GCSE Higher Maths

Practice Paper 2
(Calculator)
Edexcel Specification
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (80 Marks)

Name

Class Date
 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

1. Evaluate:

a. Use your calculator to evaluate the answer to 50413.

5 × 10
Write down all the numbers on your calculator display.

[1 mark]

b. Give your answer to part a. correct to 1 significant figure.

[1 mark]

2. Peter and Jemima share some sweets in the ratio 4:9.

If Jemima gets 180 more sweets than Peter, how many sweets does Jemima get?

[3 marks]

3. The exterior angle in a regular polygon is 12°.

a. How many sides does the polygon have?

[1 mark]

b. What is the sum of interior angles in this polygon?

[2 mark]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

4. In equilateral triangle ABC, the length of side AB is 2x + 3, side AC has length 4y − 5 and BC is of length
5x − 9, with all lengths given in cm. Find the values of x and y.

[4 marks]

5. The bearing of the school from the castle in Grangeville is 037°.

a. Draw a sketch to show this; your sketch does not need to be to scale.

[1 mark]

b. What is the bearing of the castle from the school? Give angle reasons for your answer, referring to
the sketch.

[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

6. In a multipack of chocolate bars, there are x individual bars. Robert buys 7 packs and 5 individual bars.
Phil buys 2 packs and 30 individual bars. Robert then has fewer bars than Phil.
a. Write an inequality to show this information.

[2 marks]

b. Solve the inequality.

[2 marks]

c. What are the possible values of the number of bars in a multipack?

[1 mark]

7. a. Ranjit has measured w, the width of his dining table. He says that it is 1.1m correct to 1 decimal
place. Give the upper bound for w.

[1 mark]

b. Mary has measured l, the length of the table in metres. She says that it is 1.4m, truncated to 1
decimal place. Give the error interval for l.

[2 marks]

c. What is the lower bound of the perimeter of the table?

[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

8. Simon walks along the edge of a square field in the time that it takes Maria to jog along its diagonal.
Give the ratio of Maria’s speed to Simon’s speed in the form n:1, in surd form.

[5 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

9. a. Complete the table of values below for y = 2x + 5.

x -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

y 1 9

[2 marks]

b. Draw the graph of y = 2x + 5 on the axes below.

12

11

10

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5
-1

-2
[2 marks]
-3

c. Find the equation of the line, l, which is perpendicular to y = 2x + 5 and passes through (0, 5).

[2 marks]

d. Find the area of the triangle which is bounded by the x-axis, the line l and the line y = 2x + 5

[3 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

10. Bob gets 38 different jars of mustard for his birthday. 7 of them are German. He tastes them all after
breakfast and says that 15 of them are mild. 3 of the German mustards are mild.
a. Complete the Venn diagram showing this information.

Mild German

[2 marks]

b. Bob picks a jar at random from all of his jars.

What is the probability that the jar he picks will be mild or German or both?

[1 mark]

c. Bob picks a jar at random from his mild jars.

What is the probability that the jar he picks will be German?

[1 mark]

d. Bob picks a jar at random from the jars; given that it is not German, what is the probability that it is
not mild?

[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

11. A piece of paper in the shape of a sector of radius 7cm and angle 29° is rolled into an open cone in
such a way that the edges, which need to join, just touch with no overlap.
a. When a circle is cut to match the circular base of the cone, what would its radius need to be? Give
your answer correct to 2 decimal places.

[3 marks]

b. What is the total area of paper used to make the cone with its circular base? Give your answer
correct to 1 decimal place.

[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

12. The table shows information about the heights of the 31 rose bushes in a garden.

Height, h (cm) Frequency

0 ≤ h ≤ 20 2
20 < h ≤ 30 12
30 < h ≤ 60 16
60 < h ≤ 65 1

a. Claire wants to use a cumulative frequency diagram to illustrate the data.

Jill wants to use a histogram.
Helen wants to use a bar chart.

Which would be the least sensible way to show the data? Give a reason for your answer.

[1 mark]

b. In which group does the lower quartile lie?

[1 mark]

c. Jill looks at the table and says that 10 < the interquartile range < 30.
We cannot be sure of this from the data; rewrite the inequality using the correct values.

[3 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

13. Consider this sequence: 7, 13, 23, 37, 55, …

a. How can we tell that this sequence is not an arithmetic sequence?

[1 mark]

b. Find the nth term of the sequence.

[4 marks]

14. Michelle writes each letter of her name on a separate piece of paper. She puts the 8 pieces of paper
into a bag and draws out one piece at random.
a. What is the probability that she draws out a piece of paper with E on it?

[1 mark]

b. What is the probability that she draws out a piece of paper with a vowel on it?

[1 mark]

Heath writes each letter of his name on a separate piece of paper and puts these in another bag.

c. Michelle takes out two letters from her bag. Heath takes one letter, replaces it and then takes
another letter. How many times more likely is it that Heath can make the word ‘he’ out of the
letters he picks than Michelle can from her letters?

[4 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

15. f(x) = x3 − 7x2 − 5

An approximate solution to the equation f (x) = 0 can be found using this formula:

xn + 1 = ³ 7(xn)² + 5

Using x 1 = 7
a. Find x 2 and x 3, giving your answers correct to 4 decimal places.

[2 marks]

b. Find f(x3)

[1 mark]

c. Would you expect f (x20) to be greater or less than f (x3)? Why? Do not rely on evaluating f (x20) to
explain your answer.

[1 mark]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

16. The diagram shows quadrilateral ABCD. AB = a, BC = b and DC = a − b.

A
a
B

a−b

a. Show that AD and BC are parallel and give the ratio of the length of AD: the length of BC .

[3 marks]

b. Quadrilateral ABCD is now translated using vector a, with the image of B labelled B’ and the image
of C labelled C’. Find AC′ in terms of a and b, in its simplest form.

[2 marks]

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 GCSE Higher Maths Practice Paper 2 (Calculator) Edexcel Specification

17. x = a × 10⁴, where x is given in standard form. Given that a ≥ 5, find x³. Give your answer in terms of a
and in standard form.

[5 marks]

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