Maths rut

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SleepyHead
Posts: 484
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:41 am

Maths rut

Post by SleepyHead »

We are preparing for the North London Girls Consortium schools, and have been doing some past papers. DD is stuck on about 75% for most of the past papers we have done.(including Perse, oundle, DAO, GL) Exams are in January.

What should I do to move her score up? About 5% goes on careless mistakes. Any ideas how to eradicate these?

I think we should stop doing past papers and try to cover the syllabus more evenly. Would you recommend doing S&S Mental maths book 5, or the progress papers books to keep all the topics ticking along, before restarting past papers again.

Have both, and after browsing through both of them, I'm more confused!

Any recommendations on what other people found useful, or used this time last year would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks
Sleepyhead
Last edited by SleepyHead on Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yamin151
Posts: 2405
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

Re: Maths rutt

Post by Yamin151 »

How about a bit of fun that makes them good at doing their times tables at speed? The free version is fully functional, just not quite so much variation on the levels. Very computer game oriented, stressful in same way any platform game like Sonic would be, but all about speedy recall of times tables

http://www.bigbrainz.com/Downloads.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
motion
Posts: 232
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:54 am

Re: Maths rut

Post by motion »

Are these mistakes on a particular topic? If it is on a specific topic then see if you can find worksheets to cover the topic. Does she finish the papers on time? If she does finish the paper on time and has spare few minutes she can spend the time checking for mistakes. Reward for each mistake she spots. Or when you going over with her see if she can recognise the mistake by giving her clues.
I hope this helps
SleepyHead
Posts: 484
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:41 am

Re: Maths rut

Post by SleepyHead »

thank you motion. She finishes before the given time, and goes off and does her looms!

I am now asking her to check her work more thoroughly, but I like your idea of rewarding her for finding mistakes.

There are also some topics that do come up that we have to revisit. Panicking a bit as I would have liked all topics to be solid now, but I guess it will happen and we will have to repeat the process for anything else that comes up.
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Maths rut

Post by Daogroupie »

She needs to do proper timed mocks and sit at the desk checking and rechecking for every minute of the time. If she thinks she can finish whenever she likes and go off and do whatever she likes then that will be her focus, not the maths in front of her. In order to really focus nothing should be on her mind but the Maths. DG
SleepyHead
Posts: 484
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:41 am

Re: Maths rut

Post by SleepyHead »

yes DG, looms have been restricted to weekend time only.

Making DD sit the whole duration - and go back and check her work now, for everything she does.
parent2013
Posts: 452
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:13 am

Re: Maths rut

Post by parent2013 »

Good sleep
No distractions (ipad etc)
Full focus during the test. Try to get first time right. Silly mistakes reflect lack of regular practise.
Aim to finish 5-10 mins early
Revise hard on doubtful questions
sonasona
Posts: 869
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:51 am

Re: Maths rut

Post by sonasona »

Hi Sleepyhead,

I think at this stage a reality check may well be required :o Tell your dd every mark counts and all the other children are working hard and focussing on every single question. It will be those children that make the grade on the day that pay attention to each question and accumulate the marks. If you have time left over, then you need to be looking back and double-checking or going through any questions you've missed off or had previously marked as incomplete (with a * or something).

This worked for my very relaxed dd a couple of years ago and she achieved all her goals. Fortunately this time round youngest dd is a lot more focussed and does the relaxing afterwards :lol:
wildwest
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:27 am

Re: Maths rut

Post by wildwest »

Somehow they seem to make link better when the marks are shown in percentages. When dd could see that 2 silly mistakes would bring her percentage down ( in a 50 marks paper) by 4%, it appeared to make more sense to her...
SleepyHead
Posts: 484
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:41 am

Re: Maths rut

Post by SleepyHead »

thank you WW, yes have explained this to DD. She is doing a DAO maths paper today, and will be rewarded for spotting on mistakes during checking!

Waiting with baited breath ! hope to see an improvement today.
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