S&S Mental Arithmetic 5 and 6

[Guest55]

Many exams require you to know the conversions and this is in the syllabus at GCSE!

[southbucks3]

Only if you want her to take granny shopping

They would provide the conversions...they would have to, as we do not recognise imperial in the uk from weights and measures any more.

Really? How tall are you? What's the speed limit on a British motorway?

I've always found it quite strange that for the last 40 years schools have exclusively taught only metric measurements while in everyday life almost everyone continues to use imperial units for a lot of things.

Miles and pints are the only common exception and no one really knows why,although theoretically it was signage costs and landlord/milkman tightness. When they built milton Keynes, they told us the signs would be in km...there are a few still lurking about on the back roads where they tried, but it never really happened. Us old duffer parents are keeping imperial alive, it is not a legal measurement in most cases and I wish we would get rid...working in construction the inability for UK to let imperial go frustrates the heck out if me, ordering 2x2 in 3000mm lengths for example. NONSENSE!

Guest55 when am I to expect my ds1 to bring home some imperial homework? I need to brace myself for lots of tongue biting!

[Tinkers]

And when will they start using millimetres instead of centimetres?

In a previous job I often used to buy pipe. Specify the diameter in inches, but it comes in 6m lengths.

Current project, for a Saudi client, we have to use imperial. Feet and inches, Fahrenheit, PSI, US gallons, cubic feet/hour. Even American clients have used metric.

[Guest55]

A GCSE question involving conversion - Foundation tier with a marks allocated for stating an answer in words.

"Mr Smith drives 24 miles to work.

On Monday his journey to work takes 30 minutes.
On Tuesday the average speed of his journey to work is 56 km/h.

Did Mr Smith drive more quickly to work on Monday or Tuesday?
You must show all your working."

[southbucks3]

Found this...sorry Somasona, your thread has gone off tangent, but this is relevant to your imperial question...seems I was wrong...as usual...the country is taking a backwards step!
Obviously I agree with the comment at the end from the chap who says it is creating a professional v peasant measurement hierarchy.
I still think that most tests would give the conversion ratios though...maybe I am just wishful thinking.
I just love the way we convert an inch to 25mm in our heads...not 25.4, things like this become the stuff of engineers nightmares!

http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... hs-lessons" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Optimist]

DS1 used these books prior to his 11+ exam.

Presently using Book 2 in tandem with old topic-based worksheets. I need to use the worksheets to build foundation before using the SS books.

DS2 (Y4, and 9 next summer) is on SS Mental Maths. However, I am working on basics at the moment.

[fatbananas]

Fatbananas...I thought you were in Kent? Are you trying to get your dc into superselective, or normal grammar? No point in scaring dc or yourself with book 5 just yet, after all they have not even completed year 5 curriculum, so things like ratios, percentages, proportion, in my ds' s school are studied this coming term, he only learnt multiplying and dividing decimals last half term, which features a lot in book 4.
I think kcg' s primary school is exceptional in their use of these books to a high level, and her boys are v v clever! Square roots are done to a minimum in year 5 and 6, my ds who is at grammar, had to decorate the inside of his maths book with square roots at the beginning of year 7, and areas of circles are generally year 7 and 8!
One thing I have been using from the books, is the terminology, there was a chat in a thread about this somewhere before. Awkward questions use: sum,product, total, derived, difference, etc which are a swine to learn...to be honest, they throw a lot of adults too, so it is worth using the c questions to get dc used to the variations that may be thrown at them.

Happy days.

Yes, I am in Kent and there are superselectives and ordinary grammars around here. At the moment, I just want DS to pass but equally I want him to do the best he can. I was just interested why people used the higher level S&S if the content for GS exams was not supposed to touch anything beyond KS2. When I read about books 5&6 being used it alarmed me!!

Thanks to everyone who has replied. It's been really helpful. The stuff about imperial measurements has been bothering me, so thanks too for that discussion.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!! I know I shouldn't wish my life away, but I'm quite looking forward to next Christmas and New Year, when, hopefully, outcomes will be clearer

[Daogroupie]

I don't think there is anything to stop state selectives using material that is not part of KS2. We have seen questions on the nth term, LCM, complicated translations, reflections and transformations. DG

[Guest55]

DG - not for CEM surely?

OP which exams are you preparing for?

It's easy for threads to go a bit astray on advice and for posters to forget some 11+ are different.

[fatbananas]

DG - not for CEM surely?

OP which exams are you preparing for?

It's easy for threads to go a bit astray on advice and for posters to forget some 11+ are different.

The Kent Test! Bit of an unknown quantity this coming year