9 Top Tips to Avoid Silly Mistakes in Your Maths Exam

Here’s our top tips that will save you a lot of marks and could even save your grade:

1. Be careful with minus signs – the single most common source of error.

2. Don’t try to do too much in one step – break it down into smaller steps.

3. If your workings become overly-complicated, check back in case you’ve made a slip.

4. Always feel free to check any calculation using your calculator.

5. In many questions, especially algebra, you can do checks on your answer to make sure you have got it right before moving on.

6. Ask yourself, using estimates and common sense – does this answer look right? If not, then re-check your work.

7. Give answers to the correct degree of accuracy as requested e.g. to 2 decimal places.

8. Make sure you answer the question you’ve been asked – check this before moving on.

9. If you have enough time, recheck all steps and your final answer.