Schedule of revision

Today we decided on the order in which we'll study the maths course in preparation for the Junior Cert Exam.
We decided to start with Sets since it has been a while since we studied them in detail.
Here is the full running order:

	Week starting	Topics to be covered
Week 1	03/Mar	2 days sets / 3 days co-ordinate geometry
Week 2	10/Mar	3 days co-ordinate geometry / 2 days surds, indices, index notation
	17/Mar
	24/Mar
Week 3	31/Mar	1 day surds, indices, index notation / 4 days algebra
Week 4	07/Apr	1 day algebra / 4 days using algebra to solve problems
Week 5	14/Apr	5 days arithmetic
Week 6	21/Apr	5 days geometry and theorems
Week 7	28/Apr	4 days functions + graphs
Week 8	05/May	3 days trigonometry / 1 day statistics
Week 9	12/May	2 days statistics / 3 days perimeter area + vol
Week 10	19/May	Revision
Week 11	26/May	Revision

I haven't allocated time for reviewing the mocks, since I don't know when these will arrive.
There will undoubtedly be changes to the above schedule, but we will try to keep to this or a revised schedule insofar as possible.
Let me know if you'd like me to make any changes.

Trigonometry wrap-up

Today we covered the Trig question that was done for homework and took a look at the marking scheme for this question.
We took a glance through a full paper and answered a few questions.
The reciprocal of a value = 1 / the value.
Eg Reciprocal of x is 1/x
For fractions, getting the reciprocal is the same as inverting them.
E.g. reciprocal of 1/2 is 1/(1/2) = 2
E.g. reciprocal of 2/3 is 1/(2/3) = 1 x 3/2 = 3/2

Friday's class will be a general q+a class.

Algebra wrap-up

We looked at algebra today, specifically at question 3 and 4 on this paper.

Q3
Part a: remember the laws of indices, but check your result on your calculator.
Part b: the first two are straightforward factoring questions. Part iii can be solved by multiplying it out or by observing that it is something (2x-1) squared minus something else (x-1) squared and so can be treated as one big difference of 2 squares.
Part c: find an expression for one gram of powder, then for one gram of powder during the promotion. Then set up an equation which states that the difference between these is = 1.
Q4
Part c: note the key difference between an expression and an equation. To write both expressions as a single fraction, take each fraction and multiply above and below the line by the same thing, in such a way that you get a common denominator in the two fractions. Once you get to part ii you have an equation, so you can now multiply both sides of the equation by the denominator of the LHS to get rid of all the fractions. The a±√b format tells you you'll need to use the quadratic formula to find the roots of the equation - don't waste time looking for factors.


Key points from today:

• An expression squared, like (2x-1)² is (2x-1) multiplied by itself i.e. (2x-1)(2x-1).
• A quick way to do this is to square the first term, square the second term and twice their product. If in doubt, do it out the long way.
• x is an element of Q gives you a hint that the result is going to be a fraction (rational number)

Tomorrow we'll do Trigonometry. It is 2005 Paper 2 Q 5 for homework this evening.

Introduction

Welcome to the Junior Cert Maths Blog - designed to assist the maths learning for my 3rd year students.