A vibrant and engaging addition to the Hodder Gibson BGE family, this textbook covers all the benchmarks for Mathematics at Fourth Level, extending into National 5 material where appropriate.
The introduction sets out the aim that "every topic is explained with rigour, taking no shortcuts, and has an abundance of practice and challenge to suit every learner." A particular strength of this textbook is indeed the level of detail and clarity of the worked examples - useful for both the learner and also parents who may be trying to help! An excellent example of this is the Standard Deviation topic - the explanation is clear enough that a pupil could understand the process just by reading the worked example, which not only explains which steps to take, but how the process works.
I have found it difficult in the past to source a Fourth Level textbook which strikes a good balance of questions for the learners in my class at this stage. Often exercises will not provide enough challenge, or at the other end of the spectrum, even the early questions contain too much difficulty for a pupil to have a proper attempt. This textbook manages to both support and scaffold learners at the beginning of an exercise whilst providing an appropriate degree of challenge towards the end, as well as a good amount of rigour in-between.
As with the Third Level book, a Planning and Assessment Pack is also available, containing assessments and homework for each topic as well as detailed teaching notes.
This is a fantastic resource for any Mathematics classroom and/or as a home learning tool. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to pupil, parent, or teacher. I will add a class set of these to my Christmas list! -- Scottish Mathematical Council Journal, Issue 51
