The majority of teachers and parents would agree that students who wish to achieve confidence and success at this level should:
- Understand all the basic ideas and rules
- Practise these rules and ideas by going through graded exercises
- Understand why and how they made errors,so that hopefully they are reduced or eliminated in further exercises
This book has been written to fulfill these 3 vital requirements by incorporating the following features:
- Firstly, the book has been split up into the 10 major important topics which have been finalised in the New Australian Curriculum by ACARA.
- Each of these major topics has been broken down into a number of simpler ideas and rules, thus saving educators and students valuable time in research.
- Each page covers only one idea or rule, thus giving students clarity.
- Each concept is thoroughly, but simply, explained for understanding.
- Each formula, rule or set of steps is highlighted in larger print for ease of memorising.
- Each formula and page contains at least one fully worked example. This not only reinforces understanding, but also shows the student how to apply each formula to typical questions.
- At the end of each chapter, there are usually 5 or more comprehensive graded exercises for practise, which cover all the ideas in the topic. If a student is not sure how to do a particular problem, all they need to do is turn back to the page number shown in order to find a very similar example.
- In addition, the text presentation is well spaced out, in order to make the subject matter more appealing to this age group.
As you can see this book should prove to be an invaluable aid for teachers, because it thoroughly covers the 10 major sub strands which are the basis of the New National Curriculum. In addition, there are carefully graded exercises which will provide confidence and success to the weaker students, while at the same time there are more difficult levels to extend and stimulate students of all ability groups. It will be very beneficial to parents, because it will provide them with a very structured and clear idea of the new syllabus, and what their children should know by the end of Year 5. If their child has a particular problem (say on adding fractions) it is very easy to find the page and explanations relating to that idea – and hence help their child.
Most important of all, it will prove to be an excellent text and reference for students of all ability groups. The format and layout makes it very much easier for a pupil to thoroughly master one major topic in a relatively short period of time, because it is so easy to see how each idea is linked to the previous one. It has all the rules and corresponding examples clearly set out topic, page by page. In addition it teaches the pupils to read explanations, as well as to look back and research similar problems.
From the author, Warwick Marlin:
"This book has proved difficult to write, simply because it is a New Curriculum, and very little in depth content description has been given by ACARA. Therefore I have included many more concepts (than those stated in the curriculum guideline) to make certain that every topic is more than adequately covered. Also, I have added many extension concepts, like percentages, which are only meant to be introduced in Grade 6. Primary school Maths is understood more through practice and doing, and therefore I have tried to keep the explanations as short and clear as possible, while at the same time I have illustrated ideas with examples and diagrams wherever possible. In summary, I sincerely believe that this book will provide greater understanding, confidence, enjoyment, and success to all students who use it."
