Year 10 starts with surds, index laws, logarithms and compound interest, then moves into algebra. Students work with algebraic fractions, solve multi-step equations and rearrange formulas. These are the building blocks for almost everything that follows, so getting them solid early makes the rest of the year much easier.

This area is all about straight lines. Students sketch graphs, find equations from points, and work out the distance and midpoint between two points. They also solve pairs of equations at the same time using graphs, substitution and elimination, then move on to inequalities and shading regions on a graph. Real-life problems show up often here, like comparing phone plans or work out costs.

Students use Pythagoras' theorem and the sin, cos and tan ratios to find missing sides and angles in right-angled triangles. They also tackle bearings, angles of elevation and 3D problems. Surface area and volume cover prisms, cylinders, cones and combined shapes. Later in the year, deductive geometry brings in congruent triangles, quadrilaterals and circle theorems, where students write out short proofs. Extension students also study the sine and cosine rules.

Quadratics are a big part of Year 10. Students expand and factorise expressions, solve equations using factorising or the quadratic formula, and use the discriminant to check how many solutions exist. They then sketch parabolas, hyperbolas, circles and exponential graphs, and look at how fast things change. Extension students also cover polynomials, cubic and quartic functions, and graph transformations.

Students compare data using the mean, median, interquartile range and box plots, and learn how standard deviation shows how spread out results are. They read scatterplots, draw lines of best fit and look at how data changes over time. Probability goes further this year, with Venn diagrams, tree diagrams, conditional probability and counting methods for working out how many ways something can happen.

Revision pulls the whole year together. Students revisit each topic, fix gaps and practise mixing skills in the one question, which is how exams tend to work. It's the best time to sort out weak spots before Year 11.