Matching the First Year Mathematics Curriculum to the Student Profile

Matching the first year maths curriculum to the abilities of incoming students is a difficult task. In any particular topic it is difficult to know what one can assume as a starting point. Here we describe how tests conducted over the last six years on incoming students can be used to provide a rough and ready guide in this. It was found that these results were quite stable from year to year, and between different groups of students with similar grades. There was no evidence of any particular trends, or of any affect on the values due to C2000.…Matching the first year maths curriculum to the abilities of incoming students is a difficult task. Tests given to incoming students over 6 years show some stable results depending on A Level results. Probable preparedness values are defined...