Pearson Edexcel International GCSE in Mathematics (Specification A) · 4MA1 · Free · no account needed
Travel & Real-Life Graphs — exam questions
10 original Incandio exam-style questions on travel & Real-Life Graphs, 22 marks, about 26 minutes of writing. Each one carries the command word, the tariff and the specification statement it assesses, exactly as a paper presents them. This is an original Incandio practice question, written to reflect the structure and demands of the qualification. It is not an official Pearson Edexcel past-paper question.
This is the practice set for Travel & Real-Life Graphs — the module that teaches it. Read the module first if the idea is new; come here when you want to find out whether you can turn it into marks. Completely free, no account needed to read.
What these questions ask of you
6 command words run through this set, and on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Mathematics A each one means something precise. Answering the wrong command is the commonest way a candidate who understands the module still loses the mark.
- Write down (1–2 marks)
- a value that needs no working — read off, recalled or stated
- Work out (1–5 marks)
- a calculated result, with the working that produced it
- Explain why (1–2 marks)
- one short justification — mathematics almost never asks for extended explanation
- Find (1–5 marks)
- a value or expression obtained by a method the learner chooses
- Show that (2–5 marks)
- every step of a derivation to a value that is already printed in the question Misread as: stating the printed answer again instead of deriving it
- Calculate (1–5 marks)
- a numerical answer obtained by calculation
Assessed on Paper 1 and Paper 2.
Where these sit in the specification
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Mathematics A (4MA1) — statement 3.3. Incandio is aligned to this specification; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's wording.
The 10 questions
Answer them on paper, then open the module's exam practice to have them marked. The mark scheme, the accepted and rejected answers and the annotated model answer are in Incandio and are not printed here — an answer beside its question is not practice.
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(1)Write down
Write down how far the cyclist is from home after 30 minutes.
Figure 1 — a cyclist's distance from home during a ride. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / hours Distance from home / km 0 0 0.5 12 1 12 1.75 0 (Total for Question 1 = 1 mark)
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(1)Write down
Write down how long the cyclist rests for.
Figure 1 — a cyclist's distance from home during a ride. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / hours Distance from home / km 0 0 0.5 12 1 12 1.75 0 (Total for Question 2 = 1 mark)
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(2)Work out
Work out the cyclist's speed on the outward part of the ride, in km/h.
Figure 1 — a cyclist's distance from home during a ride. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / hours Distance from home / km 0 0 0.5 12 1 12 1.75 0 (Total for Question 3 = 2 marks)
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(1)Explain why
Explain why part of the graph in Figure 1 is horizontal.
Figure 1 — a cyclist's distance from home during a ride. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / hours Distance from home / km 0 0 0.5 12 1 12 1.75 0 (Total for Question 4 = 1 mark)
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(2)Find
The cyclist rides home between 1 hour and 1 hour 45 minutes. Find the speed on this part of the ride.
Figure 1 — a cyclist's distance from home during a ride. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / hours Distance from home / km 0 0 0.5 12 1 12 1.75 0 (Total for Question 5 = 2 marks)
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(3)Show that
Show that the cyclist's average speed for the whole ride is about 13.7 km/h.
Figure 1 — a cyclist's distance from home during a ride. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / hours Distance from home / km 0 0 0.5 12 1 12 1.75 0 (Total for Question 6 = 3 marks)
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(3)Work out
Work out the distance the car travels during the first 10 seconds.
Figure 2 — the speed of a car over the first 40 seconds of a test run. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / s Speed / m/s 0 0 10 15 30 15 40 0 (Total for Question 7 = 3 marks)
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(3)Find
Find the acceleration of the car during the first 10 seconds, giving the unit of your answer.
Figure 2 — the speed of a car over the first 40 seconds of a test run. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / s Speed / m/s 0 0 10 15 30 15 40 0 (Total for Question 8 = 3 marks)
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(4)Work out
Work out how far the car travels altogether during the 40 seconds shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 — the speed of a car over the first 40 seconds of a test run. Plotted as a line; the graph is drawn in Incandio and the readings are below. Time / s Speed / m/s 0 0 10 15 30 15 40 0 (Total for Question 9 = 4 marks)
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(2)Calculate
A taxi fare is worked out from a straight-line graph of cost against distance. The line crosses the cost axis at £3 and has a gradient of 1.4. Calculate the cost of a 12-mile journey.
cost of a 12-mile journey = ............................
(Total for Question 10 = 2 marks)
Have them marked, then defend the answer
Practice tells you the mark; teaching it back tells you whether you understand it. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it.
- Mark these questions — 10 questions, marked on Incandio against the authored scheme, with the mistake you actually made named.
- Teach it — explain travel & Real-Life Graphs to Ember, an AI pupil who does not have it yet and asks the awkward question.
- Defend it — argue it against Nicole Oresme over three rounds, marked against descriptors you can read first.
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Back to the module
- Travel & Real-Life Graphs — Distance–time and speed–time graphs read as stories: gradients are speeds, flat lines are stops, and area under a speed–time graph is distance.
- All of Incandio Mathematics · Incandio Exam Practice