This post is a little different than the recent Edexcel or AQA GCSE exam papers, and it’s a more in keeping with the whole idea of 3minutemaths.co.uk. GCSE Maths Completing the Square is one of those topics that can be learned in 3 minutes  :-) but then requires a little more practice. So, here’s a number of videos to help you work through the types of problems that you’ll … [Read more...]

Recurring decimals to fractions questions seem to appear fairly frequently on GCSE papers - especially non calculator, if there is some degree of cancelling down required. You need to be able to follow the same sort of method each time, but be prepared for occasional arithmetic. The whole idea is to create a way of subtracting two values of 'n' in order to get rid of the … [Read more...]

Quadratic formula questions ... ... are usually something along the lines of: solve 2x2 - 5x - 6 = 0 and you are asked to 'give your answer to 2 decimal places.' This usually means that you will need to use the quadratic formula: Here's a link to a playlist with a number of different examples. However you might also get questions asking you to 'show that.' … [Read more...]

 The cosine rule is a favourite exam question and deals with calculating an angle or a length in any triangle. The questions tend to be on calculator exam papers as you'll be working with fractions, squares and the cosine of an angle. Top tips! Make sure you use the 'inclusive angle' ie. you'll need two sides and the angle in the middle Always label … [Read more...]

Histogram questions appear on many GCSE Mathematics exam papers and you can download some example questions from here. They can be a little challenging and please do practice all of the problems - here's the link to the answers. Histograms are used quite a lot in statistics and are really just a more sophisticated type of bar chart. The difference is that a histogram shows … [Read more...]