13/08/2026
A lot of my students wonder whether Maths GCSE will actually be useful in real life (apart from the obvious of it being a stepping stone to their next stage of education). If I’m honest I do wonder the same thing about some of the GCSE content.
However, there are lots of real life scenarios where it’s useful and relevant.
I’ve just had a lovely few days away with my husband and we spent more time than was probably necessary talking about probability (who said romance is dead? 🤦🏻♀️)
It started when we were on the car journey discussing a battered old Ford Capri he’d owned when we’d first met and at that exact moment a Capri drove past.
“I wonder what the probability of that happening is?” he asked.
We did some random (and probably not very accurate) calculations (because what else do you want to do when you’re celebrating your wedding anniversary?) and decided the probability was pretty low.
The next day we were playing the card game elevens and we turned over three aces in a row. Again he asked, “I wonder what the probability of that happening is?” (it turns out this was much easier to calculate but also a relatively low probability).
On the basis of these two situations my usually very logical husband decided that it was a sign to do the lottery (we never do the lottery) and went mad on the app entering all sorts 😂
Sadly, we didn’t win a single penny (I think he temporarily forgot about probability - there may have been some cider involved) but it did give me a social media post and luckily for me I love my job so will still be acting as your friendly local tutor for many years to come ❤️
