Some skills only stick with a lot of practice: binary conversions, file sizes, break-even. Number Drill gives pupils a fresh set of questions every round, so they can keep going until it's automatic.
How it works
- New numbers every time. Questions are made up on the spot, so pupils can't learn the answers, only the method.
- Type the answer and it's checked straight away. Get one wrong and the right answer is shown.
- Short rounds of about 10 questions, so it fits in a starter or the end of a lesson.
- Set it as an activity like any other, and see each pupil's answers on the results page.
Computer Science
- Binary, denary and hexadecimal conversions, both ways.
- Binary addition, including overflow.
- Logical shifts, plus arithmetic shifts and two's complement for Edexcel.
- File sizes for images, sound and text, and units of data.
The file-size questions follow each board's papers. Edexcel's are answered with an expression, the way the Edexcel papers ask for them. OCR's want the worked-out number, with numbers you can do without a calculator, units in 1000s and 8-bit ASCII. KS3 Computing has the conversions too.
Business
For Edexcel GCSE Business and Cambridge National Enterprise & Marketing:
- Revenue, total costs, and profit or loss.
- Break-even and margin of safety.
- Gross and net profit margin, average rate of return and interest on a loan (GCSE Business).
- Net cash flow and opening and closing balances, percentage change and market share.
- Working backwards: the same formulae rearranged, such as the selling price needed to break even.
Money is always worked in whole pence, so there's no arguing over rounding.
Try it
You'll find Number Drill on the subtopics with number work, next to the other activities.