The major mistake candidates make is to assume New General Mathematics Book 3 and 4 have all the exam areas needed for someone to be successful on the final examination. You might have noticed that more than 7 or 8 questions from paper 1 are not covered in these books and examples includes Whole Numbers (Prime products, Roots and Squares, Series and Sequency etc), Distance Charts, LCM and HCF of index numbers. Most of these principles are covered in the Books 1 and 2, which makes them a need to the collection if you are to go with the NGM book series. All topics are essentially covered from Book 1 up to 4.
The major determinant of success especially at Ordinary Level is the ability of the teacher to interpret the latest syllabus and organize content from different textbooks and sources into exam oriented lessons. To be frank, a good teacher makes a textbook unnecessary for students since they have what it takes to score an 'A' from the teachers stuff.
In Zimbabwe, shortage of textbooks affected most schools until EFT provided adequate textbooks and resources in schools since 2009. The textbook:pupil ratio in now as good as 1:1 but still the pass rate fluctuates between 20% to 35% yearly. Surprisingly, some schools mantain a 100% pass rate in Mathematics. This apparently shows it's the strategy and the experience of the teachers at those specific schools.
Many students and teachers are now using technology to gather, share and organize resources that aid in studying for the final examinations. However, we are yet to see an official past paper from Zimsec in PDF format, or any textbook published as an ebook for Zimbabwean candidates. That will obviously ease the journey and yield better results as more students and candidates access recent and updated content that match syllabus requirements.
At FigTree Academy, we are now publishing ebooklets on critical topics to aid students in their studies. The ebooks are organized in lessons and only focus on specific concepts enunciated by the syllabus. The ebooklets are for FREE and published continually until all topics are covered. The ebooks are being authored by practicing teachers who also prepare video content for our android app called FigTree App.
There are now 7 ebooks that cover 10 topics including Transformations, Functional graphs and Circle Geometry. The ebooks are well illustrated and strives to demystify some areas of most challenging topics.
All the concepts are explained using past exam questions that are organized under specific sections. There are meant to be a complete guide alongside video content. Students can easily understand the ebook content by reading whilst watching a video explaining the same concept. All on your mobile phone!
To access the ebooks, WhatsApp +263 733 796 118
