thanks so much everyone for all your answers, I'll have a look at that link too!
I know this sounds awful but I'm not too sure what exams they do here, its all changing just now due to the "curriculum for excellence", and as dd is the eldest I haven't seen the system in practice yet!
I think it used to be called intermediate 2 or 3??
pan, can I ask, what areas of maths do these questions I was asking about cover, do they all come down to algebra or is it something else? so are the 5 main areas of maths you mentioned Algebra, Number, Data handling, Shape & Space and Measure, should I okk for a book covering all these?
as I said thanks to you all, this maths has been driving me nuts, I'm trying to help but find it all so hard (I got an e in "o" level maths!!)