S&S Mental Arithmetic book 4 - Time allowed for a paper

[gameon]

Hi there,

My DS takes forever to do one paper. He takes between 1 hour - 1.30 hours to complete one paper. Can anyone suggest how long they should take to finish one paper? He is doing the book 4 now. He doesn't like the format at all. He loves Bond maths, but absolutely hate S&S mental math. Should I carry on with this book or should I bite the bullet and give up? He will be sitting for QE (Barnet) and Bucks exam.
We are doing one paper a week and I am thinking of doing one paper in fortnight. I really don't want him to get fed up with math because of this paper.

Any advice will be greatly received.


Gameon

[fatbananas]

Hi Gameon,

I think you've said before that your DS is in year 4. My neighbour's DS who go to selective prep school and are in year 4 get S&S mental arithmetic Book 3 to do for homework. I tried my DS on it and he didn't like Book 3 (this was some months' ago) and I only just started him back on Book 3 last night. Why not try Book 3 with your DS - perhaps go to the middle of the book if he's particularly strong on maths, so that he can get used to the S&S format. The language and style of S&S is very different from Bond and does take some getting used to.

[mystery]

They are a bit dull looking, small print, faded colours etc. Maybe get another book that covers the same kind of stuff but with pleasanter layout etc? Also, some of the S and S wording is a bit weird 5 TENS and 3 TWENTIES etc when they are talking about coins. Why not just say what they mean?

Why do you think he prefers Bond? It's not a whole lot different. Maybe ask him? Are you giving him the equivalent levels? Hard to compare I know but when you read the questions can you put your finger on why he finds the Bond more straightforward?

[gameon]

Thank you fatbananas and mystery.

Yes, he is in year 4. I also found the wordings are weird and sometimes confusing too. I have never seen questions with this weird vocabulary come up in the real exams either.
He has done the book 3 and we only started book 4 about a month ago. May be I will ask him why he prefers the bond book? I personally don’t like S&S mental math book as it looks boring and also we never get to do it quickly. He always drags on when he knows he had to mental maths.
I think S&S mental book 4 is slightly harder than bond math (9-10) but he never liked the S&S book 3 either. I am going to order Target Maths and see how he gets on with it.

Thanks guys...
Gameon

[fatbananas]

I think book 4 is supposed to be the equivalent of year 6; but book Bond 9-10 is the equivalent of year 5, so perhaps it's just stretching him a bit too much at the moment. Maybe he needs some consolidation in some of the areas first?

[fatbananas]

Just found this link, which Mystery's posted up before. On it, it states that Books 5 and 6 are for KS3, so that suggests Book 4 is for year 6.

http://www.schofieldandsims.co.uk/downl ... Levels.pdf

It sounds like your DS is doing very well. Perhaps give him a break from S&S for a bit and come back to it later. I see CGP do some mental arithmetic books and CGP are usually very appealingly presented, so perhaps they might be worth a go?

[doodles]

The Bond books are certainly "snappier" looking - bolder print, smaller pages etc. It may be that it is their style that he prefers.

I am not knocking S&S as my ds loved them, he liked to trade me sections on the pages, but may be you could throw in something a bit different looking every now and then.

[gameon]

Hi FB,

Thanks for the link about the S&S books. I don't really have to push him to do the book he hates. May be a section per week and he won't mind that.

Thanks Doodle.. Target Math is on its way. I am also looking at CGP mental math.

I can't wait to have a summer break.

Gameon