Mathematical Miscellany #87


Mrs D Maths – Knowledge Organisers

Mrs D Maths has been writing Knowledge Organisers for A Level Maths, ( free on TES Resources). These are included in the Knowledge Organisers collection which includes resources for KS3, KS4 and KS5 (ages 11 – 18). Very recently, she has written an organiser for Year 2 Functions and Graphs.

These organisers are included in the Knowledge Organisers collection which includes resources for KS3, KS4 and KS5 (ages 11 – 18).


PixiMath – A Level Baseline Intervention Booklet

Looking ahead to return to school for UK schools, from Pixi Maths see the A Level baseline assessment. This very useful set of resources includes solutions as well as the baseline test, a question-level analysis and also an intervention booklet and solutions.


OCR, Bridging the Gap – A Student Guide

Staying with the Transition from GCSE to A Level, this post, GCSE to A Level Transition includes a resource collection for students starting A Level Maths, and supporting their Year 12 work.


I was very interested to see this article from NCETM on Three calculations to encourage and support fluency. Note the acknowledgement; the examples are from Gwen Ineson and Sunita Babbar, from Brunel University. See a related chapter, part of a wider publication, by Gwen Ineson and Sunita Babbar in Mental maths: just about what we do in our heads?


From the GeoGrebra resource team, a resource to interpret meanings of different rates of change across a graph that represents the water level in a hot tub.

For some more watery demonstrations, see Pouring and Filling.


See the page Exam Results 2023 for results statistics and grade boundaries from the UK exam boards.

FFT Education Datalab, check their blog for the latest information. See A-Level and other level 3 results 2023: The main trends in grades and entries.

Graham Cumming on Twitter has been crunching the numbers since the A Level results were published.

Graham Cumming

Mathematical Miscellany #86

A mathematics resources compilation:

Webmaths – Year 12 “3 a day”

On Webmaths, new for A Level Maths, “3 a day” for Year 12 Maths; these resources look excellent; solutions will follow. You can also find Year 13 3 a day.


Rob Southern – Year 12 revision sheets

Staying with excellent resources for Year 12, Rob Southern has revision sheets for Year 12.


Still with A Level, remember that AMSP’s Mathematics Topic Plans cover the whole of the AS/A level Mathematics specifications. These comprehensive documents include links to easy-to-use resources, including technology-based teaching files and student tasks, suggested questions and prompts to promote mathematical thinking and reasoning. and identification of common student errors

There are many excellent resources chosen in these topic plans, for example, we have Ab-surd! from Underground Mathematics.


Pearson’s short ‘how-to’ 28 Key Topics videos for GCSE are designed to support post 16 students preparing for November exams. We can countdown to the November exams on Mathsbot!


From the Calculator Guide, another very helpful video for the new Casio fx-991CW Classwiz Calculator on Calculating & Solving Functions. See Casio ClassWiz 2023 for further information on the new Casio calculators.


Coordinating mathematical success: the mathematics subject report,, a new subject report into maths teaching has been published by Ofsted, See NCETM’s news item including a one minute video summarising the main findings.


Mathematical Miscellany #84

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From Naikermaths, A Level ‘Best Guess’ Papers and Mark Schemes for Papers 1 and 2. It’s great to see that very clear disclaimer on the front page. These look like great practice papers.

To quote Naikermaths:

……..nobody can predict a paper. However, this paper is created based on high frequency of topics and trend from previous years. Some topics or similar skills from this paper may appear in Paper 2 and vice versa, or may not.

Naikermaths

I have added this to my post A Level Maths and Further Maths 2023.


Dr Tom Bennison

For AQA Level 2 Further Maths, Dr Tom Bennison has now published a practice paper, see his post, Exams 2023 Resources.

I have added Tom’s paper to this AQA Level 2 Further Maths collection.


On June 1st, it’s an ideal day to recommend Wayne Chadburn’s great calendars – A little bit of maths each day. He writes these calendars to provide regular, varied practice; three versions of each monthly calendar are available, Higher, Foundation Plus, and Foundation; answers are provided.

Wayne Chadburn

Tick Tock Maths – IGCSE Calculus

From Tick Tock Maths, it’s great to see new IGCSE resources, particularly for topics not on GCSE. See the top menu – Calculus (IGCSE). This resource has been added to my IGCSE collection. This also includes the recent paper 2 practice questions from Addvance Maths.

For IGCSE – See AddvanceMaths.com


A reminder that MEI’s Calculator Crunch is later this month. The Calculator Crunch resources are great for Year 6 – Year 7 transition.

Calculator Crunch 2022

Exams Weeks 2 and 3

MathsBot

We must start by saying congratulations and Happy Birthday to MathsBot! Jonathan Hall has been providing us with this amazing site for 10 years, thank you so much, Jonathan!


In week 2 we have Maths AS Paper 2 Statistics and Mechanics and A Level Further Maths Paper 1, looking ahead to Week 3 after half term, we have Further Maths Paper 2, A Level Maths Paper 1, Core Maths Paper 1 and GCSE Maths Paper 2.


For many further resources see GCSE Revision 2023

Recent Practice Papers, warm-ups and Checklists given that paper 1 is complete:

From Christine Norledge on Third Space Learning blog: Edexcel Paper 1 analysis with recommended revision list for papers 2 and 3.


IFrom Adam Mercer, “Starting Strong” for Edexcel foundation pupils.


See Corbettmaths GCSE Maths Summer 2023, we now have Edexcel, AQA paper 2 and 3 preparation materials and OCR papers 2, 3, 5, and 6. The material includes interactive revision checklists, (select a topic for an explanation on that topic) and Foundation and Higher Preparation Papers.

The interactive lists link directly to the appropriate video, note the video number and then find that in the list of contents on the videos and worksheets page for practice questions.

As there are 3 papers, it is almost certain that topics from paper 1 may appear again, so definitely make sure you revise everything.

John Corbett

Calculator revision mats from Jo Morgan:


IFrom First Class Maths a practice paper for Edexcel Paper 2H is now available. I do like the disclaimer on the front page, we cannot know what content will be examined – the best strategy is to revise everything! The paper has been created “with a careful analysis of the most common paper 2/3 topics from previous years and also careful analysis of what topics have already appeared in paper 1.”

Note the timetable for the estimated dates for release of the practice papers and the Paper 2 key topics documents.

Mr White has used the Edexcel analysis from 1st Class Maths (Key Topics for Paper 2 based on Paper 1 Analysis and previous trends) to create this list of Maths Genie links for the top 20 topics in Edexcel. Note the tabs on the spreadsheet – we have a list for Higher and also for Foundation.

And using that analysis, Jenny Hill-Parker has created these resources for Edexcel Foundation and Higher:

Jenny Hill-Parker

Foundation practice questions and solutions

and here we have Jenny’s higher questions and solutions.


MrMorleyMaths

PixiMaths Practice Papers “to help you revise for papers 2 and 3 Edexcel Maths GCSE for summer 2023 based on topics that we have seen in paper 1.”

With that important reminder for students on the front page:


GCSE Maths Tutor – 2023 Paper 2 Checklist – choose Get the free checklist, then you can choose your exam board, Edexcel, AQA, OCR, IGCSE and WJEC.


iAQA and Edexcel Practice Papers from @mathsplanner, Foundation solutions are available, higher will follow.


Mr Neill – OCR

For OCR, see Mr Neill’s suggested practice questions for Foundations and Higher for Paper 2.

Remember that Mr Neill has this 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

Dave Taylor – OCR Revision Mat

Dave Taylor has used his list of topics to create a revision mat for OCR.


onmaths

We also have papers and video solutions from @onmathsuk.

Very helpfully, onmaths has an online paper and video solutions for Foundation and Higher AQA, Edexcel, and OCR (downloads are available for subscribers)


From Matt Woodfine a collection of resources for AQA Paper 2

Also available are online 15-question online tests which assess different skills from the various checklists that have been shared that aim to tackle high-frequency topics or key skills. Tests are available for AQA, Edexcel, OCR, and WJEC; it is also possible to get a pdf copy of the test and answers. Goto this page, if you have the number for your chosen test choose click here from the statement “If you happen to know the MWB task number already (ideal if you have already set a homework to one group and would like to set it to a second group), please click here.” You will then be invited to enter the code for the test you want.

The link to the tests and a full list of available tests are available here.

S lp has created some Foundation “Lessons” focussed on the 4 and 5 star topics. from @1stclassmaths‘s predicted topics on MWB, @MattTheApp.


Pete Mattock has created two AQA practice calculator papers, based on his analysis of paper 1.


Casio have free webinars for GCSE Higher on 30th May and for A Level on 1st June, the webinars will have a focus on the correct use of the calculator, for A Level the calculator will be the CG50.


For IGCSE – See AddvanceMaths.com


Thinking about half term ahead, I do like this thoughtful blog post from Dani Quinn, that is a very important point about being careful what we send our students home with. Overwhelming them with too much work for which they can’t get feedback is not helpful for students studying alone.


For A Level, see A Level Maths & Further Maths 2023.


Mathematical Miscellany #83

Matt Woodfine has been busy with his brilliant Maths White Board site; you can now upload and annotate pdf files which is so useful. I find this works very well indeed; pens work well, and we can also use a protractor and compass.

…and thank you for the highlighters, Matt!

If you have not used Maths White Board much and want more information, Matt Woodfine advised trying his “2 min Tuesday” videos for ideas on which features you would like to implement first. Main Tutorial video.

We are so fortunate in Maths to have so many great resources – you can also use Jake Gordon’s Infinity Whiteboard to upload and annotate pdf files, or Math Whiteboard.


Legacy papers can still be such a useful source of questions, I have used many legacy papers from MEI, for example, M3 papers have many great questions on Dimensional Analysis for Further Maths, and there used to be a paper on Differential Equations. Select this link for all legacy units OCR MEI. There are many excellent Decision Maths questions available in the legacy papers. One topic I do miss teaching and is logic which I taught for many years on MEI’s D2 paper.

Does anyone recall Boris Johnson’s 2004 statement, made during the BBC’s light-hearted news quiz show Have I Got News for You, “I could not fail to disagree with you less.” ? I remember hearing it on the radio whilst driving to school and correctly predicting it would turn up in a D2 logic question on an MEI A Level Further Maths paper!

Logic
MEI Decision Maths 2 June 2008

From Cabri, their new Geometry app is available for Windows and OSX, a Primary version is also available. Check the Cabri Express Guide to get started.


I have been adding further resources to GCSE Revision 2023, the latest additions come from BBC Bitesize and from Dave Taylor:

On BBC Bitesize you will find GCSE Maths – exam practice, 5 quizzes of 10 questions each, with fully worked solutions.

Also from Bitesize, try these GCSE maths – quick-fire quizzes, each quiz has 10 quick-fire questions that should take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete. You can take the quiz again and answer a new set of questions. Answers are all explained.

BBC Bitesize quick-fire quizzes

From Dave Taylor, we have these very useful GCSE Higher Revision Booklets for OCR.