Essential Mathematics

Whether you want to learn new number skills or brush the cobwebs off mathematical ideas long forgotten or at least not practised for a while, this is the perfect book for you. It sets out in daily challenges a whole range of number and mathematical ideas for you to learn and practise. As well as setting you ten puzzles a day it also includes daily tips and advice to move you along and speed you up. The book includes in its coverage a wide range of topics including: time, the calendar, money, shape, and the measurement of weight, length and capacity. Number skills feature prominently with challenges and tips on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well as fractions, percentages, averages, odd and even numbers, positive and negative numbers, squares and square roots and prime numbers. The challenges start off gently and gradually build up your skills and confidence. By the end of the book you will be a champion!

How to use the book

Each daily set of ten questions comes with a “tip box”. Read the tip first and think about the ideas presented there. It would be very useful to learn and memorise some of the ideas in the tip boxes. The questions themselves are a mixture of easy and more searching questions. You might want to go through all ten and answer those questions you find easy first. Then go through again and tackle the more demanding questions. Time yourself doing all ten questions. Sixty seconds is a target guide. If you complete all ten questions in under sixty seconds ask someone to pat you on the back! If you take longer than sixty seconds don’t worry, you will speed up with practice. As you move through the book the questions become more demanding and finishing all ten questions in sixty seconds might sound like a tall order. But keep at it. You will be amazed at how much you will improve. When you get to the end of the book go back to the beginning. Cover your original answers and times and have another go. When you finish each one, compare your original with the new time. You will be astonished to see how much you have improved. This is a great book for families to use together, sharing a learning experience.