This is the second book I have from Mastering Mathematics series. Algebra is a topic that for some students you only have to mention the word and they go white. Each unit contains a helpful "Toolbox" and worked examples together with highlighted "Remember" section. There are plenty of practice exercises for the students - invaluable - I find students learn better and are more engaged with a "hands-on" approach. The book covers basic algebra up to and including solving simple equations, expanding brackets, indices, substitution, inequalities and simple simultaneous equations. Related topics such as sequences and finding the nth term (another topic hated by students) and graphs - real-life, linear, and functions are also covered well. A great book for helping students to become familiar (and not afraid!) of the basics of algebra. -- Bridget Jones * Abigail Lambert *
We have been using Mastering Mathematics for some three years now. We were attracted by the layout - SPA and SPB allow basic practice for all, ( with SPB usually being slightly harder), and then WSP & AS are useful applications of the topics in a more "real-life" setting, and are particularly good for more able students. We find that these sections help enormously with getting the pupils used to "numeracy-style" questions which has also helped with preparation for the WJEC Numeracy GCSE that all our pupils sit. Each topics has sets of PowerPoints and the quality of these are very good. We find them particularly useful with non-specialists. With having to use more and more of these, being able to give them all resources, (including answers), helps their confidence and also enables the pupils to make progress which they would not otherwise have been able to. One aspect we have not used is the use of online testing. This just doesn't work with our school environment, though I can see how it will help in many schools. We were one of the first schools, I believe, to "buy-in" into Mastering Mathematics and so have the first copies. There are a few errors in the text books and so you do need to watch out; however they are few and do not detract from a great set of resources. There are also occasions when we find an exercise is a bit "jumbled up", however we just break the exercise up to get over this. We are VERY happy with Mastering Mathematics and I would gladly recommend it to other schools. We have been given superb support by Sian Zakaria, (the Hodder rep) and I do feel the scheme has helped us improve our KS3 outcomes. -- Barry Hardiman * Barry Hardiman *
