Difficulty: Rating: GCSE Marks:

GCSE Text:
Molly wants to buy some free range eggs at the supermarket. The eggs come in boxes of 6, 12 or 15.

Box of 6 = 90p

Box of 12 = £1.74

Box of 15 = £2.19

a)  Which box size offers the best value for money?

Molly buys 60 eggs, paying the least amount possible.

b)  How many £2 coins did she need to give to the cashier to pay for the eggs?

c)  What change did Molly receive back from the cashier?

Suggestions:
This is a commonly phrased ‘best value’ GCSE question that could appear on the Foundation or Higher GCSE papers. Students may approach this in a variety of ways, but they will need to consider the different units of the prices. For foundation classes a calculator can be allowed to help them, but I often test non-calculator arithmetic skills of higher ability groups with this question too. It normally takes 5 minutes for the class to solve.

Extension Ideas:
Teachers could extend the learning by considering:

• The ‘6 eggs’ box has a 10% reduction in a promotion today – how does that affect the answers to a, b and c?