The foundation for maths is laid from an early age. We have seen countless students struggling to get through maths in secondary because their background is so week due to bad teachers or lack of follow up.

Let us meet your child (we teach students from the age of 9) and make an evaluation. Is everything going in the right direction or is the basic understanding lacking.

At an early age, this is easy to rectify. But the older they get, the more there is to catch up on to prepare for the tough syllabus they are facing.

Did you know that IGCSE students must deduce the formula for cubic sequences?

That is not even in the syllabus for IB high level maths!

No wonder some students have a problem with it. And, on top of that, some students are still struggling with lack of understanding of the fundamentals in maths. We can rectify that before they get into the final couple of years in secondary.

This is the real thing! Calculus, Statistics, Binomial theorem.

Some syllabi cover parts of the first year of university! Many students have a constant bad continence during this extremely demanding period. Even when they do their homework.

While studying Physics, they think that they should have done more English. While studying English, they feel they should have worked on their maths. We know this, and we always try to accommodate them with the best possible time slots to interfere as little as possible with their busy lives. And, like one student said: “I learn more in a week from you, than a week at school”. Good use of time? And what a compliment!

High level maths is tough. Really tough! Large parts of the syllabus are actually university level, so students struggling should think again about changing to standard level maths. Great course, even for those who plan on studying math related topics like engineering. But if applying to universities that require HL, let’s get to it!

It is no wonder that some students get lost when diving into complex numbers, planes in space, differential equations etc., so it is important to get some help as soon as possible. Most of the students here will have a good background at this stage but may get confused and disillusioned by the complexity of it all. There is some comfort in knowing that most will have the necessary background. It is just that the progress is a lot faster than what they are used to, so let us help them over the “bump”. It is very encouraging to see how fast they pick up speed once they are over the first shock.

The word “speed” here is crucial. Some questions require a LOT of steps to get to the answer. Even though a forgotten bracket or minus sign may only be penalized with one mark, the continued steps may be a lot tougher with a wrong number and end up in an answer that seems highly implausible. Try again! While the clock is ticking. Here, more than in any other course, accuracy is of the essence. We try to get our students into better working routines:

1: Write down the question.

2: Complete each line of working.

3: Start the next one immediately underneath.

4: Include side calculations next to where you need it, don’t spread it all over the place.

5: Underline or highlight intermediate answers that may be needed later…….

The effect of good working routines in problem solving is amazing! It can mean the difference from a 7 to a 4! Or vice versa.

And, as with lover cases, understanding is the key. One example: A student, quite correctly, found the oblique asymptote for a function. When asked to explain, he said that he didn’t know, but the teacher had said so. The tutor pointed to the last term, one with an x in the denominator and asked: “What happens to the function as x increases”. Total silence for a few seconds while the student was thinking. Then suddenly he saw it! He literally got out of his chair and started jumping up and down in pure joy! (The tutor enjoyed it just as much but didn’t jump).

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Thinking about taking IB HL maths? If you are a maths genius, no worries. If you are simply good, you had better prepare for the freight train that will hit you. It is tough! We can help you to make the transition from IGCSE to Euler’s Formula (ei𝜋 = -1), the binomial theorem, calculus, planes in 3D a  LOT easier.