Students utterly baffled by 'sadistic' final question in GSCE maths paper

15 June 2023 , 14:35

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Students admitted they were 'furious' after being faced with the painfully difficult exam question

Students have been left utterly baffled by a painfully difficult question on their GCSE maths paper.

After sitting the Edexcel maths paper, some pupils shared their distress over the tough question on social media, admitting that the puzzle left them "furious".

They were presented with a diagram that asked them to "find the area of the shaded shape in the form p(2+2√2)a".

A similar question was spotted on the website Further Maths pupils, which is targeted at A-Level students, who are two years older than those undertaking their GCSEs.

After being given an image of a peculiar-looking shape, which consisted of eight octagons and a star, students were asked to decipher the "area of the star".

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The task challenges pupils to find the 'area of the star'

The question read: "Eight identical regular octagons are placed edge to edge in a ring in such a way that a symmetrical start is formed by the interior edges.

"If each octagon has a side length of 1, what is the area of the star?"

Math gurus may have found the question easy enough to tackle, but those who didn't can scroll down for the answer.

The answer equalled: (2 + √2)² + 2 = 8 + 4√2.

After being presented with the GCSE maths question earlier this month, students flocked to Twitter to share their rage.

Taking to the popular social media app, one person wrote: "Edexcel what was that last question on the paper."

Meanwhile, someone else said: "The last question on Edexcel paper had me considering rizzing the invigilators to give me the answer."

A third joked: "Manifesting both sides of the pillow being warm for whoever made the last question on Edexcel maths."

One person wrote: "Can't believe I can see the last question of a GCSE paper on an A-level further maths website."

Another added: "Today's GCSE Maths paper. This feels hard to me. I can't believe I even did (for one year) A level. Well done to all those who did it."

Someone else commented: "I'm furious with whoever made that malevolent last question on the maths GCSE 2023 paper."

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Grace Hoffman