Maths skills: number, units and data - Intro

Design and technology papers hide maths inside the design questions. The cost of a batch. A real size read off a drawing. None of it is hard maths. The marks go on three things: units, rounding, and working that never got written down. Here's what matters most in this chapter, and which video to press first.

Each video is one skill on its own, so you can watch them in any order. If you're starting from scratch, begin with units, symbols and metric prefixes. A classic slip there is taking three kilograms as three hundred grams. If rounding catches you out, go to decimals and standard form. Marks go when an answer stops at the calculator display, instead of the penny or millimetre the question asked for. If a question hands you a scale or a ratio, ratio and scale drawings is the one. The common slip there is comparing the whole with one part, when the question wants the two parts. If your exam is close, go straight to fractions and percentages. That skill turns up again and again: a fall in production, a discount, the share of a sheet that's thrown away. With charts, the marks that get away are on the finish: a missing key, an axis with no title, a pie chart with its angles guessed. Whichever video you start with, write every step of the maths down. Method marks are given for correct working, even when the final answer slips. You can search for any video by its name or its code, and the codes are right there on the list. The quickest way is the scholafly.com website, which lists every video in every subject.

Next in the chapter is Units, symbols and metric prefixes. Hopefully that's next in your feed - but if not, search for ScholaFly D T oh one, oh one.

For more, visit scholafly.com, or watch the next video.