FigTree App For Zimsec Video Lessons Now on Google Play Store

FigTree App Now Live On Google Play

Download the App

An Educational App for Zimsec, Cambridge igcse and NSC video lessons is now live on Google play store. The app supports Smartphones running Android 4.1 and above. This the beta version of the app and is filled with some 'cool' features.

Download Option

The App comes with ability to download video lessons, instead of streaming which consumes a lot of data that is so precious in Zimbabwe. The download option makes it easy to store the lessons within the app and the videos are for offline viewing. 

Free Videos 

Students can access free videos for more than 5 Subjects under 'free video' tab. The lessons are made by professional and practicing teachers with experience in virtual tutoring. After signing up and confirming email address, a student can have access to free videos. There is a promotion for the first hundred students to register. The promotion is worth $4 and students can have an experience of buying topics of choice using the awarded coins

Quality Content

The video content is of high quality and can be viewed on any device. Mathematical subjects like Mathematics, Physics, Accounting, Chemistry and Economics are illustrated on a whiteboard to make it easy for formula, equations and graphical demonstrations 

Other content subjects like Commerce, Integrated Science and Geography are animated to give students an actual picture of what is taking place. For instance, in Integrated Science, there are animated experiments and demonstrations of petrol engine movements. The content quality matches international standards and is really awesome

Works Well with 2G Network

The app was designed to cater for students in rural areas who don't have access to LTE and 3G networks. The app was tested using the slowest network in areas like Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe and Mudzi. 

Students can easily download content in less than a minute and the average file size of a video lesson is 2.5MB, which makes it fast and cheap to download the lessons. This also makes the app more efficient and light, saving a lot phone space by more than 60%

Affordable Prices

The premium lessons monthly package costs $9 (25% discount) and individual topics costs $3. The topics are arranged in 11 months and covers the whole syllabus. 

There are also free ebooks for challenging topics like Transformations, Functional Graphs and scale

Calculator and Math Table Tutorials

The App will have free tutorials on how to use calculators and mathematical tables. Many students fail exams because they fail to efficiently use calculators and math tables during exams. 

Some students in the rural areas still rely on mathematical tables. This is due to unavailability of calculators in rural areas and some schools still emphasize on the use of tables.

Ability to Submit Exercises

Students are also able to submit exercises to tutors for marking. This makes the App similar to a traditional classroom where students receive instant feedback and marked scripts from the teacher 

These Features separate the FigTree App from the other Educational Apps in Zimbabwe and the Region and students ought embrace the new way of learning and supplementing their studies rr

FigTree was created by teachers and programmers to provide high quality content and to add to the educational ecosystem of digital products for Zimsec Syllabi

Don't be put off by previous attempts

Don't be put off by previous attempts

Many candidates don't make it in mathematics for the first time. Statistics shows that less than 30% of the candidates do well in November Mathematics Exams.

Maybe you have tried many times and failed the Exam and are considering a resit in next June or Nov Exams. It's not time to get discouraged by previous results. 

The most important thing in this case is to learn from mistakes. We fail because we make mistakes in our study or in the exams.

 

It maybe that

- you didn't cover important areas of the syllabus

- you couldn't finish the exam 

- you are not that good in maths 

- you hate the subject

- you couldn't find a better tutor.

- or YOU SIMPLY DONT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.

It's time to reconsider and look out for the best ways to deals with your mistakes and weaknesses.

What do you think failed you in your last attempt?

Android App for Maths Lessons (Zimsec)

As mobile penetration rate increases in the region, so is the uptake of digital products by many consumers. Education sector is not an exception and many students are enrolling for online and mobile learning.

I have been offering video lessons on zimsec syllabus through YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp since 2014 and the uptake of lessons is increasing as many students and candidates in Diaspora are relying completely on these lessons. 

We have helped hundreds if not thousands through our video lessons, blogs and ebooks. Majority of these students were successful in their final exams.

However, many more discover the service late or after writing exams. This shows that there is need to expand distribution channels and methods.

Other students are not on facebook and dont visit the internet often. Others access the service through WhatsApp only and many more are not on WhatsApp due to many reasons.

We thought it best to introduce an android app that will be available soon on Google Play. 

Students will be able to stream and download video lessons, exercises and expected answers, ebooks, blog links and social media pages.

The app will have four to six FREE basic Maths topics for O Level Zimsec syllabus. Lessons for other subjects will be added as we progress.

The app will be also available as an apk for those who cant download on google play. 

For more information 

Contact:  WhatsApp +263 733 796 118

New Tricks For Paper 2

New Tricks for MATHS Paper 2 

The new way of answering paper 2 poses some challenges and benefits to candidates. As we discussed before that Zimsec follows the footprints of Cambridge standards, the new paper structure is now more similar to syllabus D of Cambridge. 

The new paper provides candidates with answer spaces like the first paper. This might have been caused by the need to upgrade assessment methods and adoption of e-marking. The paper structure remains the same, with section A having compulsory 6 questions and 3 options in section B.

The second paper is well know for the complexity of its questions and how it tests principles. The most popular topics in Paper 2 include Loci, Graphical topics like Statistics, linear Programming, algebraic functions, transformation. Bearing and Vectors in Two dimensions are also part of the set. The most avoided topics by both teachers and students are Mensuration and Transformation. Unfortunately Transformation is now part of the first paper.

What are the implication of the new structure?

1. Reduced Complexity of the question.

The most complex questions were on Graphs where the candidates were required to draw a graph on a full page given the scale and function table. The answering space now limits the complexity of the questions. They must suit questions to allow simple and short graphical answers that fit into the drawn graphs and scales. 

What to expect:

- interpretation of a graphical function

Candidates are likely to be tested on the meaning, equation or identification of graph features. A graphical function will be provided and then candidates required to identify items like type of transformations,  calculation of the gradient and percentiles and quartiles.

2. Simple locus. Some parts drawn

Like the Loci usually tested in paper 1, the paper 2 question is likely to be tested in parts. A base line can be already drawn for the candidates, making it easy to know the direction of angles and sides. The only challenge is when bearing is included in the question.

Shorter measurements and scales are likely to be tested.

3. Non-graphical Questions likely to be Complex

Since questions on graph will take a large space, the simplification of questions results in fewer marks being provided. This pushes more marks to non-graphical questions. They are likely to be complex to compensate the marks. 

Sections B questions are likely to be a mixture of graphs and non-graphical questions. More focus need to be on calculations part of the topics or compensatory topics like variation, matrices, quadratic equations and similarity.