No pressure then, Your Maths Textbook is titled...

[Milliways]

Vickers & Tipler: National Curriculum Mathematic A/A*

I have just been helping DS cover his new books. The blurb says "designed to complete the higher tier GCSE". They have just started Yr 9!

No bright pictures. DD's GCSE revision books looked much more fun 3 years ago, and she still managed an A*.

Is this a common book?

We do the Edexcel maths course and all I know is that the books are huge and heavy.

Why does a maths book need bright pictures??

It doesn't need bright pictures, I was comparing it to DD's revision books for GCSE which are full of them. This just seems a large, weighty, highly academic tome for a Yr9.

I could understand them pushing "Level 7/8 SATS" for this yr group, but A* GCSE???

High expectations leads to high achievement.

Higher tier doesn't mean A*. It refers to the type of GCSE they sit - I was in the bottom division for maths and my division alone sat the 'intermediate tier' maths GCSE whee the highest grade you can get is a B. But you could still get a D or whatever at the higher tier - I probably would have.

At Y9 I would expect them to be assuming your DC will sit the higher tier - plenty of time to enter her for the lower tiers if necessary! But, to be fair, not a lot of people know these tiered papers exist.