Advice on Higher Maths book

delos

My son is doing Higher Maths and the teacher is not the best - seriously, when he told her he didn't understand something he was told that he would just have to work it out by himself. I want to try and help him but its been a while since I've done much of the course material. Often explaining something a slightly different way or with different examples helps so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a text book that they found useful?

Thanks in advance....

wireless101

the text books don't really explain to be honest, the teacher is supposed to do that. will help anyway i suppose.

The main ones are:

texts and tests
leaving certificate maths by a. roantree

Yuugib

So far i found Revise Wise maths books quite useful, they show the examples of the most difficult parts in the chapters that had came up during last years. Doing those examples is a very good practise, plus it gets u into the paper style qs.
Also in school we were recomended "Essential Revision Guide to Leaving Certificate Maths, P1 and P2" by Tony Kelly and Kieran Mills. Its quite good to go over just before the exam, it has all the rules, theories and it also shows paper question to practice a particular topics.

I m really sorry that ur son got so unlucky with a teacher i advise u to look at all the revision books out there, sometimes they are even better than the actual book once u know the basic theories behind topics
If that doesnt help consider sendin him to some courses or grinds before its not to late

chris85

I'm not a fan of teachers like this. I teach grinds and hear some of the teachers and what they are like. No point in them teaching if their pupils dont understand, and i mean every pupil.

Anyway don't wanna get off the point. I use the "Less Stress, More Success" revision book in conjuction with text book. Its important that your son does not just use the revision book alone to study with as the school text book has a lot of knowledge that is necessary. I find it very good and simple for the student.

I agree with Yuugib that grinds are always an option and are very useful if the pupil has a problem with grasping some of the essentials of the course. If you do decide to go for grinds there are lots out there and you may have a friend that can recommend a good tutor. As I say this is if your son has problems with some of the fundamentals of the course.

Hope this helps

delos

Thanks for all of the replies. I'll take a look at the the various books as well as his textbook and see if I can help. Apart from stats its been about 20 years since I've done much with Maths so I'm a bit rusty... He was talking about dropping to pass Maths and while I wouldn't rule it out I think its a bit early to do that (he's just started 5th year).

I'll look at grinds too as its often difficult to try and help someone who is family - I still remember my better half teaching me to drive and she has the patience of a saint with other people :eek: - and to explain something clearly you really need to be comfortable with the material.

Thanks again

GLaDOS

Leaving cert honours maths without a proper teacher is a struggle alright, I know how your son feels =/

jaycummins

do not drop to pass maths. he'll be stuck with the people who dont want to do any work and he'll end up losing out on points in the LC. tell hime to just work on it up till january of sixth year, and if hes getting below a C2 then maybe he should drop. dont drop in fifth year. big mistake

Deadevil129

The books I was familiar with were Concise Maths 4 and 5. While they were decent enough in class, for trying to teach yourself by reading the examples given was a little rough. The Less Stress More Sucsess are written by the same guy so the same examples pop up but I was actually a lot more impressed by these than I was b the actuall Concise Maths. However they're main purpose is to provide some extra examples and provide quick notes to use when studying, not really meant for learning methods initially imo.

From what I remember, although I haven't used it since Junior Cert days, Text and Tests always had clearly layes out and explained examples (though I'm open to correction on this) so they might be worth a look.

Michael Collins

Of all the books I think the Texts & Tests ones are the best - any of those Less Stress books are usually designed for people who have a decent understanding & just need to try a few more examples or maybe revise a bit. From my experience they don't really promote understanding of the subject. I'd say your best option would be to get some grinds from a good grinds tutor (of course it's hard to know if they're good before hand...) who will teach him how to understand the topics.

It's very early days so any grinds tutor should have no problem going through all the topics he's got difficulty on and making sure he actually understands them fully. From my own experience, when students need grinds they usually only look for them when there's about 4 weeks left before the Leaving Cert starts, when it's almost impossible to build up any understanding of the subject & you're expected to work miracles!

Gavin "shels"

I know how your son feels delos. My higher maths teacher doesn't example anything and half the time we have to correct her:rolleyes: all my higher maths class went to the principal today about it (I couldn't go thought).