Recommendations for maths assessment books

It's exam time again and I'm stressed out... again. Four exams a year is too much, I think. Multiply that by two kids and 3-5 subjects each... honestly! It's too much!

You may ask why I don't just leave them alone. In my opinion, people who ask that either 1) have no kids, 2) have kids but are not in the Singapore system, 3) have kids in the Singapore system who are geniuses. Really, I'm not sure it's possible to have kids in the Singapore education system and not feel the pressure, even just a little. A few weeks before the exams, the kids bring home their exam timetables and the parent is supposed to sign on the slip at the bottom, stating something to the effect of: "I have noted my child's exam schedule and will help him/her prepare for it." Aiyoh, like signing my life away!

Comparatively, I'm already quite a relaxed mum. I don't dole out extra work during the rest of the year, I just make sure the homework gets done (even that is questionable, considering the number of notes I've gotten from Andre's teacher). The kids have Chinese tuition, and Kenneth supervises the tuition homework, which is done over the weekend, but that's about it in terms of academic work done at home. So maybe that's why when the exam period draws near, I suddenly go into panic mode when I realise there are so many things to cover.

I guess I should be thankful that Lesley-Anne is doing ok in school (except for maths) and she has reached the age where she's able to study independently without me looking over her shoulder too much. It's Andre who tends to give me the near heart attacks. Close to the exams, the teacher will normally give out mock exam papers, which are past years' papers. Quite commonly, he returns home with a paper showing marks in the range of 70/100, upon which my blood pressure will instantaneously shoot up.

I have to explain that I'm not being unrealistic about his abilities. Believe it or not, Andre is actually above average among his p2 cohort at his school in terms of academic performance. In exams, he has so far usually managed to meet the Band 1 target I've set for him (note: Band 1 is 85/100) for all his subjects. But his playfulness and lack of focus means that during term time, he tends to do rather badly. In fact, almost every mock paper he has done in the past month has had "Needs Improvement" stamped on it. (I personally dislike this, it's gives the child zero encouragement and doesn't motivate him to do better.)

Naturally I'm hoping that his mad exam skills will come into play again and he will rise to the occasion, but the work IS getting harder and at some point, I think it would be too much to expect that he can skive throughout the year and just shine during exams.

Anyway, I actually intended to talk about maths assessment books today (see how cheong-hei I am, take so long to get to the point!) I wanted to share my experience on some of the better ones I've come across as I know many parents have contributed to Popular's profits by investing in armloads of these assessment books. Unfortunately, we have all at some point, thrown money down the drain just to find out which are the good ones and which are just crap.

Qualifier: I have, by no means, tried every one out there, so I can't claim there aren't better ones out there. Since I don't give out work during normal term time, I usually just buy 3 maths assessment books a year. Sometimes, my kids don't even complete the whole book by year end, just certain sections.

The maths standard at my kids' school is pretty high. I used to buy test papers from other schools (you know, the kind they sell in a pack) until I realised that almost none of them matched up to the school's standard, so they provided insufficient preparation for the exams. So now, my maths preparation for my kids is quite standard - I just use 3 maths assessment books each for Lesley-Anne and Andre and give them out systematically.

The first one is by Andrew Er. This one is quite comprehensive - it's topical and gives lots of exercises, good for drills and providing loads of practice for specific topics. It contains regular questions and "star" questions which are more challenging. The questions are not too difficult, even the star ones usually don't stump Lesley-Anne. But this book is good for practice and building the foundation for concepts.

This one published by EPH is my step 2. It is also topical but with fewer exercises than Andrew Er. Each topic has summary notes and is like a paper, with Section A (multiple choice), Section B (open-ended) and Section C (problem sums). The questions do require thinking and are not so straight-forward. This book is a good step up from Andrew Er, to see if my kids understand the concepts when they are presented in a less obvious manner.

Finally, this is my step 3 - Challenging Maths by CASCO. Once my kids have completed the one above, they move on to this book. Among all the maths assessment books I've ever used, this is the most challenging. If your kids can handle most of the questions in this book, they should have no problem aceing the school exams. This book is not topical, it's grouped in terms of common tests, CAs and SAs, each testing a combination of topics, which makes it great for the final round of revisions.

But be warned: the questions in the CASCO publication are TOUGH, especially the p3 and p4 ones. There were some questions in the p4 book that stumped me, even after I'd look at the solution! So don't be too worried if your kid can't handle it, most school papers aren't at this level. In fact, when I set this book for my kids, I don't set them a whole paper at a time - it's too daunting. Dish it out in smaller doses.

Now, here's the bad news: This year, when I went to look for the p5 CASCO Challenging Maths for Lesley-Anne, I found that it had been taken off the shelf because the P5 maths syllabus underwent changes (they can now use calculators for certain sections). I was waiting for the new edition but it never came out. Later, I realised that even the p3 and p4 ones have been pulled. I'm not sure if they will re-release this, I really hope so as I never found any other maths assessment book to match this one. Meanwhile, if you have any other recommendations, do let me know!