Mathematical Miscellany #65

From Wayne Chadburn, I do like his little bit of Maths each day calendars, it’s almost May, so we can start with a May calendar. See these calendars for March, April and May. Do check all three calendars as these have been written to focus on each of the three papers and the topic lists announced by Edexcel. Whilst written with Edexcel in mind these are great revision resources whichever board you use. Full solutions are provided.

Wayne Chadburn

See my post Mathematics Worked examples for A Level for a variety of resources for Maths and Further Maths.


On Dr Frost Maths, use this list if you are looking for a specific topic – All Exam Skills/Key Skills on DrFrostMaths, I have done as suggested and created myself an Excel spreadsheet so I can easily filter a search.


From Colin Foster, such a good and thought provoking read on Tangible contexts for mathematics; to quote Colin Foster:

Do contexts help students to understand mathematics or do they just make it harder for them to untangle the mathematics from all the extraneous information? I think the answer is yes – both of these happen on different occasions. So, what is it that gives some contexts the potential to be powerfully illuminating?

Colin Foster

I do like the mixing paint context, I have used the Nrich problem Mixing Paints many times, this has an interactivity to check your answers.

Nrich – Mixing Paints

Did you know that you can mix colours on WolframAlpha?


Edexcel – Teacher’s Guide to Command Words

Literacy Skills in Maths includes many ideas and resources; at the end of the post there is a short section on further reading which I have updated with articles from Cameron Setter and Clare Feeney.

Further Reading

Mathematical Miscellany #64

Our current focus is of course on the final preparation for the Summer 2022 examinations. My post Examinations 2022 is easily accessible from the right-hand menu and currently pinned to the top of this blog so it is easy to find. The post highlights information and many revision resources available.

The latest addition to this post is from Gareth Evans who has made some Edexcel Crossover Revision Grids for each of the 3 GCSE papers based on this year’s advance information. There are 5 sets of each.

Gareth Evans – Crossover Revision Grids (Edexcel)

Edexcel Practice Papers

Staying with the subject of revision, from Edexcel, available in the Emporium we have GCSE Practice Papers for students aiming for Grade 4, Grade 7 and Grade 9.


As mentioned in Mathematical Miscellany #63, it’s really helpful when sites have a clear ‘What’s new?’ type section or you can easily search by recent additions and/or subscribe to a newsletter. A small number of recent examples…

Dr Austin Maths – Algebraic Fractions

On Dr Austin Maths select New from the Menu, her latest resources are a welcome addition – Algebraic Fractions.

MathsBot – Linear Sequences

I really like Jonathan Hall’s Structured Variation Grids on MathsBot, a latest addition is on Linear Sequences, keep up with Jonathan Hall’s latest MathsBot resources.

Andy Lutwyche

From an absolute favourite resource Author – Andy Lutwyche, search his resources by newest on TES, I see some great new resources. For example, a circle theorems card sort or worksheet, resources on invariant points and I like the look of these new resources ‘Explain the Errors’, I have often spoken of such resources being ideal to promote mathematical discussions in the classroom. Each resource in this collection has in Andy’s words “Ten questions of increasing difficulty (you can choose which you tackle) where four potential answers are given; one answer is correct (your class can find this) and three answers are incorrect and your class needs to work out how they got it incorrect. Ideal for mathematical discussions.”

I mentioned last time that it was great to see Andy has added to his Erica’s Errors series for A level with some Mecahnics and Statistics resources.

Transum – Drawing 3D Objects

On Transum see Breaking News where you will find information on new and updated resources. Current news includes the latest activity to be updated on the site, “Drawing 3D Objects” (Draw two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects on an isometric dotty grid.).

From NCETM, see News and Features.

Nrich – sign up for their Newsletter.

What’s new at Desmos? This is really comprehensive – a great way to keep up to date.


Tim Brzezinski – Net and Surface Area of a Cylinder

Reminding a student how to calculate the surface area of a cylinder, I used this clear Net and Surface Area of a Cylinder resource on GeoGebra. For more GeoGebra resources, see the GeoGebra series including from Edexcel, numerous GeoGebra resouces for GCSE and A Level.


Transum Mathematics

Perhaps try a weekly workout on Transum Mathematics, like so many resources available on Transum, students can enter answers to check their work. 5 weekly workouts are freely available, further weekly workouts are available for subscribers.

Remember that also freely available is Transum’s Refreshing Revision, where you can create your own customised set of questions (see Custom Maths Revision Starters). Or use one of the self-checking exercises from Transum’s extensive collection.

Transum Mathematics – Refreshing Revision

Further Maths A Level Topic Tests

For further resources for questions by topic – see the complete selection on this page, Further Maths questions by topic, one of the Further Maths series of pages.


The following resources may be useful if you are searching by topic for Further Maths:

OCR Further Maths Topic Tests
MathedUp Further Maths Takeaway

Mathematics for April

It’s April, so we should start with a calendar. From Wayne Chadburn, I do like his little bit of Maths each day calendars, see these for March, April and May. Whilst March might be done – do check the three calendars as these have been written to focus on each of the three papers and the topic lists announced by Edexcel. Whilst written with Edexcel in mind these are great revision resources whichever board you use. Full solutions are provided.

Wayne Chadburn

These have been added to Examinations 2022, an extensive collection of resources for revision for Summer 2022 examinations, mostly GCSE, but some A level also.

Corbettmaths

Several additions have been made to this collection recently. I have included from Mr Neill, a brilliant resource, all Edexcel, AQA and OCR GCSE maths questions by topic with answers from June 2017 to Nov 2020 (9-1), available all on pdf, PowerPoint or Promethean.

Mr Neill

Teachit Maths – Easter Bunny Race

Holidays vary but I know many are still at school and I can see from my blog statistics that people are searching for Easter-themed activities – an updated page of Easter activities is available, Mathematics for Easter.