Secondary Mathematics News – revisiting why practice and challenge are the key to success after the mock examinations
7th February 2025
We have had a very busy term so far. Weeks two and three saw the IGCSE candidates sit their mock examinations and next week the AS Level and A Level candidates will sit their mock examinations. It is at such points it is important to identify what key elements of revision practice correlate most closely with students reaching their full potential. As always, with Mathematics practice is key. We practise in our homework to remember, to revise and to progress.
Practice teaches us to apply our mathematics smoothly and efficiently, it becomes almost automatic and leaves our brains the space they need to focus on the problem-solving elements of the question rather than questioning the procedures. Good numeracy is part of this, strong numeracy skills also free up ‘brain space’ as times tables and basic calculation become second nature.
What do we have in place to help our IGCSE students get the targeting practice they need? What is Century-Tech and why are we using it to help our students get good practice?
The Braeburn schools have invested in a groundbreaking AI software platform to generate questions tailored to the ability of our students. The questions are adaptive and give students practise on teacher set, or student chosen, topic ‘nuggets’. Their answers then lead to students and teacher feedback being generated. Work is set according to the detailed targets identified in the mock examination and continually updated on the individual student diagnostic sheet on Google Classroom. Century-Tech has been shown to improve grades dramatically in other schools from the Braeburn Group.
Of course, in class we still do the traditional past paper practice, but it is important to always ensure our students have all the advantages they can to give them the opportunity to succeed.
Mrs Wood
