Hints and tips for avoiding silly mistakes in maths GCSE

[RegisterGuinea]

Please! I am pretty sure ds understands the content, but he always seems to be just a couple of marks off a 9. It looks like he is making silly mistakes either by not fully reading the question or by getting 1 part wrong in a multi part question. We will go through his mocks when he gets the paper back but is there anything I can tell him to do apart from checking his work?

So he is scoring 8s for maths? That's pretty great and above what most children get. He will be under enough pressure from school in the next few months and they will be doing exam techniques in classes. If it was me I would just be there as an escape from school. I understand the drive for 9s but GCSEs are stepping stones to the next level, 8 in maths is nothing to sniff at.

Has he looked at past paper mark schemes? They’re really useful sources of information on where you can pick up or lose easy marks. I’d suggest he does a past paper and then you mark it strictly according to the scheme then go through it together.

I tell my students to go back, read the question again carefully without looking at their answer, check through the workings and see if they can spot anything.

Rounding errors - not spotting number of decimal places etc.

If it is a decision question (ie does Joe have enough money for the tiles, problem solving style) have you given a decision - yes or no at the end, no decision will lose a mark.

A sanity check - does this answer make sense as he works them out - if he is finding a shorter side in Pythagoras question is it shorter than the longest side - will possibly pick out an error etc.

Rtfq

Maths teacher said most answers at GSCE (e.g. quadratic equations) can be checked by doing them on the scientific calculator. You can't just use it to work out the answer... as you need to show method... but you can check the answer you got.

That doesn’t answer the posters question.

My DS who was ultimately very successful in exams, called this 'idiot tax' 😂. In summary - everyone makes silly mistakes!

However I would urge him to look at the question and just see if his answer is sensible - so a few seconds is needed per question without redoing the calculations.

Check that the correct units have been documented, so for example m, or m^2 (meter squared) etc.

He obviously needs to include all workings to gain the most marks but hopefully he does this already.

If he continues with maths beyond GCSE then it becomes more obvious if the answer is correct (as many questions are 'proofs').

Love the term 'idiot tax' going to use this on DS2 who is always making silly mistakes in Maths.

With maths it's all practice questions and past papers, over and over. That said, don't push for a 9. There's nothing that he can't do with an 8 that he could have with a 9.

For A-level, however, getting an A* may be crucial for a uni place.

Show every step of your working

Check twice

Read the question to make sure you're answering what they ask

Going over the answers at the end doesn't work very well for spotting silly mistakes. The human brain tends to do a passive scan, unless you are looking with a Q; for example, an approximate answer range and then thinking, oh ! the answer I have written doesn't make sense. let me check it!

But there is never enough time to go over the paper at leisure like that.
So, incorporate those checks for the silly mistakes the first time; have a list, like the ones previous posters have suggested: write the answer explicitly for the yes/no Q , rounding errors, positive/negative values and for numerical problems, it always helps to work out a range.

Also an obvious one, making sure no Qs have been missed. This is one that can be caught by going over the paper at the end!🙂

Thanks so much for the tips - some useful ones there