Course description

This course helps you brush up the maths you use at work and at home, and prepares you for Functional Skills Maths Level 2 or a GCSE maths resit. It's written for adults in the UK who want to feel confident with numbers again: checking a payslip, planning a budget, working out an area or a dose, reading a chart, or getting the maths qualification a job, course or apprenticeship asks for.

Every lesson explains one topic in plain English, step by step, with worked examples from everyday life and work, the slips people commonly make, and Try it questions with full worked answers. You'll practise both with and without a calculator, and learn to show your working so you earn method marks. Every calculation, answer and practice paper in the course has been checked by a script.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Omobola, a garden centre stock supervisor working towards Functional Skills Maths Level 2 for a promotion, and Ziyad, a delivery driver resitting GCSE maths to start a plumbing course. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, full worked answers, a short practice paper with a mark scheme and a printable formula and units card. Section 10 adds two full practice papers, each with a non-calculator part and a calculator part, with mark schemes and an exam day checklist.

What you'll learn

• Getting started with numbers: what Functional Skills Maths Level 2 and GCSE maths involve, how to book an exam, place value, large and negative numbers, rounding and checking answers.
• Calculating with whole numbers: written methods for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, the order of operations, powers and roots, factors, multiples and primes.
• Fractions: equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions, and one number as a fraction of another.
• Decimals and percentages: decimal calculations, converting between fractions, decimals and percentages, percentages of amounts, percentage change, original values and VAT.
• Ratio, proportion and formulae: sharing in a ratio, direct and inverse proportion, value for money, formulae in words and symbols, recipes and exchange rates.
• Money and budgets: pay, overtime and payslips, budgets, discounts and deals, simple and compound interest, loans, and household bills.
• Measures and units: metric and imperial units, conversion graphs, time and timetables, speed, density and rates of pay, temperature, scales and sensible accuracy.
• Area, perimeter and volume: rectangles, triangles, composite shapes and circles, volume and surface area of cuboids and cylinders, scale drawings, plans, angles and coordinates.
• Data, charts, averages and probability: tables and charts, line graphs and scatter diagrams, mean, median, mode and range, grouped data, and probability with two-way tables.
• Exam technique and practice papers: reading a problem and showing your working, calculator and non-calculator methods, two full practice papers worked through, and exam day.

Who it's for

Adults in the UK who want to rebuild their number confidence for work and everyday life, and adults preparing for Functional Skills Maths (usually Level 2) or a GCSE maths resit. No maths beyond simple adding and subtracting is assumed: Section 1 starts with place value.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a text-based course for independent practice and preparation. It isn't an accredited course, it isn't endorsed by any awarding organisation and it doesn't lead to a qualification: you book and take the real exam through a college, adult learning service or other approved centre, and lesson 1.3 explains how. The practice papers were written for this course and aren't taken from any awarding organisation's papers. The money examples are maths practice, not financial advice. The people, businesses, prices and data in the examples are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Work confidently with whole numbers, negative numbers, powers and the order of operations, with and without a calculator
• Calculate with fractions, decimals and percentages, and convert between them
• Work out percentage change, original values, VAT, discounts, and simple and compound interest
• Use ratio, direct and inverse proportion and formulae to solve everyday problems
• Check pay and payslips, plan a budget, compare deals and loans, and read household bills
• Convert metric and imperial units, and solve problems with time, speed, density and rates of pay
• Find perimeters, areas and volumes of everyday shapes, including circles and cylinders, and use scale drawings
• Read and draw tables, charts and graphs, and compare data with the mean, median, mode and range
• Work out probabilities of single and combined events, including from two-way tables
• Read a problem carefully, show your working and check your answers, ready for Functional Skills Maths Level 2 or a GCSE resit

Frequently asked questions