GCSE Maths Method Marks: How to Show Your Working

Plenty of students finish a GCSE maths question, write one number on the answer line and move on. If that number is wrong, the whole question can score zero, even though most of the thinking was right. Showing your working changes that, because exam boards mark the method as well as the answer. This guide explains how method marks work, what to write on each line, and how to practise until it becomes a habit.

How GCSE maths method marks work

Every GCSE maths mark scheme is built from a few kinds of mark. In the AQA specimen mark scheme, a method mark (M) is "awarded for a correct method which could lead to a correct answer". An accuracy mark (A) is awarded when following on from a correct method, and a B mark is awarded independent of method. Pearson Edexcel uses similar letters in its Summer 2025 mark scheme, where M is a method mark and the answer marks follow from it.

Two ideas from those documents matter most for you:

• If there is a wrong answer on the answer line, Pearson tells its examiners to check the working in the body of the script and award any marks the mark scheme allows. Your working is your only way to earn those marks.
• Marks are not always given for a bare answer. Where a question asks you to show working, both boards say that students who show none usually get no marks, and the detail is set out question by question.

Check the exact wording in the mark scheme for your own board and paper, because the rules differ a little between boards and between questions.

What to write on every line

Think of your working as a short message to a stranger who has only your page to go on. These habits make that message easy to credit:

1. Write the calculation or formula before you put numbers in. If you then slip when substituting, the method can still be seen.
2. Put one step on each line, in order, with the equals signs lined up. Do not cram three steps into one line.
3. Write down every intermediate result, such as a total or a converted unit, before you use it.
4. Keep the unrounded number until the last line. The AQA scheme warns that rounding too early can lose a mark, so round only at the end.
5. Do not cross out working unless you have replaced it. Both boards say legible crossed-out work should be marked unless you have replaced it with something else.
6. Use the mark count as a guide. A question worth two or more marks expects more than one visible step.

A worked example

Here is a three-mark question written for this guide:

"Sam buys 3 notebooks at £2.40 each and one pen. He pays with a £10 note and gets £1.10 change. Work out the cost of the pen."

A strong answer looks like this:

• 3 × 2.40 = 7.20 (cost of the notebooks)
• 10 − 1.10 = 8.90 (total Sam paid for everything)
• 8.90 − 7.20 = 1.70
• Answer: £1.70

In a typical mark scheme this might be set out as one method mark for finding the cost of the notebooks, one for finding the total spent, and one accuracy mark for the final answer. Now imagine a slip: you write 3 × 2.40 = 6.20 and finish with £2.70. The final answer is wrong, but the second line is still correct and the method is visible, so there is a good chance of earning the method marks that depend on it. Without the lines, the examiner sees only £2.70 and has nothing to credit. Remember that the real mark scheme for any question decides what is awarded.

How to practise showing working

Showing working is a skill, so it needs practice under realistic conditions rather than a reminder on the night before.

1. Pick three questions from past papers or your teacher's worksheets, each worth two to four marks.
2. Answer them with the working you would write in the exam, without a calculator unless the paper allows one.
3. Open the mark scheme and mark yourself line by line. Circle each M or A mark you would have earned and note any line the examiner could not follow.
4. Rewrite one answer so that every mark is easy to see. Do this even if you got it right.
5. A few days later, attempt the same type of question again from a blank page and compare.

This links directly to how you review errors. If you want a routine for turning lost marks into revision tasks, read how to learn from every practice-test mistake.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Doing the calculation on a calculator and writing only the result, which leaves nothing to credit if it is wrong.
• Writing the correct method in the margin but a different answer on the line, which can confuse the examiner.
• Showing two different methods and leaving both on the page. Where there is a choice, Pearson tells examiners to mark the method that leads to the answer on the line, or to mark both and award the lower mark if there is no answer.
• Adding extra working after the correct answer that contradicts it, which can cost you the mark.

A quick checklist for exam day

Before you move on from any question worth two marks or more, glance back and ask: can someone follow each step without guessing? Is the formula visible? Is my final answer on the answer line, with units if they are needed? Two seconds spent here can protect marks you have already earned.

Showing your working is not extra effort on top of the maths. It is how you make your thinking visible, so that the marks you have worked for can actually be awarded.