Year 8 ALGEBRA hellllllpppp! OMG I can't believe they expect 12 year olds to do this.

[Spidermama]

My daughter's in tears about her homework.

There are three sections marked MUST (be able to do), SHOULD and COULD.

We're half way through MUST and stuck and it's not for want of extensive googling.

I'd be really grateful if anyone could tell me what the answer is and how you worked it out.

Half (as in the fraction one over two) to the power of minus 3.

Forever in your debt.

the 'must' question is yr8- appropriate

Not as a MUST, not a fraction raised to a negative power. Negative powers wouldn't be a MUST either. I might throw a fraction to a negative in out of interest, but it wouldn't be an expectation.

And I'm teaching top set Y8 in a school that gets excellent maths results.

Can I just say.......

Listen to NobleGiraffe

She saved my family from a collective Maths homework nervous breakdown.

And if mumsnet gave out medals for being a huge boon to its online community she have a gold one.

Hi,
hoping for some help/guidance here.
Some background ... My daughter is in Year 7. The system at her new school is to put the children into sets based on overall ability as suggested by MidYIS testing (which means she has started off in the bottom set for everything although she is above average in English and about average in most other subjects except for maths where she really struggles.)
Being put in the bottom set has really upset her so I want to try to help her at home ready for a reassessment in January in maths.
She is covering numbers, statistics and algebra in the assessment and I would like to help her to improve in maths before the assessment if possible.

Can anyone suggest any good online resources that would explain the basic things she needs to know in these areas? I know there must be textbooks available but I was hoping someone might know of some resources that will be easier for her to follow in the beginning.
With thanks

NEScribe, have a look at mathletics.

It's not cheap, but My son really liked it.

We've not used it ourselves but I've heard people say good things about bitesize

Rotten luck to get a school that 'streams' rather than sets for different subjects.

we've used bitesize, when it covers what you need it is really good.

And free.

If you go in the relevant teachers' section there are printables to accompany a unit of work as well.