5 Things Your Teachers Don't Tell You About N5 Maths

1.    Get the basics nailed
Do you find your maths teacher is jumping from topic to topic and not giving time to solidifying your basic maths?  At Scope Tutors we understand that although you might feel like you DO understand how to do the harder topics, you keep making silly mathematic mistakes with dividing, adding, subtracting and fractions.  Invest some time doing some simple maths questions (I know, not fun), but it will stop you losing any more silly marks!

2.    Right answer, but wrong answer: Significant figures
It is REALLY important to get the significant figures right.  The default number is 3 significant figures in all SQA maths exams (note this is NOT the same as 3 decimal places!!).  The question might ask you for a different number of sig figs so CHECK!  Even if you’ve got all your working right and come to the right answer, you won’t get all the marks if you’re sig figs are off.

3.    STEPS STEPS STEPS
Got the right answer? Yes?  Written EVERY step of your working down? No?  You might not get all the marks!  I know it seems unfair – you’ve got the right answer so why does it matter, right?  Well, maths examiners need to be able to follow your method to give you all the marks, so make sure you’re writing down every little step so they can keep up with you!  Also, writing all the mathematical steps doesn’t just help the examiner give you marks – you are a lot less likely to make silly mistakes too.  So win win!

4.    More ways than one
There are always a hundred different ways of getting to the right answer in maths.  Your maths teacher’s way might not be the easiest way for you.  At Scope Tutors we understand that different mathematical methods are easier to understand for different students.  If you’ve got an easier way to get to the right answer, then stick with it!  Your teacher is in charge of a whole class so they often don’t have the time to work with you individually to find the best way for you.

5.    Past papers
There are far more past papers than just the official SQA papers.  Maths is a subject where the same questions come up over and over just with different numbers inserted, so really it doesn’t matter what your source is.  There are hundreds of National 5 level questions on every topic on the wonderful world wide web so use this to your advantage!  Don’t think you’ve exhausted all the practice questions you could do after using just your textbook and past papers!  Get on that Google search! Furthermore, at Scope we have access to even more maths practice papers and maths resources than you can imagine!

If you think you could benefit from personal tuition, please do not hesitate to book your first free assessment and we will gladly help!