Paper 1 (Non-Calculator) Strategy for 0606

Since the 2025 syllabus, 0606 Paper 1 is sat without a calculator. This is the single biggest practical change to the exam, and it rewards a specific kind of preparation. Paper 1 is not harder in content than Paper 2, but it is unforgiving of weak arithmetic, because there is no calculator to hide behind.

Drill the arithmetic the paper assumes

Paper 1 questions are set so that the numbers stay clean if your method is correct. That assumes fluency with:

• Surds: simplifying $\sqrt{45} = 3\sqrt{5}$, rationalising, and combining them without a decimal in sight.
• Index laws, including negative and fractional powers, since differentiation of terms like $x^{-1/2}$ appears directly.
• Fraction arithmetic, confidently, because completing the square and solving equations leave fractional coefficients.
• Exact trig values for the standard angles, from the unit circle, rather than typing them in.

If any of these is shaky, that is the priority before technique, no exam strategy rescues an arithmetic gap on a non-calculator paper.

Keep everything exact

The defining discipline of Paper 1 is never converting to a decimal. Answers stay as surds, fractions, or multiples of $\pi$. A circular-measure answer is $6\pi$ cm, not $18.8$; a length is $3\sqrt{5}$, not $6.7$. Reaching for a decimal on Paper 1 usually loses the exact-value accuracy mark and often signals you have lost the intended method. Train yourself to leave answers in exact form as a default, not an afterthought.

Pace it, and protect the winnable marks

Both papers are the same length and marks, so the timing principle is the same: do not let one hard question eat the time of three easy ones. On a first pass, take the marks that come cleanly, the circular measure, the factor theorem, the standard stationary points, and flag the ones that need thought for a second pass. A non-calculator paper punishes panic more than a calculator one, because a flustered student makes arithmetic slips they cannot check by re-typing.

Show working line by line throughout: on a non-calculator paper, method marks are your insurance against the arithmetic slip that a calculator would have caught.

Prepare with non-calculator practice specifically

The trap is revising with a calculator all year and only removing it in the exam. Do timed non-calculator practice well before the exam, so exact-value working is a habit, not a shock. A specialist can spot within an hour whether a student’s arithmetic foundations are Paper-1-ready, that assessment is what the trial class provides. Message us on WhatsApp to book.