Qualification: GCSE (9-1) 1MA1

Level: 1 & 2

Exam Board: Edexcel

What you learn about:

Maths GCSE is a core subject taught to all students from Year 9 to Year 11.  It is an essential part of any student’s education, with many employers and Universities requiring Maths GCSE as part of their entry criteria.  The course also allows students to become numerate, think clearly and logically and analyse  situations, all of which will help them in everyday life.  The Higher course also provides a good grounding for those students who want to go on and study Maths A Level or Further Maths A Level, as students will have to devise solutions to more complex problems.

During the course, students will study:

• Number – this includes money, decimals, fractions and percentages.
• Algebra – algebra allows students to solve more complex problems and study sequences, solving equations and formulae.
• Geometry and Measures - studying shapes allows students to understand the world around them.  They will look at problems involving angles, measures, 2-D and 3-D shapes.  The higher course will also look at trigonometry and circle theorems.
• Ratio, proportion and rates of change – students will study the relationships between two or more variables.  This area of mathematics has applications in science, engineering, business and economics.  They have particular use in chemistry and physics, where they can be applied to anything from rates of chemical reactions to the proportion of the gravitational pull of stars on planets.
• Probability – students will look at how likely events are to happen.  Probability is used widely in maths, statistics, finance, science, artificial intelligence and computer science.
• Statistics – Here students will learn how to collect and interpret data, how to construct a variety of graphs and how to calculate and interpret averages.

Assessment:

The course is based entirely on exams. 

Students sitting in the Higher Tier (Level 9 to 4) and the Foundation Tier (Level 5 to 1) will follow a Linear course.

The Linear course consists of three papers at the end of Year 11, a non-calculator and two calculator papers. Students will be targeted for a particular tier of entry at the beginning of Year 10, but this is not finalised until January of Year 11.

Other Information:

GCSE Maths is an important requirement for many careers and Higher Education courses and a contributing subject to the English Baccalaureate.

The Higher course will prepare a student for A/AS Level Maths, which is also offered at the school.

Maths is a requirement for many careers and opens up many doors.  Careers involving Maths specifically include Engineering, Banking, Finance and many more.