Think you are a maths whizz - or at least could tackle the same questions your kids face when they open their GSCE papers? Well, it seems that many parents aren't giving their teens the credit they deserve when it comes to the difficulty of some of the questions posed. In fact, one 'impossible' maths exam question stumped both parents and their offspring.
New research from Save My Exams showed that the claim 'exams are getting harder and harder' could be true - after challenging parents to complete a GCSE maths question. Shockingly, 100% of them failed, but this result failed to dint parents' confidence. An average of 75% of the parents who were asked the question still believed they could pass their children's exams.
Of the 1,000 parents quizzed, 92% were unable to answer the question and 8% failed to get the correct answer. And one in two did (52%) admit they don't always understand the homework questions their children are set.
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Details of the question and the responses from parents was reported by the Mirror. The publication explained that the GCSE maths question that the parents failed shows a shape with all its measurements in centimetres, where the area of the shape is A cm² and respondents are asked to show that A = 2x² + 24x + 46. Simple, eh!
Thankfully, Save My Exams' maths lead Lucy Kirkham has worked out the answer for anyone left stuck by the question. Lucy said: "Seeing questions with loads of Algebra can be scary but breaking them down into smaller chunks will help you work through them more easily.
"Our maths experts at Save My Exams create colour-coded model answers which break down each question into easier steps to carefully guide users to the correct answer. This question gives you the answer you're working towards, which can sometimes be off-putting as you wonder 'how am I ever going to get there?' Don’t let it worry you, just try to start with the first step and you'll surprise yourself with how far you can get!"
At the end of this article is an image of how a mathematician worked out the answer, so stop scrolling now if you want to try and work it out yourself. You can check your answer after and let us know in the comments if you found an easier way or just want to show us and fellow readers how smart you are.
Lucy added: "Even if you don’t get all the way through, marks are awarded for different stages of your working so you can always try to pick up some marks and use our model answers to see how you’d pick up the rest." It is not just maths that confuses parents, however, though it ranked as the worst subject.
According to the research by Save My Exams, parents struggled the most with maths (53%), followed by science (35%), Spanish (30%), French (29%) and English literature (27%).
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