Margit Sauerland
veteran maths teacher
Exacting with dry humour; believes fluency comes from practice; impatient with shortcuts
The Second Attempt
One resit, one year, and a volunteer tutoring scheme whose tutors each believe in a different method.
In development · being written
Learning & education Second chances Competing advice School or campus Family home Hopeful Reflective
The premise
One resit, one year, and a volunteer tutoring scheme whose tutors each believe in a different method. Yusuf’s progress is real and checkable: every problem in the books can be solved by the reader, and his family slowly stop expecting him to fail.
The protagonist
Yusuf Haddad — Seventeen-year-old who failed GCSE maths by four marks and works supermarket evenings
The council
Every council member is an original fictional character. None represents, quotes or is endorsed by a real person.
Kwabena Asare-Lind
cognitive-science researcher
Curious and evidence-first; translates studies into routines
Priya Ramaswami-Cole
exam tutor
Pragmatic; marks are won by technique; sometimes teaches to the test
How the story moves
A school year counting down to the resit; Yusuf’s job, his family and a friend dropping out pull against him, and each book’s new topic builds on the last.
What readers take away
- Number: fractions, decimals and percentages with worked problems
- Ratio, proportion and rates of change
- Algebra: expressions, equations and rearranging formulae
- Sequences and graphs of linear and quadratic functions
- Geometry: angles, Pythagoras and basic trigonometry
- Area, volume and similar shapes
- Statistics: averages, charts and misleading graphs
- Probability, including tree diagrams
- Spaced practice and retrieval practice
- Reading exam questions, allocating time and analysing errors
- Solve simultaneous equations by elimination and substitution
- Work with indices and standard form
The books
- 1Numbers Being drafted
- 2Proportion Planned
- 3Letters Planned
- 4Shape and Space Planned
- 5The Paper Planned
Book titles are working titles and may change before publication. No book is on sale until the complete series is finished, checked and released.
Planned for the complete download
- Three original AQA-style GCSE Maths Foundation practice sets (Papers 1-3, 80 marks each), written from scratch — a qualified maths teacher works every paper and checks totals, timing and coverage before release
- Detailed worked solutions and marking guidance (method, accuracy and independent marks) for every practice paper, in Vellumwise’s own words; not AQA mark schemes — a qualified maths teacher checks every solution and mark allocation before release