BASIC MATHS SUPPORT MATERIAL

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION
2. OUTLINE OF AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF EACH SESSION
3. BASIC MATHS SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
   1. Session 1: Basic Arithmetic
   2. Session 2: Basic Algebra
   3. Session 3: Graphs, Problem Solving, and Powers
   4. Session 4: Logarithms
4. BASIC MATHS COURSE ENROLEMENT FORM (Please attempt the self-assessment exercises first to help you to decide if you need to enrol for the support sessions)

OUTLINE OF AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF EACH SESSION

Aims and Objectives of Session 1

At the end of this session you should have some basic knowledge of the following key concepts in arithmetic: fractions, decimals, percentages, rounding, ratio and proportion and order of operations.

You should also have some understanding of the use of calculators in arithmetic and some indication of topics in your Term 1 modules which use these techniques.

In particular you should be able to:

1) add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions

2) convert fractions to decimals and decimals to fractions, multiply and divide decimals by multiples of 10

3) change a fraction to a percentage, find a percentage of a number, increase/decrease a number by a percentage

4) round whole numbers and decimals

5) use ratio and dividing in proportion

6) understand the order of arithmetic operations and use some basic calculator functions

Aims and Objectives of Session 2

At the end of this session you should have some basic knowledge of the following key concepts in algebra: algebraic expressions, simple equations, simple formulae and inequalities, and some indication of topics in your Term 1 modules which use these techniques.

In particular you should be able to:

1) substitute numbers for letters in algebraic expressions

2) multiply out brackets and use factorisation

3) solve simple equations

4) use and rearrange simple formulae

5) solve simple inequalities

Aims and Objectives of Session 3

At the end of this session you should have some basic knowledge of key concepts in graph drawing, problem solving, powers of numbers, and some indication of topics in your Term 1 modules which use these techniques.

In particular you should be able to:

1) understand the terminology of graphs and use axes, scales and co-ordinates

2) plot simple graphs

3) understand the equation of a straight line and use it to plot straight line graphs

4) understand and solve problems involving unit quantities

5) understand and solve problems using probability trees

6) use the rules for indices (multiply and divide powers, raise a power to a power, reciprocals)

7) understand what is meant by standard form and convert numbers to standard form

Aims and Objectives of Session 4

At the end of this session you should have some basic knowledge of the following key concepts in logarithms and some indication of topics in your Term 1 modules which use these techniques.

In particular you should be able to:

1) understand the concept of logarithms, inverse logs and natural logs

2) use the rules of logs

3) use the log function on the calculator

4) transform non-linear to straight line graphs using logs