EXAM TIPS What to do and What not to do!

ALWAYS SHOW YOUR WORKING OUT Most questions are worth two or more marks, so even if you make a slip and get the final answer wrong, you can often pick up a mark by showing you knew the right method.

DOES YOUR ANSWER LOOK RIGHT? With some questions (especially involving size or measurements) you can see if you've gone horribly wrong. If you find an angle is º or a person is 220m tall, check again!

DO NOT ……use a protractor to measuring an angle off the diagram! The question said "calculate" so the diagram probably isn't even accurate. ……write probabilities as ratios or as “one in four chance” always use fractions, decimals or percentages ……forget to square root at the end of Pythagoras questions – check your answer

DO ……use a ruler to draw lines of best fit, to draw transformations etc ……remember to write down the units when calculating with measures area = units 2 volume = units 3 ……give your answer to the required degree of accuracy if it says to 2dp, make sure you do!

What the words mean? Solve means ‘work out the value of…’ Simplify means ‘make more simple…’ (will not necessarily be one number) Expand means multiply out the brackets, remember to multiply everything inside the brackets by what is outside. Factorise means put the brackets back in by taking out the highest common factor(s)

FORMULAE YOU NEED TO KNOW Area of a triangle ½ base x height Area of a parallelogram base x height Area of a trapezium ½(a + b) x height where a is short side and b is long side This one is at the front of your paper Area of a circle πr 2 Circumference of a circle (the perimeter of the circle) πd or 2πr Remember do π x r x r Height is always perpendicular height Area of a rectangle length x width

THINGS THAT CONFUSE! Mean - add them all up & divide by how many there are Median - the middle value Mode – is the most Modal group – group with most in it Range – highest value ‘take away’ lowest value (actually work it out!) 2x means two lots of x x 2 means x times x 3x 2 means 3 lots of x times x 4/x means 4 divided by x Multiples are numbers in another’s times tables Factors are whole numbers that divide exactly into another Prime number divisible only by itself and 1 Integer is a whole number (positive or negative)