How to Read an Add Math Question

A surprising share of lost Add Math marks aren’t maths errors at all, they’re reading errors: answering a slightly different question than the one asked. Reading a 0606 question well is a skill, and it protects marks that correct working would otherwise waste.

Read it twice, and underline the demands

The habit that prevents most reading errors: read the question twice and underline what it actually demands. Four things to pin down:

• The command word: “solve”, “show that”, “find”, “hence”, each requires a specific action.
• The form of the answer: exact or a decimal, 3 significant figures, a specific form like $ax + by + c = 0$.
• Exactly which quantity is asked: the area or the $x$-value; both coordinates or just one; the sum or the term.
• Any conditions or ranges: “for $0 \le x \le 360^\circ$”, “given that $\theta$ is obtuse”, “where $k > 0$”.

Underlining these turns a vague sense of the question into a precise target.

The classic misreads

The same reading errors recur across 0606:

• Giving one coordinate when a point was asked (both are needed).
• Giving a decimal when “exact” was demanded, or vice versa.
• Solving for $x$ when the question wanted the quantity $x$ produces (the area, the volume, the value of $S$).
• Ignoring a range, so half the trig solutions are missing.
• Missing a condition like “obtuse” that fixes a sign.

Each is a reading error a careful second read catches.

Match your answer back to the question

Before moving on, reread the question against your answer. Did you give what it asked, in the form it wanted? This ten-second check, part of checking your answers, recovers marks lost purely to misreading. A right answer to the wrong question scores nothing.

Multi-part questions: read the whole thing

For multi-part questions, glance at all the parts before starting. Later parts often signal what an earlier part is for (a “hence” tells you the previous answer will be used), and seeing the whole structure helps you set out earlier working usefully.

Reading well is trainable, and a specialist can show your child which misreads cost them marks, part of what the trial class diagnoses. Message us on WhatsApp to book.