This means that if you are given 3 of those unknowns, you need to use the cosine rule.

E.g. if you are given 3 sides of a triangle (remember it should not be a right angled triangle.)

Use the cosine rule to find the angle.

Or if you are given 2 sides and the angle IN BETWEEN THOSE 2 SIDES then use the cosine rule to find the 3rd side.

If you look at the fractions for Sine rule, you will only need 2 of the fractions the a/sin A and b/sin B.

There are 4 unknowns in those 2 fractions.

2 angles and 2 side lengths that are opposite.

You can only solve an equation where one thing is unknown.

This means if you have a question that requires sine rule, the question has to give you the following information:

Now, sadly we don’t get the fun robot anymore, instead we get something that looks like this:

f(x) = x + 10

That is the maths way to write what’s happening in the picture above.

It means that whatever x is, add 10 to it. X is the input.

If we want to input 5 we can write:

I know this is your favourite topic, definitely what you want to spend your free time on a Sunday evening doing…ok, maybe not, but I’m hoping to make it painless enough for you to understand and get some easy marks in the exam.

This post is going to be all about Trigonometry, I will be starting with pythagoras, which isn’t really trig, but you need to know it to do the rest.

Just when you feel like you’ve got simultaneous equations sorted they throw in a quadratic into the mix.

Remember algebra makes up a huge part of GCSE Maths and so if you struggle with expanding, factorising etc. you really need to work on that.

Improving your algebra is one of the fastest ways to improve your grade.

Just made a quick video in case you are stuck on completing the square.

With completing the square, it looks and sounds scarier than it is.

What you are doing is rewriting a quadratic in a different form.

So in this example, we want to write x^2 + 4x + 5 in completed square form.

In this post I will cover everything you need to know about circle geometry for both gcse maths foundation and higher tier:

Parts of a circle

Area and circumference

How to use pi

Practice questions

Possible exam questions

Graphs make up a huuuge part of the gcse maths syllabus.

Its a topic that comes up in both foundation and higher tier, the questions can easily range from level 3 to level 9.

If you want any hope in passing your gcse maths exam and if you want a half decent grade, you need to master expanding brackets (and factorising, but we’ll do that in another post.)

Expanding two (or more) brackets is where you need to be super careful.

Minus numbers can really trip you up.

However if you do it step by step, its fairly straightforward.

Expanding brackets is the process of removing the brackets from something like this: 3(x + 2)

(Thinking about it like removing the shells from a pistachio nut, might help you remember).

To remove the brackets or expand the expression, you need to multiply.

You multiply the number or letter that’s on the outside of the bracket with everything inside the bracket, but 1 step at a time:

2 things are directly proportional if increasing one of them increases the other by the same amount or the same scale factor.

For example: When you buy fruit, increasing the weight of the fruit, increases the price.

To answer questions based on direct proportion, you usually work out the cost of one and then multiply up accordingly.

Not everything in life is equal.

And not everything is shared equally - you don’t really want to split your chocolate cake and share it out… but sometimes you have to.

So how do you split things up when they aren’t equal.

For example, how do you split a cake in the ratio 1 : 3 (in your favour)?