A secondary school teacher shares a maths problem from a past AQA GCSE exam paper, saying it is a question many 16-year-old students commonly answer incorrectly. The outlets present the question for readers to attempt and highlight that students often find it difficult despite GCSE preparation.
Both reports frame the item as deceptively simple, using the teacher’s claim that it has tripped up learners during GCSE practice. The Mirror and the Daily Express present the story in a similar way, focusing on student performance and inviting readers to solve the problem themselves. While neither outlet provides broader information about the exam’s marking or overall statistics beyond the teacher’s assessment, both position the question as an example of a common stumbling point for students.
The articles’ main difference is presentation: the Daily Express describes it as an “exclusive” and emphasizes that the question is “deceptively simple,” while The Mirror similarly calls it an “exclusive” and stresses that it has “stumped” students. In both cases, the central content is the same premise—a GCSE maths question shared by a teacher and widely believed to be incorrectly answered by many candidates.
