Basic maths calculations practice help needed

[Balletgirlmum]

Dd is in year 9 & has been revising towards her end of year exams.

She's doing very well & often gets given extension work but it's become clear that it's the basics that are letting her down. She gets much lower marks on non calculator papers partly due to inaccuracies & running out of time.

Her school still uses levels & she's getting Level 8c on calculator papers but 7b on non calculator.

So can anyone reccomend any books/websites where she can practice multiplication/division etc?

Is it written methods or mental arithmetic (like times tables)?

If mental maths, then there are some nice games on www.mangahigh.com/en-gb/ scroll down to maths games.

Written methods I think. (She's not wonderful at mental maths but I don't think they need that for GCSE?

She uses an odd grid method for multiplication that she says is easier than the method I learnt but it doesn't seem to be accurate (the ks3 cgp book we have demonstrated all 3 methods.

Division is quite weak too.

Is this the grid method?

I find it really useful, didn't do it myself but my DSDs taught me when they learned it and I use it myself all the time now, preferring it to the column method I used. But you do still need to be careful about the place value particularly in the top left box, could that be why it's not working so well for her? Say putting 80 instead of 800?

Thank you for the recommendation giraffe I've just signed my DCs up for that

No, that's the method ds prefers though.

Just looked it up & it's called the kite or Chinese method.

Ohh ok. Yes I've seen that one before but don't really know it!

It's called Napier's bones, I think. I'm a tutor and a large proportion of kids I teach in year 11 are struggling because they haven't got their formal calculation methods sorted. If you can convince your daughter to work on the formal methods it'll do her the world of good

I love Napiers, it's very easy to use. Why is she getting it wrong? Either she needs to practice her times tables (she's not filling out the boxes correctly) or her addition (adding the diagonals) or she needs more practice in using the method correctly.

The lattice method she is using is good and accurate if she draws the lattices neat enough. Use Word to make some blanks up for her or look out for some large squared paper. Always get her to do an estimate, they she can check if she is probably right, they use a calculator to confirm.

If she likes using a laptop, DD happily spent time on the bbc bite size site answering questions.

And quick game good for tablets raindrops builds the speed of mental maths.

I hate that Chinese way and I'm a tutor Old fashioned formal works just great!

Go onto YouTube. There are hundreds of 'how to' videos are there. Long division especially is very well explained.

Or get a tutor for say 6 weeks :)

She has bad handwriting so it may be partly that. HeR brain also races faster than she can write/speak which has caused issues in the past with essay based subjects but she has addressed that. (Hyper verbal asd)

She refuses to use the column method as she says she doesn't 'get' that way.

She loves algebra though!

I definatly think she needs to go back to basics with division though.

If you do get a tutor, make sure it is one who works with her method.
With division just make them up,
you do 345 x 6 on a calculator and get her to solve 2070 divided by 6
Practice with about 4 sums every two or three days.

Pre Agree with that. As a tutor, I always do it the way the pupil naturally prefers.

I personally would get her to do a long multiplication first and then use long division to check it (rather than even involve a calculator)

And it's calculations, not sums

If she has bad handwriting then it is really important that she draws her grids large (don't get used to printing them out, she won't have them printed in the exam!), a lot of the time students struggle because they use the small squares in their books then have to fit numbers into tiny diagonals. I always write the numbers clearly along and down first, then draw my grid to fit the numbers.

For division, making your own questions up is fine, but make sure you don't just do whole number division, she needs to be able to do things like 16.25/8 or 4/0.3 (multiply both by ten and do 40/3). Same with multiplication, she needs to be able to multiply decimals.

Just had a message from dss school (he's yr 7) with a link to their 10 ticks revision subscription.
The worksheets for the entire school appear to be accessible so I guess I can use them for dd?

How can she be level 7b/8c if she is struggling with multiplication?

That's why I'm asking advice.

Sats papers are being used as a diagnostic tool to identify strengths, weaknesses & gaps. On the Level 6-8 papers she has been aporox 2 marks off a level 8 but lots of marks have been lost on the non calculator paper with errors of calculation.

because a lot of maths isn't arithmetic!

Challenge her to try to eliminate what I've always identified as "silly mistakes". Tell her it will help her for science later (and probably other things) to work on the skill of writing it down precisely and working it clearly. Also, make sure she learns how to check her work. When you give her extra practice at home, when you check them, then give her only some information about where the mistakes are - eg in a page of 5 you could tell her there are 2 wrong. Or identify the ones that are wrong and get her to rework them / find the mistake. Depending on how hard she finds it to find the mistakes.