Mathematical Studies: Core Maths

5+ GCSEs at Grade 4 or above, from the core subjects, including English Language and Grade 5 in Maths.

You will have two 90 minute lessons a week with your teacher. We will work through the material from paper 1 from September to December, and paper 2 from January to March. There will be frequent homeworks and class tests throughout the year. There are past papers available to help with your revision. Homeworks can be done using your notes, and students are provided with the answers so they can mark their work before submission; these are then followed with a short minitest you will do on the day you hand it in, under test conditions.
There are two exams in May. In March, the college will receive preliminary materials for the exam, which we will spend time working on in class. These are data tables and newspaper extracts on which some questions in your exam will be based. There is no coursework in this course.

Each lesson will typically start with a discussion around the topic, with a teacher led example from the front of the room on what an exam question will look like and how to answer it. After examples, students will complete questions from a workbook to further practise those skills, marking their own work as they go. When appropriate, we will bring in real world examples of the content we're doing, such as examining a report on streaming data for Star Wars media on Disney+ or the revenue of top European football clubs, to highlight as often as we can how you can use the work from Core Maths lessons with real world situations or your own interests. Most lessons involve discussing ideas with the person you are sat next to, but when answering the questions in the workbook students can choose to work on their own or in pairs, whichever they are more comfortable with.

There are two 90 minute exams, taken in May, which will determine final grade.
We will use in-class tests and homeworks to track your progress through the year.
There is no coursework for this course.

For the Stats pathway, you will need to purchase a Casio fx-991CW Classwiz calculator. These can be purchased from the college shop for around £24.00, or are available from other places such as Amazon.
FX-991CW (casio.co.uk)

For the graphical pathway, a scientific calculator that allows you to calculate mean and standard deviation such as the FX-83GT CW (Black) (casio.co.uk) will suffice, but the above calculator is also valid.
Otherwise you will need standard maths stationary: pen, pencil, ruler, paper.
All students will be issued a textbook from the library - there is no need to purchase a textbook. A few workbooks are available from the library; you may wish to buy your own copy if you would like to write in your own.

The College offers a generous bursary scheme which may be able to assist with some of these costs. More information can be found on our website under Financial Support.

1. Cirencester College is offering ‘Bring Your Own Device’ guidelines, in order to encourage digital literacy and make the most of how digital devices can support learning in the classroom and independent study. Please find below some specific guidance for this subject but do be aware that each subject will have its own guidance.
2. L3 Mathematical Studies: In this subject, students can get by without anything more than a smartphone. There will be essential communication via MS Teams and email as well as resources to access from the internet. Pen and paper is most student's default way of working but many students write on a tablet and/or email homework to their teacher. There are digital copies of the workbooks and solution books uploaded to Teams that students can access with their device, but most students will write in physical copies, and there are always physical copies of solutions in classrooms. There may be times when only having access to a phone is limiting in some way; but these can generally be navigated by using a machine (desktop / laptop) at home or in a study space in college. There are a number of laptops available for short-term loan at college, but availability on any given day is not guaranteed.
3. Screen Size: A device with a larger screen than a phone would make some ‘things’ easier eg downloading and completing a revision paper or accessing a PowerPoint file. We also find that the ability to hand-write with a touch screen /stylus is preferable for drawings, writing equations and formulae etc. For this reason, if students are investing in a device, we’d recommend a tablet with stylus or a touch-screen laptop. A tablet with stylus rather than a laptop is sufficient and probably relatively inexpensive (compared to a laptop).
4. Brands: Windows laptops are preferable to Apple (macOS) in STEM subjects. Lecturers use Windows and will use this platform to demonstrate processes, tasks etc in the classroom. We find the range of machines (incl. touchscreen) and software available, alongside budget considerations make Windows the preferred option. However, it is entirely possible to use a Mac instead if that is your preference; you may just end up with questions about how to manage software in the mac ecosystem which can take a bit more time to resolve.

AQA