Could you pass a maths GCSE exam? We put our reporters (and you) to the test

How do you think you would do if you re-sat your maths GCSE exam?

Reporters Tara O'Connor and James Harrison put pen to paper at East Berkshire College to try out a 2014 calculator paper and see if they can still apply the skills they learned at school.

The pair describe their experience below, and we've also included five sample questions from the paper so you can test yourself.

OPENING the first page of the exam and not understanding the question at all took me straight back to being 16 years old and struggling with the subject at school.

I didn’t think I would be so nervous, but the exam conditions at the Windsor campus at East Berkshire College made all the same feelings come flooding back.

As expected, James and I both found the formulas tough but were able to help Ali work out how many sausage rolls and cakes he needed for a party.

Donna Townsend, director of curriculum at the college, said 16-year-old GCSE students tend to struggle more on questions like this and about working out interest on savings as they haven’t got the real life experience of it yet.

She added since people now need to stay in some kind of education or training until their 18th birthday more are sitting maths exams at East Berkshire College.

But she said students who have failed the exam once before find it harder to engage with the subject.

Sitting the exam last week, it’s easy to understand this.

Having trouble understanding what the questions are asking is demoralising, and it’s obvious towards the end of the paper when I get tired and give up.

Donna said: “It’s our responsibility to clean up what they [students] haven’t got in maths and English. We’ve got loads of people rocking up to do maths and English resits.

“I find it worrying that people have to resit.

“By the time you sit your maths exam for the second time you get into a culture of failure and there is a sense of fear.

“We are going to try and change the types of environment and ways we’re teaching.”

I was prepared to struggle so was pleased with my C grade – only one grade down from the B I got the first time round.

The total marks for the 2014 higher tier calculator paper we sat was 100.

To pass the paper with a D grade you need 14 marks and for an A* you needed to get 82.

I am a grown-up.

Or, at least that was the conclusion of the nice lady who invigilated and marked the maths GCSE I was told to volunteer to take.

Like most people who make their living out from words, nothing fills me with as much icy cold terror as numbers do.

And yet, despite my last maths exam being way back in 2008, I managed to scrape a B.

Apparently this was because, despite flunking questions which required any technical knowledge, such as trigonometry, I was able to handle anything involving real life skills, such as personal finances, percentages and probabilities - thanks William Hill.

So, to anyone who thinks GCSEs are getting easier, maybe they’re actually getting better at teaching a 16-year-old what they need to know.

Here are five questions from the paper James and Tara took for you to try. You can use a calculator and check your answers after the jump below. Questions are taken from the Pearson Edexcel GCSE Mathematics A Higher Tier Calculator Paper from June 2014.

1. Sue is driving home from her friend's house.

Sue drives:

• 10 miles from her friend's house to the motorway
• 240 miles on the motorway
• 5 miles from the motorway to her home

Sue:

• takes 20 minutes to drive from her friend's house to the motorway
• drives at an average speed of 60mph on the motorway
• takes 25 minutes to drive from the motorway to her home

Sue stops for a 30-minute rest on her drive home.

She leaves her friend's house at 9am.

What time does Sue get home?

2. Ali is planning a party. He wants to buy some cakes and some sausage rolls.

The cakes are sold in boxes. There are 12 cakes in each box. Each box of cakes costs £2.50.

The sausage rolls are sold in packs. There are 8 sausage rolls in each pack. Each pack of sausage rolls costs £1.20.

Ali wants to buy more than 60 cakes and more than 60 sausage rolls.

He wants to buy exactly the same number of cakes as sausage rolls.

What is the least amount of money Ali will have to pay?

3. a) Katie invests £200 in a savings account for 2 years.

The account pays compound interest at an annual rate of 3.3% for the first year, and 1.5% for the second year.

Work out the total amount of money in Katie's account at the end of 2 years.

b) Katie travels to work by train. The cost of her weekly train ticket increases by 12.5% to £225.

Katie's weekly pay increases by 5% to £535.50.

Compare the increase in the amount of money Katie has to pay for her weekly train ticket with the increase in her weekly pay.

4. 25 students in class A did a science exam.

30 students in class B did the same science exam.

The mean mark for the 25 students in class A is 67.8

The mean mark for all the 55 students is 72.0

Work out the mean mark for the students in class B.

5. Shabeen has a biased coin. The probability that the coin will land on heads is 0.6.

Shabeen is going to throw the coin 3 times.

She says the probability that the coin will land on tails 3 times is less than 0.1

Is Shabeen correct?

The answers are:

1. 2.15pm

2. 25.80

3. a) 209.69 or 209.70

b) Previous train fare £200, new £225, difference £25. Previous pay £510, new £535.50, difference £25.50.

Difference between previous fare and pay £310, difference between new fare and pay £310.50 – difference £0.50

The pay increase is bigger than the fare increase.

4. 75.5

5. Yes