GCSE Maths Challenge: Tough problems with solutions

Good book with answers to practise some maths challenge style questions.

Do you know a ‘top of the top set’ student wanting a challenge? These questions from a top maths tutor are just what you’re looking for. 16 tough questions for your most able students to get their teeth into! Some of the questions are just the sort that will appear in the back pages of the new GCSE ‘9-1’ papers. Others go higher, providing further challenge and discussion material (students who know the cosine rule, and can rearrange it easily, will love to learn how to construct the proof!). As a GCSE tutor, I recommend this booklet for those targetting for Grade 9 GCSE and planning to take A-level.

The 40 problems are hit and miss to be honest. Some problems were decent, expecting real deep or abstract thinking. But then there are those which are just number crunching. For example a question (Q4) where given the first three terms of a quadratic sequence you need to find which term gives a specific value is really not that hard. I thought that maybe I was being too harsh and that the later questions would be harder but nearly three quarters in (Q28) and we're solving a simultaneous equation. Those types of questions are freely available on the excellent "5 a day" site. There really ought to be more questions (at least 50) and they really ought to be much more demanding in order to justify publishing them in a book in my view.

Excellent for challenging your 7+ students but also with some of you win creativity you could adapt some by breaking it down for some 6+ students to do. A great half term relax for any teacher wanting a bit of brain work. Hope it is good to develop problem solving skills. For the price a definite buy for anyone teaching higher gcse.

A great book with lots of challenging questions. I have used this in my lessons by writing questions up on the board. These questions will make even your A* (or grade 8/9 in new money) have to think. Don't tell anyone but even I got stuck on Question 16. Buy this book and give your brain a thorough workout!

This is an excellent little book, and great value for money. As a tutor I use it with my grade 7+ students to provide valuable practice at difficult questions. 32 questions, very clearly laid out 1 per page. As the solutions provided are very thorough, the book would also be useful for students working independently. Highly recommended!

Badly explained the solution .

Essential product, delivered in good time for revulsion season