Book Review: Mathematics Achiever Series

Mathematics can be a subject students either love or hate. In order to do well, students will need to understand the concepts, and also requires a lot of practise so that they can be very familiar with the questions. This ensures that they can finish within time limit, minimise their careless mistakes and finally get that high score they need. 

When i teach mathematics, i tend to select multiple sources of questions to fit the needs of the students. However, when students want to do extra practice on their own, the choice of book is very important. They need to know what they are lacking in, and what the purpose of the book is . There are many books outside, but sometimes, getting the right one can be quite troubling. 

The book i am writing about in this post is one i think is good for self study and i will explain why. Please take note, this is solely my point of view and i neither have relations with the author / publisher nor taking a cut from this write up.

First of all, this series covers from secondary 1 to 4, with two parts for sec 1 - 3. The cover has this giant 'A' and its quite hard not to see it.  

Mathematics Achiever 3A Cover Page, Shinglee

In a scenario when the student wants to self study, there are a few criterion in the book we need to look out for. Firstly,  ideally the content should be broken down into chunks ( No one can study a whole chapter within a short while right?) Over here, it is always easier to conquer small tasks one at a time, than biting off a big piece and find it too hard to swallow.  Secondly, there should be enough examples to teach the student regarding a certain concept and then the student should also have ample opportunities to practice it.  Finally, if the book has opportunities for the students to review the topic through small tests, and also simulated exam papers will allow out students to assess themselves even though they are going through self study. It gives a simulated feel of class tests and major examinations as well.

Content Page - First Page, Mathematics Achiever 3A  

Content Page - Last Page, Mathematics Achiever 3A

So if we were to look at the content page, we will see most of these features mentioned above. The entire chapter is broken into smaller chunks, with notes and work examples to teach the student, followed by a tutorial for the section and finally a quick tests to assess the student's proficiency in the topic. As the student progresses through the year, there will be also self assessments to simulate the continual assessments ( CA) . There are also mid year exam specimen papers to simulate / or allow students to practise for mid year examinations. 

In the section 'additional resources', there is a compilation of real world questions which is part of the new syllabus 'O' Level exams. The answer comes in two forms, numerical answers and also complete worked solutions.  It is good for the student to sort out their own mistakes with the worked solutions. 

Learning Objectives, Mathematics Achiever 3A

With a list of learning objectives listed at the start of the chapter, the student can be informed what they need to know, and whether the book is on the same track as school.  It keeps learning on the dot. 

An Example of the Worked Example, Mathematics Achiever 3A

There are multiple worked examples to show the student how the questions are being done. Besides that, the questions are being categorizes by the type, and there is also a follow up at the end of the example with the list of questions which is similar to the example and the student can try them. 

An Example of the Self Assessment Practice, Mathematics Achiever 3A

In the self assessment practice, each question is being categorized to the type of questions. The student can make use of this to find out what questions he/she is weak in and further work on the particular type of question or learning objective. The student will not have to go through the hassle of finding out their weak points, since the book has fully presented it to them. 

As for the real world context questions, this book only provides a small handful of questions to give the student a taste of the questions at the end of the book. For more practise on that particular type of question, student will probably need to buy another book which is more focus on it. 

Finally, i hope this has helped parents/ students in selecting their assessment books for the new year. There will be more reviews on the books i use, so watch this space.