Home›Guides›GCSE maths
GCSE maths explained
If your child has started their GCSE maths course, this page covers what is actually decided, when, and by whom. Everything below comes from the exam boards' own documents.
The years, and what gets decided in them
Most schools start the GCSE maths course in Year 9 or Year 10 and finish it in the summer of Year 11. The exams are sat at the very end. Nothing your child does before then counts towards the grade — there is no coursework in GCSE maths.
Two decisions matter along the way.
- Year 10 — the tier decision Foundation or Higher. This is the big one, and it is explained below. It is sometimes revisited after the Year 11 mocks.
- Alongside — Additional Maths Some schools offer this to their strongest mathematicians. Also explained below.
The mock exams in the autumn of Year 11 are the last comfortable point at which the tier decision can change. After that, entries have usually been made.
Foundation or Higher: the decision that shapes everything
GCSE maths is sat at one of two tiers, and your child sits every paper at the same tier.
Foundation tier covers grades 1 to 5. Higher tier covers grades 4 to 9, and three of the four boards will also award a grade 3 to a student who finishes a little below the grade 4 boundary.
Grades run from 9 down to 1, with 9 the highest. That replaced the old A* to G system, so a grade from a parent’s own school days does not translate neatly.
The trade-off is real in both directions. Foundation covers less content and the questions are more accessible, but a grade above 5 is not available whatever your child does. Higher opens up grades 6 to 9 and covers more difficult material, which is harder going for a student who is not secure on the basics.
Schools usually get this right, but it is worth an actual conversation rather than accepting the decision passively — particularly if your child is somewhere around the grade 4 and 5 border, or if they are considering maths, physics, economics or engineering after GCSE.
What your child actually studies
Every board covers the same six areas, because the Department for Education sets the content:
- Number
- Algebra
- Ratio, proportion and rates of change
- Geometry and measures
- Probability
- Statistics
The full topic list for each area, with free video lessons, notes and practice questions, is on our GCSE maths topic pages.
One board, Edexcel, publishes how much of the exam each area is worth, and the balance shifts sharply between tiers. At Foundation, number and ratio carry the most marks and geometry the least. At Higher, algebra becomes the largest area by some distance and number drops back. The other boards do not publish this, but the pattern is a fair guide to where revision time is best spent.
Which exam board, and does it matter?
An exam board is the organisation that writes the papers, marks them and issues the grade. Your child’s school chooses which one to use, and different subjects at the same school may use different boards. If you do not know which board your child sits, the school office will tell you.
All four boards are regulated by Ofqual and cover the same content, so the choice does not make maths easier or harder. What changes is the shape of the exams.
| AQA | Edexcel | OCR | Eduqas | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Papers | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Length of each | 1 hr 30 | 1 hr 30 | 1 hr 30 | 2 hr 15 |
| Marks per paper | 80 | 80 | 100 | 120 |
| Total marks | 240 | 240 | 300 | 240 |
| Non-calculator paper | Paper 1 | Paper 1 | Paper 2 (Paper 5 at Higher) | Paper 1 |
Total exam time is the same everywhere — four and a half hours — but Eduqas asks for it in two long sittings rather than three shorter ones.
The detail most often missed is that OCR puts the non-calculator paper in the middle. A student who has practised on AQA or Edexcel past papers will expect it first.
Formulae: what is given, and what has to be memorised
This is where the boards genuinely differ, and where marks get lost.
AQA and Eduqas both sort formulae into three groups, and their lists match. Some must be memorised and will never appear in the paper — the quadratic formula, Pythagoras, the trigonometric ratios, and the sine and cosine rules. Some must be known or worked out, such as the area of a trapezium and compound interest. The rest are printed in the exam, including the cone and sphere formulae and the kinematics (suvat) equations.
Edexcel publishes only the list it provides, which is shorter: the cone and sphere formulae. Anything outside that list has to be known.
OCR provides no formula sheet at all. It names the formulae a student must recall inside the specification, and prints everything else with the question that needs it.
Why this matters
The kinematics formulae are the clearest example. AQA and Eduqas hand them to students. OCR expects them to be recalled. Edexcel does not list them as provided. Same subject, same year, three different expectations.
Where the marks actually are
Every board splits marks across three objectives, and Ofqual fixes the proportions, so these are identical wherever your child sits the exam.
| What the marks are for | Foundation | Higher |
|---|---|---|
| Using standard techniques — recall and routine method | 50% | 40% |
| Reasoning and communicating — explaining, proving, drawing conclusions | 25% | 30% |
| Solving problems — working out what the question is even asking | 25% | 30% |
At Higher tier, 60% of the marks go to reasoning and problem solving rather than to carrying out a method correctly. A student who can do every technique but freezes on an unfamiliar question is leaving most of the paper’s marks on the table. That is the single most useful thing on this page, and it explains why practising past papers beats re-reading notes.
And where they are by content area
The six content areas are not weighted equally, and the balance shifts sharply between tiers. Weightings are approximate and vary slightly by board. They describe the whole tier rather than any single paper.
| Content area | Foundation | Higher |
|---|---|---|
| Number | ~25% | ~15% |
| Algebra | ~20% | ~30% |
| Ratio, proportion and rates of change | ~25% | ~20% |
| Geometry and measures | ~15% | ~20% |
| Probability | ~7% | ~7% |
| Statistics | ~8% | ~8% |
Calculators and equipment
Your child needs a ruler, a pair of compasses and a protractor for every paper, and a pencil, which is for diagrams rather than written answers.
A scientific calculator is needed for the calculator papers. It must handle the four operations, squares and square roots, reciprocals and powers, brackets, a memory, and the exponential, trigonometric and statistical functions.
The rules on what is not allowed are stricter than most parents expect. A calculator must not be able to do symbolic algebra, or differentiation and integration, or translate languages, or communicate with anything else. It must not store text, formulae or dictionaries. The case must not have formulas printed inside it, and a calculator cannot be borrowed from another candidate during an exam.
Additional Maths (FSMQ), if your child is offered it
Some schools offer a qualification called FSMQ: Additional Maths alongside GCSE. It is set only by OCR.
The thing to understand is that this sits at Level 3 — the same level of difficulty as AS — rather than at GCSE level. It is taken alongside GCSE maths, not after it, and it is aimed at students on the Higher tier who are comfortably on top of the course.
It is one paper of 2 hours, 100 marks, with a calculator allowed throughout. It covers algebra, enumeration, coordinate geometry, Pythagoras and trigonometry, calculus, numerical methods, and exponentials and logarithms. Calculus and logarithms are well beyond anything in GCSE.
It is graded A to E, not on the 9 to 1 scale, and there is one sitting a year in May or June.
For a student heading to A Level Maths it is a genuine head start, and can open the way to Further Maths. For a student stopping maths after Year 11, OCR presents it as worthwhile in its own right — though it is honest to say the main benefit is for those carrying on.
What we offer
We publish free video tutorials for Additional Maths. We do not currently offer tuition for it; our group sessions cover GCSE maths only.
Results, and what happens next
Grades are awarded on the total across all papers. Individual papers are not graded, so there is no meaningful “score” for one paper on its own.
Results arrive in August. If the grade is disappointing, a resit is possible in the November series, though a student must be at least 16 by the 31 August beforehand, and every paper has to be retaken rather than just the weak one.
After GCSE, maths continues in several directions: A Level Maths, Further Maths, Core Maths, or the maths embedded in subjects like physics, geography, psychology and economics. A Level Maths normally expects a strong Higher tier grade, which is the main reason the tier decision in Year 10 deserves attention.
Questions parents ask
How do I find out which exam board my child is on?
Ask the school office or check the school website. It is a one-line answer and worth knowing before you buy any revision material, because practice papers are board-specific.
Does the exam board my child sits make the grade easier or harder?
No. All four are regulated to the same standard and cover the same content. The differences are in how the papers are arranged and which formulae are provided.
Can my child move from Foundation to Higher?
Until entries are made, yes, and the autumn mocks in Year 11 are usually the deciding point. Speak to the maths department rather than waiting to be told.
Is a tutor necessary?
No. Everything in the specification is taught in school, and the free familiarisation material every board publishes is the closest thing to the real papers. Tuition helps some students, particularly where confidence rather than ability is the barrier.
What is a good grade?
That depends entirely on where your child is heading. Sixth forms and colleges set their own entry requirements, so the figure that matters is the one published by the ones your child is applying to. Beyond that threshold, the better question is whether your child is working at the top of what they can do.
Checked against the AQA (8300), Pearson Edexcel (1MA1), Cambridge OCR (J560) and WJEC Eduqas GCSE mathematics specifications, and the Cambridge OCR Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths (6993) specification, on 12 September 2026.