Should I sit Higher or Foundation?

If you are scoring 80% or more on the grade 5 topic sheets and can get most of the Higher crossover sheet right, Higher is the sensible choice: a grade 6 or above is only available on Higher. If grade 5 topics are still mostly red or amber on your RAG sheet, Foundation gives a safer route to a 4 or 5. Ask your teacher before the entry deadline either way.

How many topics are only on Higher?

69 of the 146 Higher topics in the library are grade 6 to 9 and never appear on a Foundation paper: 27 at grade 6, 21 at grade 7, 12 at grade 8 and 9 at grade 9. The other 77 are grade 4 and 5 topics shared with Foundation.

Do these worksheets cover AQA, Edexcel and OCR?

Yes. The Higher content is set nationally, so the same topics are examined by every board. The questions are original and written in a plain exam style; the methods and the level are the same whichever paper you sit.

Why are the solutions hand-written?

Because at Higher most of the marks are for method, and a typed mark scheme often jumps from one line to the next. The hand-written solutions show every step in the order a tutor would write it, so you can find the exact line where your working went wrong.

Free GCSE maths · Higher tier

GCSE maths Higher worksheets

Free GCSE maths worksheets for the Higher tier: 146 topics across grades 4 to 9, each with original exam-style questions, an answers sheet and solutions written out by hand. Print them or answer online. No account needed.

Higher tier covers grades 4 to 9, and the GCSE maths library is organised grade by grade so that a student can see which topics are the grade 6 and 7 bread and butter and which are the grade 8 and 9 questions at the back of the paper. Every topic has 10 original questions in exam style, an answers sheet and a solutions sheet written by hand with every step shown, including the algebra that mark schemes usually leave out. Forty topics open with a short method guide.

The selection below is the Higher-only content, grades 6 to 9. Grades 4 and 5 are shared with Foundation and are on the library page as well; a Higher student should be scoring well on those before spending long on the list below.

Key Higher topics by grade

Grades 6 and 7 are where most Higher marks live. Grades 8 and 9 are fewer topics but each one is a multi-step problem.

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grades 8 and 9

Open the full GCSE library My RAG sheet

How to use the worksheets

Print it. Every topic has three PDFs: the worksheet, an answers sheet for quick marking, and a solutions sheet with every step written out by hand. Print the worksheet first and keep the solutions back until all the questions have been attempted.

Or answer online. Open the topic page, type each answer into the box and check it. The page marks it straight away and keeps your best score in this browser. Score 80% or more and the topic is ticked as done on the GCSE library; you can also tick a topic by hand once you are happy with it.

Use the solutions properly. The solutions are hand-written, one step per line, the way a tutor writes next to a student. If an answer is wrong, cover the solution, find the first line that differs from your working and redo the question from there. Forty of the topics also open with a short method guide before the questions.

Keep a RAG sheet. The GCSE RAG sheet colours each topic red, amber or green from your scores. Work through the reds first, then the ambers, then use a weekly check sheet to prove the grade holds up when the topics are mixed.

Weekly check sheets. Each grade has a printable check sheet of 20 mixed questions, about 50 marks, with answers and hand-written solutions: grade 6, grade 7, grade 8 and grade 9, plus a Higher crossover sheet that mixes grades 5 and 6. One a week, marked in ten minutes, tells you whether the grade is secure.

Frequently asked questions

Should I sit Higher or Foundation?: If you are scoring 80% or more on the grade 5 topic sheets and can get most of the Higher crossover sheet right, Higher is the sensible choice: a grade 6 or above is only available on Higher. If grade 5 topics are still mostly red or amber on your RAG sheet, Foundation gives a safer route to a 4 or 5. Ask your teacher before the entry deadline either way.
How many topics are only on Higher?: 69 of the 146 Higher topics in the library are grade 6 to 9 and never appear on a Foundation paper: 27 at grade 6, 21 at grade 7, 12 at grade 8 and 9 at grade 9. The other 77 are grade 4 and 5 topics shared with Foundation.
Do these worksheets cover AQA, Edexcel and OCR?: Yes. The Higher content is set nationally, so the same topics are examined by every board. The questions are original and written in a plain exam style; the methods and the level are the same whichever paper you sit.
Why are the solutions hand-written?: Because at Higher most of the marks are for method, and a typed mark scheme often jumps from one line to the next. The hand-written solutions show every step in the order a tutor would write it, so you can find the exact line where your working went wrong.