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Using a calculator on questions that carry a bold 'no calculator' warning
“It is worth stressing here that the question had the clear warning that calculators should not be used and a significant minority of candidates did not show working to solve the quadratic equation.”— WMA11 P1, June 2023
How to fix: Whenever a question carries the bold 'In this question you must show all stages of working. Solutions relying on calculator technology are not acceptable' warning, you must factorise, use the quadratic formula with values substituted, complete the square, or rationalise denominators by hand. Even if your final answer is correct, the accuracy mark is withheld unless every step is visible. For surds and rationalising, show the conjugate multiplication explicitly.