S4

In S4, students begin the more formal studying towards the eAssessment. At the end of S5 all students will sit the eAssessmemt at one of two levels: Standard is aimed at most students; Extended is aimed at the highest achieving students who might want to study Higher Level Maths at IB. At Europa we teach three groups at different levels. The Extended group will study for and sit the Extended eAssessment; the Standard Plus group will study the Standard course with some elements of the Extended course to prepare them better for AASL at IB or A-Level maths, but they will sit the Standard eAssessment; the Standard group will study for and sit the Standard eAssessment, but the teacher might teach some further bits if they think it is appropriate.

The structure of the courses is similar, with a few extra sub-topics in each unit for the Extended and Standard Plus groups. Student review and extend their knowledge of various number topics, such as indices and percentages, and then expand their knowledge with new topics in surds (Standard) and logarithms (Extended only). In algebra, students consolidate their knowledge of working with quadratics, and move on to solving quadratic equations, as well as developing algebraic fluency with algebraic fractions (Extended only). This is followed by increasing their knowlwedge of working with volumes and surface areas, and trigonometry, in both 2D and 3D. The year finishes with further development of understanding mathematical models, first developing their understanding of linear models, and then moving on to quadratic models.

S4 students will also begin to develop their more formal investigation and pattern spotting skills, a vital part of being a mathematician, which is assessed explicitly in the eAssessment. Student can practice their skills at finding the nth term of sequences, as well as the investigation structure.

S4 sees students develop their algebraic skills alongside modelling skills which are so vital in being able to answer a wide variety of mathematical problems.