Standard units of measure
Edexcel 1MA1 examines unit work across all six papers, but unit-conversion-heavy problems land on Papers 2F/2H. Foundation tier focuses on conversion within the metric system; Higher tier extends to compound units and rate problems.
Length
- 1 km = 1000 m, 1 m = 100 cm, 1 cm = 10 mm.
- 1 km = 100 000 cm = 1 000 000 mm.
Area
- 1 m² = 10 000 cm² (because 100 × 100).
- 1 cm² = 100 mm² (because 10 × 10).
- 1 km² = 1 000 000 m².
Common slip: students multiply linear conversions when they should square them.
Volume / Capacity
- 1 m³ = 1 000 000 cm³.
- 1 cm³ = 1 ml.
- 1 litre = 1000 ml = 1000 cm³.
- 1 m³ = 1000 litres.
Mass
- 1 tonne = 1000 kg, 1 kg = 1000 g, 1 g = 1000 mg.
Time
- 1 hour = 60 minutes, 1 minute = 60 seconds, 1 hour = 3600 seconds.
- Decimal time: 0.5 h = 30 min, 0.25 h = 15 min, 1.5 h = 1h 30 min.
Money
- £1 = 100p. Always state monetary answers to 2 decimal places (e.g. £4.50, not £4.5).
Common Edexcel mark-scheme phrasing
- M1 for a correct conversion factor.
- A1 for the converted value.
- A1ft for follow-through if the student carried an arithmetic slip but used the right method.
⚠Common mistakes— Common errors
- Squaring or cubing wrong on area/volume conversions (1 m ≠ 100 cm² is the wrong reasoning).
- Mixing up litres and ml (1 litre = 1000 ml, NOT 100 ml).
- Reading 1.5 hours as 1 h 50 min (wrong — it is 1 h 30 min).
- Stating money as £4.5 instead of £4.50.
AI-generated · claude-opus-4-7 · v3-edexcel-maths-leaves