Over 110,000 students will sit their maths Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations next week with a large proportion of the exam papers incorporating the controversial Project Maths syllabus. To allay last-minute panic and mathematical quandaries, Positivemaths.ie, Ireland’s first online centre of excellence for maths students in Ireland, will operate a FREE online SOS live chatroom facility from 7pm to 9pm from June 1 to June 9 2013. By clicking on the SOS link of the positive maths website, students will be directed to a classroom where experienced and qualified maths tutors will be on hand to help with problems the students may have. The team at Positivemaths.ie are also preparing a number of exam tip videos which can be accessed on their website in the coming days.

The Positivemaths.ie website, which was launched in March, is a one-stop-shop for students who want to learn and understand the Project Maths syllabus and how they can improve and excel in the Project Maths subject with enhanced skills and understanding.

Last-minute nerves are heightened even more so for students taking the Project Maths course which is as of yet a “bit of an unknown” according to John Devlin, engineer and founder of Positivemaths.ie.

“We need to instil confidence in students that once they have the tools they need in terms of relevant equations and theories then they should be able to tackle anything that’s asked of them in the paper. From our experience, students are having difficulty interpreting what is being asked of them in questions and which theory they should apply but it is important for students not to overthink the questions and instead to relate what they are being asked to what they have learned in the classroom.
“Project Maths is still being rolled out so it’s hard to know what to expect but good knowledge of the theories and plenty of sample paper practice should equip the students very well.”

Positivemaths.ie is an online support service that provides tutorial support tailored to the needs of students as identified through the site’s diagnostic DRIVE strategy, (Diagnose, Review, Implement, Verify, Evaluate).
The service focuses on small online tutorials (maximum 6 to 10 per class) offering more student to teacher engagement and educational support.

The online support service was launched earlier this year and is already proving a popular learning resource for students.

In the DRIVE process, the student selects the topic or topics which he or she is worried about and completes a set of questions, the answers to which are evaluated by the tutor who can readily identify the areas that require additional learning and understanding. The tutorial offered by the website is then tailored to the needs of the students. After the tutorial, students are again asked to complete a set of questions which re-assesses their knowledge on the topic.