Has your child started revising yet?

Starting revision early is one of the best ways to make sure your children achieve their full potential. It has been proven on many occasions that shorter bursts of revision over longer periods of time are far more effective than cramming for hours just a few weeks before exams. Download our free revision survival guide, which gives lots of hints and tips on how to best prepare and revise for exams.

Click here to download your free 12 page Revision Survival Guide 

How good is your maths, are you smarter than a nine-year-old?

Bosses behind the Government's High Speed Two project were recently given a remarkable slap down at the hands of a nine-year-old boy scout in Parliament over the projects spiraling costs.

Alex Rukin, from Kenilworth in Warwickshire, told a committee of MPs the people behind the multi-billion pound project had displayed "really really bad" maths and offered to help with the sums himself.

The young campaigner outlined an alleged £7 billion black hole in cost estimates for the rail project, adding when challenged over his own mathematical abilities: "I got 93 per cent in my last maths test."

Alex's mature appearance - he is believed to be one of the youngest people ever to address Parliament - won plaudits from MPs and spectators alike.

But could you match the youngster's mathematical ability? 

Take the test here: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/hs2/11341106/Quiz-How-good-is-your-maths.html

Top 10 best maths facts

1. In a group of 23 people, at least two have the same birthday with a probability greater than half
2. Everything you can do with a ruler and a compass you can do with a compass alone
3. Much as with people, there are irrational, perfect and complex numbers
4. If you write our PI to two decimal places, backwards it spells “Pie”
5. The word hundred is derived from the word “hundrath”, which actually means 120 and 100.
6. If you shuffle a pack of cards properly, chances are that exact order has never been seen before in the whole history of the universe
7. The post popular favourite number is 7
8. The number 4 is considered unlucky in much of Asia
9. Zero is an even number, but people take longer to decides whether it’s even or odd because it’s not as easy for us to mentally categorise
10. Take any four digit number, follow these steps, and you’ll end up with 6174

·         Choose a four digit number(only condition is that it has at least two different digits)

·         Arrange the digits of the four digit number in descending then ascending order

·         Subtract the smaller number from the bigger one

·         Repeat

·         Eventually you’ll end up at 6174, which is known as Kaprekar’s constant. If you then repeat the process you’ll just keep getting 6174 over and over again.

New online maths activities from 10ticks

Over the last few weeks we have added in lots of new online maths activities to our courses. We have created these to complement our existing maths content and offer variety for our students, helping to keep them engaged.

By creating lots of different ways to do maths on the course we are helping students with all learning types. Our new interactive maths activities help kinaesthetic learners and particularly younger learners as they tend to be more hands on.

You can try out one of our new online maths activities by clicking on the link below.

http://www.10ticks.co.uk/draganddroptests/wordsearch.aspx

Let us know what you think!

New maths app helps you cheat on your homework

A new maths app called Photomath lets you use your smart phone to work out maths problems. All you have to do is point your camera at the question and it will tell you the right answer. It works by using optical character recognition technology to read printed equations on a page, then pops up and augmented-reality display that works through captured equations in real time.

At the minute it only works on printed text and doesn't pick up hand written equations but is still quite impressive! Photomath can work out arithmetic expressions, fractions and decimals, powers and roots, and simple linear equations. 

This is a great tool for parents trying to help with their kids maths homework, or even for students who want to mark their own homework.

Boy calls 911 for help with his maths homework

A young boy who is struggling with his maths homework calls 911 for help, with hilarious results. Watch the video below to for the full conversation.

If you think you are good at maths, this guy is on another level!

A fantastic TED talk from Arthur Benjamin, who makes maths exciting and fun. He races calculators and guesses birthdays, as well as teaching a few interesting short cuts to solving maths equations. Watch the video to find out how he does it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic

10ticks Friday Maths Puzzle

Can you figure out the answer to this weeks Maths Puzzle?