Some months back I asked about online and other resources to help with GCSE maths. Many suggestions were made and rather than try to write individually to those who helped a more general knuckle to forelock here.
Not quite sure what modern class marks mean but the grandkiddy’s maths one has gone from minus two to plus three as a result of your suggestions and a couple of hours spent over the summer going through them.
The most helpful seeming to be the BBC’s bitesize site. The advantage of which really seems to be that it’s all small enough – in the right sort of volumes – that there’s a willingness to actually do the work. 10, 15 minutes of homework time each day nibbles another bit of the subject.
There were a couple of things I was able to point out. When trying to o linear equations it aids in writing them out properly.
x + 2 = -7
Imagine, just as an example, now solve for x.
Rewrite out as + x + 2 = -7 aids in tracking negatives and positives.
The other I recall was that if you understand fractions – which grandkiddy did – then you understand ratios – which gkiddy didn’t. Because they’re just different ways of looking at the very same thing. 2/7 and 5/7 are the same as a 2:5 ratio.
Aaaaaah!
But that really helpful thing was the guidance to that place where maths will actually be done. Actually doing a subject being a very good start to getting to grips with it of course.
So, we thank you, both.
When I did pre-O-level Maths we were the guinea pigs for The Schools Mathematics Project. It taught maths through things like working out how much wallpaper for a room, going shopping, cooking, etc., and overlapped into HomeEc and woodwork lessons.
Saying: a rectangle of x by y will have circumference of 2x+2y is easier to tie to real-world concepts when described as a room of x by y and height h will need wallpaper to cover 2x+2y times height h. etc.
“It taught maths through things like working out how much wallpaper for a room”: yes we did that too. It was at primary school, mind.
it’s all small enough … nibbles another bit
They were right to call it Bitesize!
Or possibly I’m being all writerly and making a reference, possibly a little jokule, to the name of the site?
Decisions, decisions……
You have grandkiddies at that age at your age?
Are you from Derby?
Pls don’t ask for help with calculus.
“Fred
You have grandkiddies at that age at your age?”
Redbridge is a pretty scruffy area of Southampton. The joke is that you can find birthday cards in the local shops which say “”To my Granny, on her 30th Birthday”.
You can insert whichever local district you like.