Over the summer I always write posts about the resources that we are planning on using in the upcoming academic year. This year (starting in September) my son will be starting his Year 7 (well if he was in a traditional school he would be entering Year 7). So I am going to start putting together posts for his different subjects. I am starting with Maths just because for us Maths is the most straight forward. My daughter moved across to using a range of Maths books in her Year 9 that really impressed us so I have known for some time that we were going to use the same range for my son.
Mastering Mathematics is a range aimed at kids in KS3, there are three sets of books, with each set covering an academic year. So Book 1 would be Year 7, Book 2 would be year 8 and Book 3 would be year 9. For each year there are three books – a Student Book (which is your main text book) and then two different practice books (Develop and Secure practice book and the Extend practice book). Oh and ALL the answers for ALL the questions in ALL the books are Free to download from the Hodder Education website.
Okay so why do I like this series? I like the way the books are set out. For every topic you get concise, well worded explanations, a couple of worked examples and then three bands of questions. At the end of each chapter there are review exercises and every 3 chapters there is an addition progress review. Plus every practice book gives you additional questions for every topic covered in the main student book. So all in all you actually end up getting a lot of practice questions to work through. And I like having lots of practice questions at our disposal.
Also the questions are split into bands. Band 1 starts with easy questions which get harder in Band 2 and then more challenging in Band 3. So the kids can start with Band 1 which builds confidence then move onto band 2 and finally challenge themselves with Band 3. I like that the questions progress in this manner.
With my daughter we used all three books together (the student book plus both of the practice books). You don’t need both practice books, you could just choose the one that you think suits your kiddo. I purposely wanted both practice books because I found with my daughter that she excelled in some Maths topics and for those we often ignore the easier questions and focused on the harder questions and in some Maths topics she needed more practice, so I liked having the option of choosing which questions we worked through based on which Maths topic we covered.
Okay so which Maths topics are covered in Maths book 1?
It covers quite a bit but we did find with our Book 3 that it fits in nicely in a year. So I am confident we will get through all of this in one year.
You can get your Mastering Mathematic Book directly from the Hodder Education website or from Amazon – here are the Amazon links.
Secure and Develop Practice Book 1
As always I will write an update post once my son has used the books, but I have every reason to believe they will be just as good as the ones we used for my daughter’s Year 9.
Admin – I knew that we wanted to use the Mastering Mathematics series with my son so I asked Hodder Education if they would provide us with review copies. I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and love.
ofamily learning together 