Plan 50 – where my maths GCSE class are going to get their next 50 marks

Plan 50 is the name I’m giving to a drive for each of my year 11 pupils to gain an additional 50 marks in their final mock exam in March compared to one they’ve just done in November.

The list below is all the things I’m going to cover over the next 50 lessons. The idea is for students to gain 1 extra exam mark per lesson. This list is more for me and for them but I thought I’d share it more widely in case it helps others.

As it stands, they’re grouped by general topic but they’re in no particular order. As I teach them, I’ll be bundling some together and pulling out the links between them, e.g. a few fractions lessons will take in the basic operations, solving algebraic fractions, pie charts, area of segments and best buy questions. When it comes to grouped frequency tables we’ll look at calculating the mean as well as drawing c.f. curves and histograms. With negative numbers, we’ll cover negative number operations, simplifying expressions, expanding brackets involving a negative, negative powers, vectors in the opposite direction and negative scale factors.

You’ll notice there are more than 50 items in the list… we can’t be too sure where those marks are going to come from!

Number
1. Increase or decrease a number by a percentage
2. Express something as a percentage of another.
3. Solve reverse percentage problems
4. Solve best buy questions
5. Solve time problems
6. Calculate speed and density
7. Convert speed units
8. Standard index form – multiply two brackets, divide, beware of calculations that give non standard-index-form
9. Give answer to another problem in standard form
10. Use upper and lower bounds in problems
11. Powers
12. Index form
13. Surds
14. Four operations with fractions and mixed numbers
15. Approximation
16. Recipes
17. Multi-layered ratio questions
18. Add and subtract with negative numbers
19. Prime numbers and square numbers
20. Mental and written multiplication and division with decimals

Geometry
1. Properties of quadrilaterals
2. Convert area and volume
3. Similar triangles
4. Work out the radius from the volume of spheres and cones
5. Find sides and angles using SOH CAH TOA
6. 3D trig
7. Find sides and angles using the Sine or Cosine rule
8. Find the area using ½abSinC
9. Find the area and circumference of circles and part circles
10. Translate, rotate, reflect and enlarge shapes
11. Describe translations, rotations, reflections and enlargements
12. Express lengths using vectors
13. Prove a shape is a parallelogram using vectors
14. Solve bearings problems
15. Solve scale problems; solve bearings/scale problems
16. Constructions
17. Solve loci problems; solve bearings/loci problems
18. Interior and exterior angles in polygons
19. Draw plans and elevations
20. Compound shapes involving algebra
21. Direct and indirect proportion
22. Circles inside squares

Algebra
1. Solve simultaneous equations
2. Expand and simplify (3x + y)(2x – 5y)
3. Write a formula then use it to find a missing value
4. Work out a formula from a graph
5. nth term sequences
6. Factorising the difference of two squares
7. Solve quadratics by factorising
8. Solve quadratics using the formula
9. Factorise algebraic fractions
10. Solve algebraic fractions
11. Rearrange algebraic fractions
12. Completing the square
13. Rearrange equations to make something the subject
14. Plot a linear or quadratic
15. Plot inequalities and regions; describe regions
16. Transforming graphs including quadratic, sine and cosine graphs
17. Trial and improvement

Statistics
1. Work out the angles on a pie chart
2. Compare the fractions of segments on a pie chart
3. Survey questions
4. Sampling
5. Solve problems to do with mean
6. Find the mean from a grouped frequency table
7. Draw a histogram
8. Find missing information from a histogram
9. Find the mean from a histogram
10. Draw a cumulative frequency curve
11. Find the median, LQ, UQ and IQ from a cumulative frequency curve
12. Draw a boxplot
13. Comment on spread and median from two boxplots
14. Use a line of best fit to make a prediction
15. Know the difference between a frequency polygon and a frequency diagram
16. Relative frequency
17. Tree diagrams without replacement
18. Non-obvious probability questions