Project Maths question please

highly1111

Hi

My cousin is doing her LC and is really struggling with OL Maths and has asked if I could help. I'm a business and economics teacher but have taught LCOL Maths in the past.

Paper 1 is fine.

She's struggling with the geometry in paper 2 and with problem solving - esp question 7.

Can I just clarify - Question 5 - they do A or B. Is part a always theory about the theorems? And part b the problem solving part based on their JC knowledge??

Also, is question 7 always the same - more geometry??

She is very weak and I want to advise her best. Her Maths teacher isn't the greatest and she can't afford proper Maths grinds. I've gotten the papers and the project Maths strand book to help her but if anyone can help me on how to advise her I'd really appreciate it. What should I focus on with her? Once I know what to study ill be well able to figure it out and teach it forward - but I've zero experience of project Maths and of the paper changes.

Thanks in advance.

Anonymo

highly1111 wrote: »

Hi

My cousin is doing her LC and is really struggling with OL Maths and has asked if I could help. I'm a business and economics teacher but have taught LCOL Maths in the past.

Paper 1 is fine.

She's struggling with the geometry in paper 2 and with problem solving - esp question 7.

Can I just clarify - Question 5 - they do A or B. Is part a always theory about the theorems? And part b the problem solving part based on their JC knowledge??

Also, is question 7 always the same - more geometry??

She is very weak and I want to advise her best. Her Maths teacher isn't the greatest and she can't afford proper Maths grinds. I've gotten the papers and the project Maths strand book to help her but if anyone can help me on how to advise her I'd really appreciate it. What should I focus on with her? Once I know what to study ill be well able to figure it out and teach it forward - but I've zero experience of project Maths and of the paper changes.

Thanks in advance.

Highly1111, the best advice I could give is to try to go through the syllabus methodically. (See pages 22 and 23 of http://www.ncca.ie/en/Curriculum_and_Assessment/Post-Primary_Education/Project_Maths/Syllabuses_and_Assessment/LC_Maths_for_examination_in_2012.pdf).

The paper is divided into 3 parts. One part on Area&Volume is the same as it has always been so you'll have plenty of old exam questions to go by on that.
Another part has 5 short questions. Of these 2 are based on the line and circle. These again are the same as they have ever been. A further 2 questions are on probability and statistics. These are fairly basic questions usually but it's important to do loads of similar questions to what's been done in the papers thus far. Though the questions are not difficult, it does take time to get used to the type of questions and (almost as importantly) the type of questioning. On question 5 I would recommend doing 5A since that is either a construction or theorem type question which - unless your cousin has any problems with memorisation - should be easier than 5B. I understand that this goes against the tenets of Project Maths (that it's less learning off), but that's an issue for the syllabus makers and not for the students!

OK that leaves the 3rd section which has two long questions. These are desined to check that the student can apply the maths they have learned. This will certainly freak out the weaker students since there is such an unknown aspect to this. Best advice is to make sure she can do the questions that have been done so far by the state exams commission and also by the different exam paper companies. I know educate.ie have 4 sample papers so that should give you plenty to go on.

Mwalimu

highly1111 wrote: »

Hi

My cousin is doing her LC and is really struggling with OL Maths and has asked if I could help. I'm a business and economics teacher but have taught LCOL Maths in the past.

Paper 1 is fine.

She's struggling with the geometry in paper 2 and with problem solving - esp question 7.

Can I just clarify - Question 5 - they do A or B. Is part a always theory about the theorems? And part b the problem solving part based on their JC knowledge??

Also, is question 7 always the same - more geometry??

She is very weak and I want to advise her best. Her Maths teacher isn't the greatest and she can't afford proper Maths grinds. I've gotten the papers and the project Maths strand book to help her but if anyone can help me on how to advise her I'd really appreciate it. What should I focus on with her? Once I know what to study ill be well able to figure it out and teach it forward - but I've zero experience of project Maths and of the paper changes.

Thanks in advance.

You need to be careful about expecting a particular topic to come up in a particular question. The questions now are less predictable and there can be some overlap of topics asked in any one question The only thing you can be sure of is that Q.8 in Section C of the paper is of the old type - area and volume. There's a 'choice' in Q.5 between the newer section on geometry and a problem-solving question for which the geometry she studied for Junior Cert. is enough. In some shools the teacher has already decided which of these they will do. However, she better practise her problem-solving skills on questions like this if she doesn't want to do the alternative part on the theroems. The longer questions in Section B of the paper are both problem-solving ones and will most likely be one on strand 1 (probability and statistics) and one on strand 2 (geometry and trigonometry).
There are a lot of examples on the support website (www.projectmaths.ie) and the SEC have the exam papers and marking schemes from 2010 and 2011 for the pilot schools, as well as the sample papers.