17 top tips and exam techniques for GCSE maths
Once your students know the content, it’s helpful to know good GCSE maths exam techniques. Check out our top tips.
Based on our Maths GCSE Sidekick video from maths specialist, Sue Heys.
It’s one thing teaching your students the maths content they need to know to pass the GCSE. It’s another to equip them with the best maths GCSE exam techniques. Having good technique can be the difference between getting that 4 and not. We have all seen students lose silly marks because they didn’t check their answers, or they put down the wrong unit.
We’ve asked maths specialists and scoured the internet for some of the best maths GCSE exam techniques and tips to share with your students.
17 exam techniques to teach your GCSE maths students
Set your students up for maths GCSE examination success with these top tips.
1. Estimate the answer
Students can avoid orders of magnitude mistakes by estimating their answer. By rounding all of the numbers and doing an equation quickly - they get an idea of the number that their answer should be close to. They will then avoid answers that are miles from where they should be.
2. Check through answers
Once students have completed the paper, assuming they have time, they need to check through their answers. There are some simple, quick things they could look out for:
units - check that they’re right - and know them in the first place.
have all pages have been answered? Students need to meticulously check that pages haven’t stuck together or that there isn’t anything at the back that has been missed.
check algebra questions by resubstitution - students can put their answer into the equation and check that the answer is the same.
when checking through an answer to a question they were unsure of, use the opportunity to look at it with fresh eyes. Encourage them to try the question again without looking at their original answer. It's really easy to nod along and think something you have written previously is correct when it isn't.
3. Start a new line for each part of workings out
Encourage students to follow best practice by starting a new line for each stage of their workings out.
You might want to humanise examiners and communicate to students that they have hundreds of papers to get through in a short amount of time. It can help to make their lives easier By laying out their answers in this way, they are clearly communicating their understanding, which is always a good thing.
4. Only cross something out if they know that it’s wrong and they’re replacing it with something else
Examiners hate seeing stuff crossed out! They are predisposed to look to give marks. If something is crossed out, particularly if the crossing out makes it difficult to read, there might be marks that they can’t give.
Encourage students to only cross out anything if they know it’s wrong and they’re going to replace it with something else.
5. How many marks is it worth?
Checking how many marks each question is worth can save students time and effort in the exam. They should always work with the following rule in mind:
1 mark = 1 minute
Equally, if the question is worth 1 mark, it’s probably an indication for how much working out is needed to answer the question. They can avoid writing War and Peace for a 1 mark question, but a question worth 6 marks might be a bit more involved.
6. Circle or highlight useful information in the question - especially numbers
It’s probably worth reading through a question a couple of times to digest the information. Some students may have time to do this, others may not. But communicate to students that highlighting or circling important information will help them sift the important information out.
They should look out especially for the maths and numbers.
7. Equally, ignore words they don’t understand.
Students can be blindsided by words they don’t understand - quite often these words have nothing to do with the maths required for the question. Encourage students to ignore words they don’t understand, whether that’s names of people or ‘things’.
8. Look for the maths they know
In a pressurised exam situation, it can be easy to get flustered and lose confidence. Communicate to students that they should look for the maths that they do know. There might be signposts in the question, giving them a direction to go in.
9. What can they get down?
If they’re really struggling to know where to start, push students to write down something they do know. This could jog their memories, and help them know what to do for the question. Can they write down a rule? Can they calculate something with the numbers given, even if they’re not convinced it’s what the question is asking.
Whatever they put down, it’s a start. No exam boards mark negatively. In a mock exam situation, it’s a signal to you, their teacher, where they’re thinking is at, which helps you to fill that gap.
10. Summarise the question
Once students have highlighted the important information from the question, encourage them to write this at the top of the answer box. This summary of the question will save them time by avoiding having to look back through the question to find information they need. It will almost certainly help them to model this; show them how to do this at speed.
11. Use the question
There are sometimes sneaky hints in the questions - teach students how to look for those sneaky hints. Is the question hinting at a formula? Is there a diagram that they can learn something from? Turn the students into exam question detectives!
12. No diagram? No problem
Is there a diagram? If not, students should consider drawing one. This tip relates particularly to vectors. If there is no vector for you to use in the exam paper, encourage students to draw their own to help them with the question.
13. Just guess!
This is especially true for multiple-choice questions. If they don’t know the answer or are running out of time, encourage them to guess. There’s a possibility they could get themselves a mark, and for the time it takes to draw a tick, it’s got to be worth it!
14. Move on
Advise pupils to move on if they aren’t getting anywhere with a question. This not only reduces wasted time but moving onto a question that they can do well, builds confidence during the exam, and boosts their chances of doing well overall. Remaining on a question they are struggling with, undermines confidence and can induce panic - potentially damaging their overall performance - one question isn’t worth worrying about.
15. Have a crack at all of the questions
Easier said than done, but having a crack at all of the questions never hurt any grade.
Students should never avoid the back of an exam paper because it’s ‘too hard’. Tell students to read the questions and still have a go using the tips we’ve already mentioned. Even if they don’t come to an answer or the answer is incorrect, they still could pick up marks.
16. Model solutions and mark schemes
During their prep for the GCSE maths exam, students should look at model answers and mark schemes to understand where the marks come from. If they don’t get the right answer in the exam, it’s important for them to know that that doesn’t mean they’ll get zero marks for a question. Trying is everything - and it could be the difference between one grade and another.
17. Breathe!
We’ve all been there; exams are stressful. It might be helpful to remind students that if they’re feeling stressed, or panic is setting in because they don’t understand a question, they should take a moment to take some deep breaths. The extra oxygen will help slow their heart rate and give them a few moments of calm to reset.
Bonus tip: do their best
Finally, arguably the most important tip is to have a go and do their best. None of the GCSE exam boards employ negative marking, so even if a pupil is at a complete loss of what to do on a question, doing something with the numbers may just get them an additional mark or two.
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