Maths Assessment Books

[24hr-mum]

my k2 boy also everyday say dun wanna go sch. from k1 til now. headache.

[Maple leaf]

24hr-mum:

hi maple leaf


How does ur DS fare in eng and chinese?
he prob is GEP calibre.

full marks.
P1 still hard to say one lah.. They say only they turned 9 yrs old then confirm smart. so GEP tested at P3.
Some kids' cognitive skills develop slower.

[BeContented]

Maple leaf:

Hi,
Tks 4 yr tips. Is the A* Maths available at Popular.?

Hi MapleLeaf,
Dun think so.....think gotta order thru' them.

From the look of it, your son may be a genius in Maths. Maybe you should try to source online resources or introduce him to even more cheem stuff? My DS is just stronger in Maths as compared to other subjects, but never and will not be that good as the potential shown by your son. So you should really fuel his passion I have posted a thread asking how to stretch kids with interest and potential in Maths before, some advices received and I have extracted for your reference, see below
- Books by Martin Gardner
- Edward Zaccaro's books
- online resources
http://mathforum.org/dr/math/
http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.montereyinstitute.org/courses/

Guess after I have the above info, I did take a look at Edward's book, I nearly flipped and I know my son will not be keen at all....so I have left it there.....such things really need the passion to do it.

Btw, one of the top PSLE 2010 boy - Sheldon is only 11. But apparently, he has already obtained his 'O' & 'A' certs (with distinction I think) on his own accord. Perhaps we will have another 'Sheldon' :rahrah: Guess this is about all the info I know which may be helpful. All the best.

[24hr-mum]

ya i agree. tho my girl copes well when she was p1, as in all band 1, given that she is 1 yr younger than her peers as she is 1 jan bb, she has nvr scored full marks or anything close. bcos her carelessness n immaturity shows.


but to me, since maths is a subject u neednt worry, why dont u focus on his languages? languages harder to excel cos it is borderless and the answers are subjective…at the end of the day when we work, i personally think languages may be more useful…

[24hr-mum]

but of cos u can also eg aim to send him for math olympiad competition when he is older. i heard those such champions can DSA to sec sch, just like GEP kids??

[metz]

Maple leaf:

Hi,chamoni,

Murderous Maths did not catch DS attention. I didn't browse it but DS and DH said that \"too simple\" I was a bit diappointed. However, he was hooked on the Science series instead.
Where are u located?How come yr DD needs to take Math proficiency tests?

I am a lazy or (busy?) mom, so I hardly have the patient to teach DS. Workbooks with examples are better. So far, I just verbally tell him what is dec. or fractions. I don't think he can do problem sums without having a rough idea what is diameter or circumference.
Now,without any coaching,I guage his standard as doing P5 Maths normal assessment books with no problem but need guidance for challenging problem sums.
I have actually stop letting him do any uplevel Maths since beginning of P1. Now that school holidays coming. Thought of getting him to do some work b4 he comes to bother me. He is happy when he see numbers..
Ya, like yr DS too, will ask me that kind of square root questions.

Oops, I made a blunder. My son just corrected me that his favourite used to be the Horrible Science series. He finished the entire series in K2 and considers it childish now. So far, he tried only 3 books from Murderous Maths. He enjoys Brain Benders most. Talk about lazy or busy moms... I don't know which I group I belong too. Most likely both, haha... My forte would be buying books...

Erm, what do you consider as normal assessment books? So far, we have yet to come across any challenging assessment books. There may exist only a few challenging questions in an entire assessment book. We tried a few like -

Step by Step Math by Simon Sio (simplest)
Casco Step by Step Mathematics (relatively simple but sprinkled with some challenging questions in certain units)
Challenging 4-in-1 Maths (Questions are not difficult once the kid get through the phrasing of the questions) - started only recently. Personally, I don't really like their questions.
School papers - feels a bit like drilling after a while

I flipped through both Fabian Ng's PSP and Onsponge. Both share a very similar format, as in they provide examples and questions that follow closely to the examples. Wouldn't consider these as difficult too. But Onsponge books provide a very systemetic way for learning to solve questions via model way and unit transfers.

Since your son finds P5 Math easy, you may want to skip Challenging Maths Made Easy by Animel Wan. My son tried it last Dec accidentally and was able to solve some of the questions using logic. He was only working on P2 Math then. (Likewise, we didn't bother to up his level until the second half of last year.)

Edit : He did a few questions from SAP Maths Methods, not Challenging Maths Made Easy.

Olympiad Maths by Terry Chew - not difficult if the child likes numbers.
Since your is child in BTPS, you should be living near Bt Batok Maths Hub. You can try requesting for your ds to join their Maths Olympiad classes. Mine tried the P1 class and was allowed to join P2 class after one lesson. The instructor was willing to consider him for Maths Olympiad classes a couple of months later. (But we didn't stay on.)

What one friend suggested is to let him try solving upper primary exam questions. She gave him one P6 question on rate of change last year. Of course, he wasn't able to solve when his heart was thinking about playing with his best friend. Nonetheless, it was a good thinking exercise for him.

Instead of concentrating on the Sg Syllabus, I'm diverting his attention to other Maths. We have 3 books by Edward Zaccaro:

Primary Math Challenge - Fairly simple
Becoming a Problem Solving Genius - He finds the Super Einstein level engaging.
Challenging Math for the Elementary and Middle School Student - Yet to try but Chapter One looks promisingly fun.

Another author that I like is Theoni Pappas. It introduces concepts like Fibionacci, golden ratio etc. Might be too easy for your ds if your DH has
already taught him these concepts.

The Number Devil is another book popular with kids good in Maths. But my son didn't enjoy it. He's a scaredy cat, hehe.

All in all, my son finds these maths books more interesting.

[nansk]

Hi chamonix,


Could you please link to the Brain Benders books that you referred to? Thank you in advance.

[metz]

24hr-mum:

but of cos u can also eg aim to send him for math olympiad competition when he is older. i heard those such champions can DSA to sec sch, just like GEP kids??

Maybe true in the past. But from what I gathered from the DSA thread, this is no longer the case now. My sil's son participated actively in Maths Olympiad but didn't manage to DSA to his dream school.

[metz]

nansk:

Hi chamonix,


Could you please link to the Brain Benders books that you referred to? Thank you in advance.

Hi nansk,

Brain Benders is part of the Murderous Maths Series http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professor-Fiendishs-Brain-benders-Murderous-Maths/dp/0439950007/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1319710125&sr=8-14 .

[nansk]

Thank you, chamonix. I think this series is available in Singapore from Scholastic via the school.