Algebra (Higher)
GCSE Maths (1MA1) · Higher · exam-style practice, examiner-report intelligence and the tools that drill it.
The topic on one screen
- Quadratic inequalities: solve the equation first, sketch the parabola, then read the region — the sketch is what stops sign errors.
- ax2 - b < 0 factorises as a difference of two squares more often than you'd think.
- Simultaneous equations from graphs: the solutions are the intersection points — read BOTH coordinates.
- Making x the subject when x appears twice: collect the x-terms on one side, factor x out, divide. Three moves, every time.
- Perpendicular lines: gradients multiply to -1. Rearrange to y = mx + c before comparing gradients.
- 'You must show all your working' means unsupported answers score zero — even correct ones.
Where students actually lose marks
The general scheme rule bites hardest in algebra: a correct answer 'obtained from incorrect working' is awarded 0 — a right region from a wrong factorisation gets nothing.
June 2023 Paper 1H mark scheme (general guidance)
Extra 'simplification' after a correct answer can void it: the scheme ignores subsequent working only when it doesn't change the value — an incorrectly cancelled final fraction loses the mark.
June 2023 Paper 1H mark scheme (general guidance)
The double-inequality question ends 'You must show all your working' — the printed instruction that turns calculator answers into zero marks.
June 2023 Paper 1H question paper (Q24)
Try it — exam-style
Solve 9x2 - 16 < 0.
Make x the subject of y = (4x + 2)/(x - 3).
Line L1 has equation y = 2x - 5. Line L2 has equation 6y + kx - 12 = 0. Given that L1 is perpendicular to L2, find the value of k.
Solve simultaneously: y = x2 - 4 and y = 3x.
Questions are written in the style of past Edexcel papers (source shown on each) — never copied from them.
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