This book is just what I needed! I do private maths tuition and I never cease to be amazed at the lack of basic arithmetic skills with some of my GCSE students.
For each topic several methods are given - e.g. for long multiplication both the grid and the column method. There is also a photo or picture for each unit as an example of the topic outside the classroom. Some were great such as Recording times in athletics at the beginning of the unit for understanding decimals whilst others such as Building swimming pools for the unit for using the number system effectively were less than helpful and in fact just perplexing.
There is a useful Remember bit at the end of the Toolbox section of each unit - highlighting the key points and the book is full of practice questions - this is great.
All in all, this is a great book for practising and honing calculation skills - I consider these skills to be vital to ensure that students can get the best possible grade at GCSE.
-- Bridget Jones * Abigail Lambert *
We have selected this text as our main resource for teaching numeracy. We wanted a book specifically on number. This title has particularly well structured content and un-fussy layout. We plan to use this initially with KS3 students who have recently joined the school with deficits in basic numeracy but are also considering adopting it for KS2. -- Mrs Jane Mowbray, Wynstones School * Mrs Jane Mowbray, Wynstones School *
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 *
