GCSE Maths Exam Skills

So, you’re getting set for your GCSE maths exams, and you’re OK with the skills you learnt in class, but somehow the exams seem to always be more of a challenge. How do you make sure you get each and every mark possible? Here’s 5 key exam skills to make sure you can pick up those extra marks…

Identifying what the question needs

Although sometimes it may seem like it, the exam is not written to try to catch you out. The examiner is looking to see what you know and giving you the opportunity to show off your maths knowledge. Most of the time, they will tell you exactly what you need to know to answer the question, so expect to use all of the information in the question, so if you ever get stuck, it is worth looking back through the question to see if there is any information you have missed.

There’s a lot of hints available to you in the number of marks available for a question. Most of the time, you want to spend about a minute for every mark that is available and write down at least one important thing for each mark. A 4 mark question will probably have at least 3 important steps and an answer mark, so you can expect it to take you a few minutes to answer. A 1 mark question on the other hand should be something you can see the answer to or find in one simple step.

Showing your workings

Now, I’m sure you’ve been told this a million times – show the process! Sometimes you want to skip steps and move faster, but the important thing to remember: The examiner can only give you marks for what they can see.

Generally, a good idea is to assume the examiner doesn’t understand maths very well and you need to explain it to them like a student in year 7, showing each step super clearly to help them understand why you are doing everything.

Equally, don’t be afraid to use words! Use words or phrases to signpost what you are doing and make your decisions clear to the examiner.

Using your calculator effectively

Your calculator is clever, but you are definitely more so! Try not to overuse it – you can do 2×3 in your head but the chances of pressing the wrong button on the calculator are much higher.

If you are substituting something into an equation (perhaps the quadratic formula or something similar), put the numbers you are substituting into brackets – not only will this help you to keep track of what you are substituting, it will also make sure your calculator reads the negative signs properly and applies the correct order of operations.

Everything you plan to type into your calculator, write it down first! You do often get most of the marks for the final answer, but one wrong number and you will lose all the marks if you haven’t shown your workings. You should always be writing down everything you are thinking and doing so that the examiner can credit you for them.

Using graphs / sketches

Unsure of how to start a question but know it’s talking about someone walking up a hill?