Content relating to Maths (primarily English GCSE and A-level)
When you’re preparing for an exam, it’s very helpful to be able to understand the mark scheme so that you can see what the examiner is looking for and so you know what you need to include in your answers….
As I write this at the end of February, we’re moving into the pre-exam revision period. There’s no getting away from the fact that there’s a lot of content in GCSE Maths, but you can reduce it into smaller parts…
Introduction: the new CW+ models Three years ago Casio discontinued their popular Classwiz fx-83/85 GTX (GCSE) and fx-991EX (A-level) models, replacing them with the Classwiz fx-83/85 GT CW and the fx-991CW respectively. I expressed my opinion of the new models…
In last month’s blog post we covered the basics of standard form: what it is and how to convert numbers into and out of it, including numbers that are in almost-but-not-quite standard form, such as 26 × 10³ or 0.74…
Standard form is a way of writing very big or very small numbers without using long strings of zeroes. (It can of course also be used for more manageable numbers!) This tutorial will help you understand the meanings of different…
In this tutorial we’re looking at iterative processes for GCSE Maths. These come in two forms at this level: trial and improvement, which is in the Foundation Tier, and working with iterative formulae, which is only required for Higher Tier….
This tutorial follows on from Part 1, which covered the skills you need to deal with simultaneous equation questions at GCSE Foundation level, using the elimination method – where you write the equations one above the other so that the…
In this tutorial we’re going to look at simultaneous equations, covering the skills you need to deal with this type of question at GCSE Foundation level. It’s one of the more challenging Foundation topics, so what we’re covering here is…
In this tutorial you’re going to find out how, if you know the formula, you can work out what units the answer will be in, and how to use units to check whether you’ve got a formula right. It won’t…
This tutorial follows on from “Working with surds” and covers skills needed for Higher GCSE and beyond. If anything in this article leaves you feeling a bit lost then go back and work through the previous one first. Rationalising the…
For Higher GCSE and beyond, you need to be able to work with surds. This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 – on rationalising the denominator – can be found here, but make sure you’re comfortable with…
This article is part 3 of a series on the aspect of Calculus known as Differentiation; for the preceding parts seePart 1 (introduction)Part 2 (stationary points)It will be relevant to you if you are studying any of: … or any…
This article is part 2 of a series on differentiation; part 1 can be found here. It will be relevant to you if you are studying any of: … or any other course that involves Calculus. In part 1 we…
This article will be relevant to you if you are studying any of: … or any other course that involves Calculus. Calculus is a major branch of mathematics consisting of two areas: differentiation and integration. Differentiation involves working with rates…
Over the years that I’ve been maintaining this blog, I’ve posted over 30 maths tutorials on specific topics. Since at the time of writing I’ve just passed the 4-year mark, I thought that now would be a good time to…
This is the final instalment of my series of tutorials on straight line graphs, and follows on from “Working with a coordinate grid“, “Straight line graphs Part 1” and “Straight line graphs Part 2“. We’ve covered most of the Foundation…
This is the third of my series of three articles on hypothesis testing for A-level Maths, and covers hypothesis testing for pmcc (the product moment correlation coefficient). The first instalment introduced the concept of hypothesis testing and covered hypothesis testing…
This tutorial follows on from “Working with a coordinate grid” and “Straight line graphs Part 1“. We’ve covered the basics of straight line graphs – enough to get you up to about Grade 3/4 level at GCSE – and now…
The English A-level Maths specification includes “integration as the limit of a sum” and “Fundamental Theorem of Calculus”. This article explains these expressions. Using strips to estimate the area under a curve To estimate the area under a curve, we…
In this tutorial we’re looking at working with a coordinate grid: what it looks like, terminology and plotting points, and the equations of simple vertical and horizontal lines. Once you’re comfortable with this basic content, you can move on to…
This tutorial follows on from “Working with a coordinate grid“, where we covered plotting coordinate points and the equations of vertical and horizontal lines. We’re now moving on to look at plotting other straight line graphs, and understanding the general…
This is Part 3 of a three-part tutorial on graph transformations, and covers compound transformations. If you haven’t already worked through Part 1 and Part 2 then I recommend you look at those before trying to make sense of this…
This is part 2 of my series of three articles on hypothesis testing for A-level Maths. The first part can be found here; it gives an introduction to the concept of hypothesis testing and covers the Year 1 topic of…
This is Part 2 of a three-part tutorial on graph transformations; Part 1 can be found here. If you haven’t already worked through Part 1 then I recommend you look at it before trying to make sense of this one!…
