things: complete syllabus coverage, exam technique that matches the mark scheme, and enough timed practice that nothing on the paper is unfamiliar. Here is the plan we use with our own students.

What an A* actually requires

0606 is assessed by two written papers, each worth 50%: Paper 1, with no calculator allowed, and Paper 2, with a calculator. There is one tier for everyone, no Core/Extended safety net, so the same paper has to stretch from grade E to A*. That design has a consequence: every paper contains a band of accessible marks, a band of standard-method marks, and a small number of genuinely hard marks. An A* requires you to take all of the first two bands and most of the third. A* thresholds are not published in advance and move slightly each session, but historically they have sat around the mid-80s in percentage terms. Train at 90%.

Step 1. Cover all 14 topics, not your favourite ten

The syllabus for 2025–2027 has 14 topics, and examiners distribute marks across nearly all of them in every session. The students stuck at A usually have two or three avoided topics, commonly permutations and combinations, vectors, and the R-formula in trigonometry. Each avoided topic is typically 6–10 marks deliberately surrendered. At A* boundaries, you cannot afford to surrender any.

Note the recent syllabus changes: indices and surds are no longer taught content (they are assumed knowledge, and they will still appear inside other questions, especially on the non-calculator paper), and coordinate geometry of the circle is new. New topics are reliably examined. Learn it properly.

Step 2. Master the method marks

0606 mark schemes award M marks (method), A marks (accuracy, dependent on the method) and B marks (independent results). A typical 8-mark question might carry only 3 accuracy marks, the rest is method. That means how you write is worth more than what you get. The full system is explained in our guide to showing working for full marks, but the A* essentials are:

• Write the general statement before substituting (quote the quadratic formula, the product rule, the identity, then use it).
• Never skip the line where you set something equal to something: $f'(x) = 0$, $b^2 - 4ac < 0$, $|x| = \pm(\ldots)$.
• Carry exact values until the final line. Rounding mid-solution is the most common A-grade leak.
• Answer the command word. “Show that” means every step visible; “hence” means use the previous part. Our command words guide decodes each one.

Step 3. Train the non-calculator paper separately

Paper 1 is non-calculator, and it is where most A-grade students bleed marks. Surd arithmetic, exact trig values, manual quadratic solving and log manipulation need to be fast and clean, not just possible. Treat it as a separate skill with its own practice schedule, we’ve written a full non-calculator paper guide for exactly this.

Step 4. Past papers with a marking routine

From about ten weeks out, past papers become the core of revision, but only marked properly. Do the paper timed, mark it with the real mark scheme, then write down for every dropped mark whether it was knowledge (didn’t know the method), technique (knew it, set it out badly) or care (arithmetic slip, misread). Those three categories need three different fixes. Re-do every failed question from scratch a week later. Our past papers guide lists which sessions still match the current syllabus, and the 8-week revision plan builds this routine into a schedule.

Step 5. Fix mistakes at the category level

The same errors appear in examiner reports every session: degrees instead of radians, the dropped +c, unrejected invalid solutions, premature rounding. We’ve collected them, with the habit that fixes each, in common exam mistakes. A* students don’t make fewer new mistakes than everyone else; they stop repeating the catalogued ones.

The honest part: most students need someone to mark their working

You can self-study content, but you cannot easily self-diagnose working habits, bad presentation looks fine to the person who wrote it. That is the single biggest thing a specialist tutor changes: every week, someone who knows the 0606 mark scheme reads your working line by line and tells you which marks you would have lost. Teacher Rig has taught IGCSE Add Math for 8 years, and every class. RM80/hr, 1.5 hours, fully online, starts with a free 1-hour trial so you can judge the teaching before paying anything.