Please also check out my guide (only my per­sonal views) on “How to make the most of math web­sites” in this article which fol­lows this list of top ten websites.

I couldn’t order these one to ten, they all have dif­fer­ent strengths, so I chick­ened out and here they are in no par­tic­u­lar order:

NRICH

This site is unique. It’s run by Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity and the aim is to “enrich the math­e­mat­i­cal expe­ri­ences of all learn­ers”. There are sec­tions for teach­ers and stu­dents and cov­ers Key Stage 1 right through to A Level. If you’re look­ing to be spoon fed a syl­labus this is not the site for you. If you’re look­ing to be chal­lenged and stim­u­lated, this site sets the standard.

NRICH (askN­RICH) has an excel­lent forum. Stu­dents of all ages may ask ques­tions. Quot­ing the forum’s blurb:-

“If you have a ques­tion about a par­tic­u­lar math­e­mat­i­cal prob­lem, or about math­e­mat­ics in gen­eral, Ask NRICH is the place to be.

Our team will do their best to help you. They are not here to give you answers to ques­tions, but they will help you to make sense of the math­e­mat­ics involved and to use what you know to think your way through the prob­lems yourself.

They are very quick and friendly! Most ques­tions get a use­ful reply within the day.”

BBC Bite­size

This is prob­a­bly the most well known resource but it’s still very good. There are sep­a­rate sec­tions for KS1, KS2, KS3, GCSE and higher math. The web­site is well designed, easy to fol­low and makes good use of graph­ics. At the Maths GCSE level, each topic has a revi­sion, activ­ity and test section.

Brain Cells

This is mainly a pay site but there are many free Math GCSE resources:- Revi­sion Pre­sen­ta­tions, Revi­sion Quizzes and Revi­sion Sheets. I like these mate­ri­als because they are very clear and require inter­ac­tion to complete.

Cor­bett Maths

This site is free to use and the main focus is Maths GCSE. There are many videos, prac­tice ques­tions and revi­sion cards. There are two things I par­tic­u­larly like; the sim­ple but very effec­tive pre­sen­ta­tion and the use of Symbaloo.com to group the videos by GCSE grade ( for exam­ple these are all the GCSE Grade C videos – http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/gcsemathsgradec)

Exam Solu­tions

Another free site. There are many (over 2,800!) Maths GCSE and A Level videos plus exam ques­tions with thor­oughly worked solu­tions. I think it would be fair to say that it’s aimed at stu­dents who would expect to get grade B or higher at Maths GCSE.

Hegarty Maths

Nearly 1,000 videos cov­er­ing KS3, GCSE and A Level Maths. This site is main­tained by two teach­ers with help from two young web developers/designers. The videos are clearly used by the site’s own­ers to help their stu­dents. Per­haps because they cover every­thing from KS3 to A Level, I think the videos have a friendly and acces­si­ble feel to them. I think this might be my favorite maths web­site– a full, detailed review to fol­low– watch this space! Here’s my full review of Hegarty Maths.

Khan Acad­emy

Prob­a­bly the most famous tuto­r­ial videos. The acad­emy is per­fect for USA stu­dents but for UK stu­dents there’s no easy way to map the videos to KS1, KS2, KS3, GCSE etc. It’s still a pio­neer­ing, fan­tas­tic resource but I would sug­gest (if you’re study­ing out­side the USA) you need to have a firm under­stand­ing of what you need to learn (i.e. your detailed syl­labus) to get max­i­mum benefit.

Mr Barton’s Maths

Yet another labor of love by a UK Maths teacher. Mr. Bar­ton is the cura­tor of UK Maths online resources. He has sec­tions for teach­ers, par­ents and stu­dents. Mr. Bar­ton is also the Sec­ondary Maths Advi­sor for the TES (Times Edu­ca­tion Sup­ple­ment).

MyMaths

I know this web­site is not free but it is very widely used by schools. Typ­i­cally it’s paid for by schools to sup­port pupils– so for many chil­dren (includ­ing mine) it works out to be free. The site is pro­fes­sional and I’m sure it will be a great help to teach­ers, par­ents and pupils. In my opin­ion the only thing it lacks is a per­son­al­ity– the sort of inter­est and iden­tity pro­vided by the use of videos on some of the other web­sites listed here.

The Maths Teacher

David Smith is yet another exam­ple of a Maths teacher pro­vid­ing a superb free ser­vice. The site cov­ers GCSE and A level maths and, in my opin­ion, is the eas­i­est maths web­site to nav­i­gate.  For exam­ple, Maths GCSE is split between Foun­da­tion and Higher Sec­tions and for each topic there is a video, les­son notes (pdf to com­ple­ment the video) and an exer­cise sec­tion which has about 10 ques­tions and fully worked answers. Log­i­cal, well pre­sented and thor­ough. Then there are exam ques­tions and the same for­mat is fol­lowed; a video and pdf’s with notes and tran­script of ques­tions and answers.

How to Make the Most of Maths Websites

When I started inves­ti­gat­ing how I could help my chil­dren with their Maths GCSE’s I was amazed to find so many great free maths web­sites. Some of the web­sites are writ­ten by full-time Maths teach­ers and it’s clear that they are real labors of love. The best web­sites have well pro­duced videos and sup­port mate­ri­als such as notes and test questions.

I could have included a num­ber of other web­sites, choos­ing the “best” web­sites is, of course, highly sub­jec­tive. I con­sid­ered the fol­low­ing fac­tors to make my choice:

  • Good qual­ity, easy to under­stand videos
  • A clear struc­ture to make it easy to under­stand the con­tent of the website.
  • Up to date mate­r­ial, well maintained.
  • Author­ity and rel­e­vant expe­ri­ence of the web­site owner.
  • Free! I’ve only included web­sites that are wholly free to use OR where sub­stan­tial sec­tions are free to use.

Using Maths Websites

Because there are so many free resources, it’s tempt­ing to think you could rely on them to get you through your exam. In my opin­ion that would be a big mis­take. As far as I can see none of these web­sites clearly map their mate­r­ial to give total con­fi­dence that all the top­ics required for any spe­cific exam board are 100% cov­ered. For exam­ple, a web­site may have excel­lent Maths GCSE mate­r­ial but if you are due to sit the AQA Maths GCSE, how do you know that web­site cov­ers all the top­ics required by AQA? In addi­tion you may be tar­get­ing a cer­tain grade– any­thing up to A star, how do you know where to focus?

Use Your Teacher

There is no sub­sti­tute for a teacher to guide you through your stud­ies. A teacher will help you to under­stand your whole syl­labus, which top­ics you need to study and which top­ics you need to focus on to get your tar­get grade. If you have access to a teacher make sure you get your money’s worth!

Find a Teacher?

What if you don’t have a teacher? Per­haps you’re a mature stu­dent. You might be sur­prised by the help that’s avail­able. Maths and Eng­lish are known as “Skills for Life” and the gov­ern­ment is keen to ensure that as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble have these skills (up to and includ­ing Level 2 or GCSE) so there may be help avail­able. Click here to find out more about gov­ern­ment help with numer­acy and maths GCSE.

Use a Textbook

If you don’t have a teacher, in my opin­ion you should use a text­book which is recognized by your exam board. So if you’re going to sit AQA Maths GCSE you need to get a text­book  which specif­i­cally cov­ers the AQA Maths GCSE. You also need to make sure that the text­book is up to date and cov­ers the cur­rent syllabus.

Shop Around, Mix and Match

Once you under­stand what you need to learn (either from your teacher or from your recog­nised text­book, see above) you can seek out the best web­sites that work for you. The fol­low­ing list of my per­sonal favourite ten maths web­sites only scratches the sur­face. There are many to choose from and it’s an ever grow­ing list. Obvi­ously you don’t have to stick to one web­site, you can mix and match. You choose videos at one web­site, pdf down­loads at another and  a forum at yet another. All web­sites have their strengths and weaknesses.

Inter­ac­tive and Proactive

I’m sure that most peo­ple learn Maths most effi­ciently by actu­ally solv­ing Maths prob­lems. Pause videos and try ques­tions your­self rather than just watch them all the way through. Some web­sites pro­vide forums to ask ques­tions, for exam­ple NRICH (see above) has an “Ask A Math­e­mati­cian” ser­vice. As NRICH is run by Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity, I’m sure you’re likely to get some help­ful answers!

Sum­mary of How to Use Maths Websites

  • Under­stand what you need to learn, prefer­ably with a teacher’s guid­ance but, if not, by using a text­book approved by your exam board.
  • Shop around and mix and match. Find web­sites that work for you. Use dif­fer­ent web­sites for dif­fer­ent top­ics and services.
  • Be proac­tive and inter­ac­tive. Try to solve maths prob­lems before you’re shown the solu­tion. Join forums and ask questions.

What do you think?

Have I cap­tured the top ten maths web­sites? Are there any glar­ing omis­sions from my list?

Please reply below to let me know about your favorite websites.