# Thread: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

1. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Interesting little fact from that wikipedia link:

"For example, all circles are similar to each other, all squares are similar to each other, and all equilateral triangles are similar to each other. On the other hand, ellipses are not all similar to each other, rectangles are not all similar to each other, and isosceles triangles are not all similar to each other."

I would have thought that would have applied to rectangles? Maybe it's too early in the morning and I can't get my head around that thought but what if we had a rectangle that was say 4 m v 5 m. A second rectangle that was 12 m v 15 m, that would be similar wouldn't it? (It has a scale factor of 3- which from my readings indicates it is similar)

2. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Originally Posted by davidgoes4wce
Interesting little fact from that wikipedia link:

"For example, all circles are similar to each other, all squares are similar to each other, and all equilateral triangles are similar to each other. On the other hand, ellipses are not all similar to each other, rectangles are not all similar to each other, and isosceles triangles are not all similar to each other."

I would have thought that would have applied to rectangles? Maybe it's too early in the morning and I can't get my head around that thought but what if we had a rectangle that was say 4 m v 5 m. A second rectangle that was 12 m v 15 m, that would be similar wouldn't it? (It has a scale factor of 3- which from my readings indicates it is similar)
Two rectangles which have different aspect ratios (the ratio between longer and shorter sides) to each other will not be similar (they are different in shape). Two rectangles will be similar if and only if they have the same aspect ratio.

3. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

In your example, the two rectangles have the same aspect ratio, so yes, they're similar.

4. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Originally Posted by InteGrand
In your example, the two rectangles have the same aspect ratio, so yes, they're similar.
Hence, why your correct when the question came

'All rectangles are similar'-----> FALSE (in the textbook)

Again, before today I would have said TRUE. I do understand now that you have to look at the aspect ratio (long sides v short sides of both shapes)

5. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

'All rhombuses are similar'

I got this wrong admittedly. My only guess is even if they have the same (proportions ) for the sides, you can get instances where the corresponding angles are different. I've drawn a diagram below:

$\angle \ ABD could be different to \angle EFH$

6. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

After all what is a rhombus? It is simply a quadrilateral will all 4 sides equal. A special case of a rhombus is a square. You can easily draw a few rhombuses and notice they have different shapes and therefore cannot be similar.

7. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Does doing Maths 5.2 in Year 10 at a high level allow a student to go on and do Maths Extension?

The 5.2 seems way easier compared to the 5.3

8. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Students should be encouraged to do the highest level of maths they can manage. The creation of different pathways: 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 is understandably to help those who are uninterested or are unable to handle 5.3 to fall back to 5.2 or 5.1 - thus catering for the spectrum of student abilities. But this also has the effect of providing escape routes for those who can but for a variety of reasons prefer the easy way out. Of course they are dead-ended into General Maths or no maths at all. Some of these people wake up a year or two later and decide they want to be engineers!

9. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

That didn't quite answer my question, does doing Maths Stage 5.2 allow you to do Extension I and Extension II maths in Year 11 and 12?

I feel like a hard question in 5.2, is about a medium standard in 5.3.

10. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Originally Posted by davidgoes4wce
That didn't quite answer my question, does doing Maths Stage 5.2 allow you to do Extension I and Extension II maths in Year 11 and 12?

I feel like a hard question in 5.2, is about a medium standard in 5.3.
I notice those who do 5.1 and 5.2 are destined for General Maths or no maths when they get to Yr 11. So if your teacher invites you to drop to 5.1 or 5.2 it is as good as being condemned to being unable to pursue 2U Maths, and therefore 3U. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Some schools allow those who do 5.2 to pursue 2U; don't know about the 3U. Of course no 3U means no 4U.

Current students please correct me if I have misconstrued the whole thing.

11. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Originally Posted by davidgoes4wce
Does doing Maths 5.2 in Year 10 at a high level allow a student to go on and do Maths Extension?

The 5.2 seems way easier compared to the 5.3
I guess it would depend on the school- (personal experience, our school's head math teacher went around telling all the 5.2 and the bottom half of 5.3 classes to do general- ironically, I believe there's a few 5.2 people doing 5.3, and the most 5.3 classes of any year lol). IT should be noted however, that doing 5.2 for year 10 would be putting the student at a disadvantage against their peers who did do 5.3.

12. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

I have 2 students that I tutor in Year 10, one is in 5.2 and the other girl is a 5.3 she had a splendid 2016. (Got 141/150 in her exams-ranked 5th or 6th in her school for that subject). The difference between the 2? The girl is super motivated (also seems less well off) at a mid 60's ranked school in NSW. The boy seems pampered and dare I say it spoilt. (at a school ranked in the 100's)

It's really hard to motivate the 5.2 boy. I give homework, make up diagnostic tests, I do occasion mix up a 5.3 question (Which he can hardly get right. Maths is all about challenges right?). Then you give him 5.2 work, from the year prior (Yr 9) and he gets about 60-65% of the questions right. (and some of these questions were from the lesson prior). Any ideas how I could motivate him? I want him to do Extension Level maths, not General. (no disrespect to those kids). Yes her mum has hit the panic button! She has hired me for extra hours in a week and I think she demands results. (As you can tell I am only slowly getting more familiar with the NSW curriculum on a day by day basis)

13. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Is it possible to say move to a lower ranked school to fulfill your goal of doing higher ranked subjects? I am acutely aware that all schools want to protect their rankings.

Has anyone been a position or know of any , whereby you could take a subject against the schools discretion?

In my high school days, I actually was restricted from doing a couple of science based subjects. I had to get the permission of my parents and go speak to the principal to allow me to enrol into a particular subject. We said to the school we would get a tutor and the school accepted it.

Not sure if that same process happens in NSW.

14. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Originally Posted by davidgoes4wce
I have 2 students that I tutor in Year 10, one is in 5.2 and the other girl is a 5.3 she had a splendid 2016. (Got 141/150 in her exams-ranked 5th or 6th in her school for that subject). The difference between the 2? The girl is super motivated (also seems less well off) at a mid 60's ranked school in NSW. The boy seems pampered and dare I say it spoilt. (at a school ranked in the 100's)

It's really hard to motivate the 5.2 boy. I give homework, make up diagnostic tests, I do occasion mix up a 5.3 question (Which he can hardly get right. Maths is all about challenges right?). Then you give him 5.2 work, from the year prior (Yr 9) and he gets about 60-65% of the questions right. (and some of these questions were from the lesson prior). Any ideas how I could motivate him? I want him to do Extension Level maths, not General. (no disrespect to those kids). Yes her mum has hit the panic button! She has hired me for extra hours in a week and I think she demands results. (As you can tell I am only slowly getting more familiar with the NSW curriculum on a day by day basis)
Although irrelevant, you haven't made it clear on the gender of the 5.2 person.

The problem I see is laziness, lack of motivation. Why? It seems that he/she does not care about their education. He/she must identify their goals and you must convince them to add education and education performance as a goal. It's important that you incorporate the mother's reasoning for tutoring. It's hard to force someone to do something that they don't want to.

Try to associate studying as a duty as a secondary solution. Most students don't study much because they don't want to; they'd rather play and have fun. So to fix this, make them study because they need to, somehow.

You could spark interest in maths for them but that'll require something special...

15. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

I'm reading it a bit differently at the moment

I looked at this website:

http://www.karabarhigh.com.au/img.as...tionStage5.pdf

If you are in 5.3-----------> You can go on to do Prelim Mathematics/Maths Extension 1 in Year 11----> Maths Extension I and/or Maths Extension 2 In year 12
If you are in 5.2 (Highest)---> You can go on to do Prelim Maths in Year 11---> Mathematics (2 Unit) in Year 12
If you are in 5.2 (Standard)---> your more likely to do General Maths in Year 11 (im going to guess 80% chance) and if you do outstanding in Year 10 you will do Prelim Maths (20% chance)
If you are in 5.1 ---> You will do General Maths or No maths in Year 11

He is in the highest 5.2 maths class...........so I personally don't think it would be impossible for him to do 2 Unit. I'm aware in Year 10 they have different levels of 5.2 maths classes: Highest rank, 2nd highest rank, 3rd highest rank etc

(And yes He-Mann- I think its a fantastic idea that I should sit down and discuss with him about the future direction. To me the boy doesn't seem hungry enough but if I give him a bit of a pathway he may be more motivated to study hard this year)

16. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

I moved up from a middle 5.2 class to the top 5.3 class last year (a lot of work, since I kinda slacked off during grade 8 and 9), as well as bugging the head maths teacher a lot

It's definitely possible for him to do 5.2- I would highly suggest for them to move to a 5.3 class tho.

17. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

I should have listed down Mathscape as well

18. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Originally Posted by davidgoes4wce
Confirming there is a mistake with this question for Cambridge Year 10 EX 1D Q8.

$(a) Area= 66m^{2}$

$(b) Two bags of cement = 5m^{2}$

$\frac{2 \ bags \ of \ cement}{x}=\frac{5}{66}$

$x=26.4 bags$

$I then rounded the answer up to 27 bags, as the required amount for purchase of the job$

The answer at the back of the book for part(b) has 14 bags. Could anyone confirm if this is a mistake?
The textbook is wrong - seems they forgot to multiply by 2.

^_^

19. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

$How many integers x are there such that 2^x < 100, and at the same time the number 2^x + 2 is an integer divisible by both 3 and 2?$

The choices are:
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
E. 5

20. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

Does a B grade in Year 10 5.3 maths enable a student to choose Prelim Maths (2 Unit) and Prelim Maths Extension 1 (3 Unit) in Year 11?

The Board of Studies has a list of Band descriptors on this webpage:

A10, A9, B8, B7, C6, C5, D4, D3 and E2

I think a C/D grade in Year 10 Maths 5.3, would mean you could do probably 2 Unit Maths only.

An A/B grade in Year 10 Maths 5.3 , could let you do 2 Unit/3 Unit math in Year 11.

If a student is in Year 10 Maths 5.2 and get an A grade, they can do 2 Unit Math. Your options are more limited if you take level 5.2 maths.

21. ## Re: Year 9-10 Maths Discussion & Resources

I also of am the opinion that it is hard to shift classes once you are in Year 9 and Year 10. I.e its hard for a kid to move up from Year 9 Stage 5.2 to Year 10 Stage 5.3 (it will be too much catch up)

The schools don't want to tell it directly to your face either. The importance of doing well in Year 7 to 8 in maths cannot be underestimated. If you fcuk up during those years, you have to find your own way of doing higher level maths in Year 11 and 12.

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