Maximise the marks: quick and easy wins in GCSE maths
It’s GCSE maths crunch time and you’re looking for a list of last-minute topic wins? We got you. AND we’ve included handy links to associated resources.
When it’s coming up to maths GCSE exam crunch time, you and your students might be looking for some last-minute, easy wins. Well, look no further. We’ve asked an expert/experienced maths teacher, and they’ve crunched the numbers and (forgive us) done the maths. Let's dive into some last-minute magic that'll bag you those extra marks without breaking a sweat! From histograms to compound interest, we’ve got a higher and foundation list and associated free resources to help you and your students prioritise.
How have we worked out the maths GCSE last-minute wins?
The list we’ve come up with focuses on the following three elements:
They’re topic areas that are pretty much guaranteed to turn up on the papers, based on how often they’ve come up on past GCSE maths papers.
They’re topics that students traditionally struggle with, but can be relatively easy fixes when focused on
They’re worth a fair chunk of marks!
Higher topic last-minute wins
Hitting up the higher paper? Here are five topics to revise and practise with students for some last-minute magic with some handy links to revision resources.
1. Histograms
Histograms are a safe bet re being assessed on the higher paper and are usually worth a decent amount of marks. One of the biggest things that pupils struggle with is the layout of the questions being so similar to cumulative frequency and estimate of the mean questions. Getting students to recognise that frequency density only features in histogram questions can be a big win.
2. Compound interest/depreciation
Compound interest/depreciation is another popular topic in terms of frequency on the higher paper. Ensuring that pupils are comfortable using percentage multipliers is crucial in ensuring that calculation errors are minimised and maximum marks gained in an efficient manner.
Free compound interest/depreciation resource
3. Product Rule for Counting
The product rule for counting is a simple concept for questions where pupils can spend an excessive amount of time matching pairs and combinations where there is no need to do so. Make sure that pupils are aware of this handy rule - they can save so much time in the exam!
Free product rule for counting resource
4. Higher index laws
The beauty of index laws is that they are quick to teach and can be embedded in a short amount of time. Once pupils know the rules (or are given a list of them to refer back to initially), and given enough time to practise they should become proficient fairly quickly. I also like the ‘it’s only a puzzle’ aspect that can be applied to these questions especially when pupils can turn things around and set their own questions to challenge the teacher.
Evaluate unit fractional indices resource
Evaluate non-unit fractional indices resource
5. Direct and Inverse Proportion
Another popular topic with examiners is direct and inverse proportion. This can typically confuse some pupils. The key for pupils is to establish the link between the variables in the question i.e. are they both going up/down or are they doing the opposite to each other? Once pupils have grasped this they can apply the relevant direct or inverse formula and substitute values to their heart's content.
Understand direct proportion resource
Understand inverse proportion resource
Foundation topic quick wins
Doing the foundation GCSE maths exam? Here are some topics you can practise and revise with students with associated resources, for a last-minute boost.
1. Collecting Like Terms
Collecting like terms is almost a dead cert on the foundation paper, so it is something that should be high on any revision list. The sticking point in my classes has always been: is a term positive or a negative? I.e. in the question 8x + 2y + 5x - 6y many pupils would get an answer of 13x - 8y or 13x + 4y. I found the most effective way for pupils to overcome this misconception is to use a number line when dealing with negatives. In this case the y terms would start at positive 2 on the number line and then count down 6, giving them the correct answer of -4y for the y term.
Collecting like terms resource
2. Fractions of Amount
Fractions of amount have a habit of appearing in a number of guises on the maths GCSE. Questions can be a quick 2 marker or part of a more complex 5 marker. Either way this is a key skill that is a sure bet to be assessed. Improve pupils skills by focusing on unit fractions first and build to the more complex questions with non-unit fractions and random scenarios about booking holidays!
3. Fractions, Decimals and Percentages
Keeping to the theme of fractions, we couldn’t get away without highlighting the old fractions, decimals and percentages ordering questions. These are ever popular and can over face some pupils who are not confident in their converting skills. I would always suggest pupils look to see if there is a common denominator in the first instance and failing that convert everything to a decimal as decimals are relatively easy to compare.
Convert between percentages, fractions and decimals resource
4. Calculations with Money
Pretty much all GCSE maths papers will (or should?) contain at least one question relating to calculating with money. These often test basic mathematical skills, but it is the context of the question that can throw pupils. I know I have found myself explaining to pupils the difference between a debit and credit on a bank statement, whilst encouraging them to find clues to figure it out themselves (is a gas bill going to put money in your account or take it out?). BBC Bitsize covers the topic of money in context from wages and salaries to VAT.
5. Direct proportion
Another favourite with examiners is direct proportion. These questions are frequently worth a chunk of marks and require several steps to get the correct answer - think which is better value, pack of toilet rolls A or B? Finding a unit price or alternatively price per unit of weight of a product is often the way to go. Teaching pupils to choose easy calculations here is important, why give themselves something really complicated to calculate when doubling one of the values may do?
Understanding direct and inverse proportion resource
If you or your students are enjoying (is that the right word?) the LbQ questions on all the topics we’ve mentioned, you can trial the whole platform for free for 6 weeks!