EXTENDED Common errors 1

Extended
Mathematics
for Cambridge IGCSE THIRD EDITION

Common errors and

how to avoid them
Doing questions from past papers is a great way to revise. It gives you
practice in applying what you have learned, in different contexts.
In the exam, how you tackle each exam question can make a big difference
to your results. So remember . . .
● Make sure you have your own basic equipment. You must have a pen,
pencil and geometrical equipment such as a protractor and compass.
Tracing paper is often useful too. You can miss easy marks by failing to
have these in the exam.
● Be really clear how you lay out equations and any algebra. If you carefully
and clearly set it out line-by-line you reduce your chances of getting
the wrong answer. Expand carefully, collect like terms accurately and
concentrate when manipulating equations. Algebra should be easy marks!
● Read the question carefully! Too many mistakes happen when you do not
answer the question set.
● Look carefully at what the question is asking. If it says ‘find the value’,
be sure you are giving a numerical answer. If it says ‘which option is
best . . . ?’, be sure you choose an actual option, after having performed
the necessary calculations to find the answer.
● In ‘show that’ questions, treat the question as if you weren’t given the
answer and attempt to find the solution. Make a comment when you get
the answer required. In particular, never use the answer given and work
backwards as you’ll almost always get it wrong.
● Note the marks available for each question part. If the mark is 1 point,
you do not need to give 5 lines of working. You will lose time, and gain
no extra marks.
● Write legibly. Your examiner isn’t going to give you any marks if they can’t
even read your answer! Be sure to give correct units and when writing
descriptive answers, keep to the point and remember to keep it neat.

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 EXTENDED Common errors 2

● Make sure you show enough working. Even if you are confident in
what you are doing, you still need to show the examiner your thought
processes. In particular, even if you get the final answer wrong, you can
still gain method marks, but only if you do show your working!
● In geometry questions, be wary of assuming any angles have any particular
value unless you have been told in the question. An angle may look like a
right-angle, but unless you’ve been told it is 90° it probably isn’t!
● Keep your working to a high degree of accuracy. Use the memory
function on your calculator or keep working to at least 4 significant
figures or more, depending on the question.
● When you have written your answer, read it again to check that it really
does answer the question.
Below is a list of common topics and pit-falls that should be easy to avoid.

Topic Common error Model answer

Rounding Not being able to work out upper
and lower bounds to a particular
quantity. Also, incorrectly using
these bounds later in the question.
Mid-point of Remember this is different to finding
co-ordinates the gradient or the length of the line.
We don’t subtract the co-ordinates
either.
We are looking for an actual
co-ordinate as the answer!
Make sure you are confident in working out
upper and lower bounds.
For example, if 2 000 000 is accurate to the
nearest 1000, then we halve the 1000 to give 500,
and then add/subtract to give the upper/lower
bound respectively: 1 999 500 and 2 000 500.
To find the mid-point of (–2, 4) and (–6, 10)
say, we find the average of the two co-
ordinates i.e. We add them and divide by two.
(−2 + −6) −
= 4
2
(4 + 10)
=7
2
So, the mid-point is (–4, 7)

Loci Not being able to draw basic loci for
simple situations. Not being able to
draw an angle bisector.
If you are asked to find the locus of a point
equidistant from two lines, this is really
asking you for the angle bisector.
Put the compass at A and do a sweep.
Keeping the compass the same, move it to
where the sweeps cross the two lines. Do a
sweep at each point. Connect the intersection
of the sweeps with the point A.
C

A B

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 EXTENDED Common errors 3

Topic Common error Model answer

Scale factors Doubling a length of a side of cube, A cuboid is shown below:

does not double the volume!
Similarly doubling the length does
not just double the surface area!
If we double any side, the volume will
increase by 23 or 8 times.
Similarly, the surface area will increase by 22
or 4 times.
Think:
● Volume – cube the length
● Area – square the length

Simplifying Be aware of making mistakes with It stays the same of course!

algebra basic algebraic manipulation. There are no like terms so the answer
Does 12x + 2 simplify? remains as it is.
Is it: 14, or 14x, or does it stay the
same?

Percentages Not understanding the difference Remember simple interest is simple

between simple and compound to calculate! It’s the same amount of
interest. interest every year. For example, 5%
simple interest on £100 is £105, £110,
£115 and so on.
Compound interest is interest added each
year to the previous amount. So, in our
example it would be £100, £105, £110.25,
£115.76 and so on.

Median Not being able to work out the Once the data is in ascending order the
median if given an even set of median is simply the middle number. If
numbers. there’s an even number, then you must take
the average of the two middle numbers.
Eg. 3, 4, 6, 7.
The median is (6 + 4) = 5
2
Cosine rule Incorrectly using the cosine rule: Remember the cosA part of the formula is
a2 = b2 + c2 − 2bc cosA only multiplying the 2bc part. The best way
to work this out is to work out cosA first,
multiply this by 2bc and then subtract this
from the b2 + c2.
Make sure you practice this.

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 EXTENDED Common errors 4

Topic Common error Model answer

Tangents Not being able to draw a tangent to a
curve or calculate the gradient of the
curve.
Don’t draw a chord, and make sure
you divide the right way round.
If you are asked to find the gradient of a
curve at a particular point you must draw a
tangent as shown below:

Carefully look at the scales to work out the

vertical and horizontal distances and then
divide the vertical by the horizontal to find
the gradient.

Algebra Not being able to derive and solve Imagine a triangle with area given to be
equations from a practical situation. 20 cm2, and sides as shown below:

x+2
You should be able to set up an equation
using the area of a triangle and solve it to
find the value of x.
1 base × height = area
2
1 x(x + 2) = 20
2
x(x + 2) = 40
x2 + 2x – 40 = 0
You can then solve this equation to find x.

Matrices Be careful of making mistakes in the You should concentrate hard when finding
signs when finding the determinant the determinant of a matrix. Don’t be
of a matrix. confused with negative signs.
⎡1 −2 ⎤
If A = ⎢ ⎥
⎣ 2 −3 ⎦
Then the determinant of A:
Det(A) = (1 × –3) – (–2 × 2)
= –3 – (–4)
=1

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Topic Common error
Speed-time If you are asked to find the distance
graphs travelled given a speed-time graph,
you cannot simply use the formula
distance = speed × time. This only
applies if the speed is constant.
Transformations Remember the difference between a
shear and a stretch. Use geometrical
language appropriately.
Prime numbers Know your prime numbers,
especially after 20.
Frequency Make sure you can calculate the
tables mean from a grouped frequency
table.
A common mistake is to divide by
the number of categories in the table,
rather than the total frequency.
Vectors Not to understand that vectors have
both magnitude and direction.
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EXTENDED Common errors 5
Model answer
The correct method is to find the distance
under the graph by splitting the area into
either trapeziums or triangles. The total area
(distance) is then the sum of these areas.
Look at the following shear transformation.
L
You need to state which line is ‘invariant’ –
ie. which line has not changed in the
transformation (line L).
You also need to know how to find the ‘shear
factor’.
Make sure you know all the prime numbers
up to 100!
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37. . .
The method is:
1. Work out the midpoints for the groups.
2. Multiply the frequency by the midpoint.
3. Sum these answers.
4. Divide by the total frequency.
Note: be sure to divide by the total
frequency, rather than just the number of
categories.
A negative sign is used to show a vector as
having a reverse direction.
e.g. A
a
B
AB = a
so:
BA = −a