Helping with GCSE Maths when you're not a maths personHelping with GCSE Maths when you're not a maths person

The most useful things at home rarely involve doing the maths:

• a short, regular time to practise, agreed together
• a quiet place to work, with a calculator, ruler and protractor to hand
• interest in what they're working on, without pressure about marks
• a calm response when something goes wrong

How you talk about maths matters too. "I was never any good at maths" can make it sound fixed. "This one's tricky, let's see what the worked example does" keeps it open.

Asking your teenager to explain can be more useful than explaining to them. Try:

• What is the question asking you to find?
• What do you know already?
• What would you try first?
• Where did your answer stop matching the worked answer?
• Is there an example like this in your book or notes?

Explaining a method out loud can help them spot where it goes wrong. You only need to listen.

GCSE Maths covers six areas, set nationally by the Department for Education: number; algebra; ratio, proportion and rates of change; geometry and measures; probability; and statistics (DfE subject content). Every exam board's GCSE Maths specification in England follows this same national content.

Papers mix calculator and non-calculator questions. For example, AQA's GCSE Maths is three papers of 1 hour 30 minutes each, and the first is sat without a calculator (AQA specification). Students sit either Foundation or Higher tier, and Ofqual's 2026 student guide says the school decides which (Ofqual student guide). Our guide to Foundation or Higher explains how schools decide.

Schools may set out long multiplication, division or algebra differently from the way you learned. If your way gives the right answer but looks different, it's usually best not to teach it alongside the school's, because two methods at once can confuse. Ask your teenager to show you their way instead.

Marks are often given for the working as well as the final answer, so encourage your teenager to write each step down, even when they can do it in their head.

You don't have to do this alone:

• The maths teacher can tell you which topics to focus on and whether the school runs revision sessions.
• If your teenager has special educational needs or a disability, the school's special educational needs and disabilities co-ordinator (SENDCo) is the person to ask about access arrangements, such as extra time. Ofqual's 2026 student guide names the SENDCo as the person who organises them (Ofqual student guide).
• Students are given a formulae and equations sheet in GCSE Maths exams, and Ofqual decided in May 2026 that this continues for exams from 2028 onwards, so there's less to memorise (Ofqual decisions).

When you can't explain a method yourself, a worked answer can. On NextJen, GCSE Maths questions come with a worked method, step by step, using the question's own numbers, so your teenager can see where an answer went wrong without you having to explain it. The parent view shows each topic with an estimated grade, or "Not started", and the weekly email names the topic with the most room to grow. Each practice paper shows the mark and an estimated grade, always labelled as an estimate.

You can try a question to see how the typed answers and worked steps feel, or see what's included in GCSE Maths. GCSE Maths on NextJen is £25 a month per student (£20 a month for founding families), paid monthly. You can cancel at any time and keep access to the end of the month you've paid for.