GCSE Higher Maths

Practice Paper 3
(Calculator)
Edexcel Specification
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (80 Marks)

Name 

Class Date 
 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

1. B
renda wants to know how many beans there are in her beanbag, but does not want to count them
all. She fills a cup with some of the egg−shaped beans then counts the beans in the cup. There are
427. She puts these beans in the bath then continues to empty beans from the bean bag into the cup
and then into the bath. Altogether, the beanbag contained 52 cupfuls of beans.
a. Give the best estimate for the number of beans that were in the beanbag.


[1 mark]

b. Give a reason why this number is an estimate and not necessarily the actual number of beans in
the bag.


[1 mark]

c. When Brenda counted the beans in the first cup, she noticed that 233 of them were egg shaped
and the rest were spherical. Give the best estimate for the number of egg shaped beans in the
bean bag.


[1 mark]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

8
2.
7

-8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

-6

-7

-8

a. Plot triangle ABC, with vertices as follows A = (-2, 4), B = (-2, 2), C = (-3, 5)  [1 mark]
b. Draw and label the line x = 1  [1 mark]
c. Reflect triangle ABC in the line x = 1  [1 mark]
c
d. When triangle ABC is translated using the vector (-3), the point A moves to (1, 1). What is the value
of c?


[1 mark]

e. Enlarge triangle ABC, with (-2, 4) as a centre of enlargement and -2 as a scale factor. [2 marks]
f. In the enlargement in part d, which point on triangle ABC was unchanged?


[1 mark]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

3. Emoke owns a newsagent shop in a seaside town. She thinks that there is a correlation between the
number of ice creams she sells and the temperature on that day.
a. What sort of correlation do you think there would be, negative or positive? Give a reason for your
answer.

[1 mark]

b. Suppose that one day’s readings were an anomaly. Complete the sentence to describe the
anomaly, and give a reason why it could have happened. One day, the temperature was very [hot/
cold] but [many/not many] ice creams were sold; this was because…


[2 mark]

4. There are 40 pupils in Year 11 at Pigfreckle High School. How many ways are there of choosing 5
prefects from the 40 pupils?


[2 mark]

5. Prove algebraically that the range of two consecutive square numbers is always one more than a
multiple of 2.

[3 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

6. Express the following as a single fraction in its simplest form:

x+2 9
×
3 4x + 8


[3 marks]

7. Victor is going to invest £1000 in the Super Saver Account.

Super Saver Account
Interest rate 1.25% per year

a. How much will his investment be worth after 8 years if the interest is compound?


[2 marks]

b. How much less interest would Victor get in this time if the interest was simple?


[3 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

8. a. Expand and simplify (x + 5)(2x − 3)


[2 marks]

b. Factorise x² − 10x + 16


[2 marks]

c. Factorise 6x² + x − 12


[2 marks]

9. a. Vojtek bought a tin containing 450g of sweets. After eating 215g of the sweets, what percentage of
his sweets has he eaten? Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.


[2 marks]

b. Hannah has eaten 27% of her 280g chocolate bar. How many grams of chocolate does she have left?


[2 marks]

c. R
upa has eaten 55% of her bag of crisps. She has 18g left. What mass of crisps did she have to
begin with?


[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

10. At a Summer Fair, Ryan places 30 plastic ducks with hooks on their heads in a shallow pond. Players
must use a rod to capture two ducks. The ducks are numbered 1−30 on their undersides. Players will
pay £1 and will get a prize if they get two ducks with a certain total on their undersides.

a. W
ould Ryan be expected to make more money if he gave a prize to people who get a total of 3 or
the same prize to those who get a total of 20? Give a reason for your answer.


[1 mark]

b. He decides to give a prize to people who get a total of 8. What is the largest prize he could offer
while still expecting not to make a loss?


[3 mark]

c. Why would offering this amount of money still put Ryan at risk of making a loss?


[1 mark]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

11. x2 is inversely proportional to m.

When m = 4, x = 25.
a. Find a fully simplified formula for x in terms of m.


[4 marks]

b. What is the value of x when m = 36? Give your answer rounded to 1 decimal place.


[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

12. In parallelogram ABCD, side DC is of length 11cm and BC is of length 5cm. The diagonal AC is 13cm.
A B

13c
m
5cm

D C
11cm

What is the size of angle ADC? Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.


[3 marks]

13. A rectangle is 5cm longer than it is wide. Its area is 3451.19cm2. Find the length of the rectangle.


[4 marks]

14. Show algebraically that 0.1̇3̇ = 13

99


[3 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

15. AED and CEB are straight lines such that the points A, B, C and D lie on the circumference of a circle.

B
A
3cm

4cm
C
12cm

a. Show that triangle ACE is similar to triangle DBE.


[2 marks]

b. What is the length of BE?


[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

16. Solve the following equations:

x2 + y = 52

x + y = 10


[5 marks]

1
17. a. Show that 300 + 32 = 11 3

[3 marks]

180
b. Show that =6
5

[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 3 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

18. f (x) = (2x − 2)²

a. Evaluate f(20)


[2 marks]

b. Find f -¹ (x) in terms of x


[3 marks]

g(x) = 2x
c. Find fg(x) in terms of x, in its simplest form.


[2 marks]

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