It was exciting and nervous to meet new faces… They hear my stories, I hear theirs.

For the workshop, I would like to discuss about bearings and the usage of sin formula through this question. Do you have any difficulties in E-Maths Trigonometry? I would love to hear from you! Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

For bearings, pay attention to these 3 points:

• 3 figures
• Reference point
• Measured from North in a clockwise direction

For sin formula, you must know how to identify an angle and its corresponding length which are opposite each other.

View the video via this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhH1zqwn9uM

I was paying attention to the concepts on Trigonometry and it’s interesting to note that the typical short question didn’t appear in Paper 1 instead there were 2.5 questions linked very closely to Trigonometry.

Why Trigonometry you might ask?

Well, many students might not be aware Trigonometry is a fundamental set of formulas and concepts which are closely linked to arc lengths, area of sector, mensuration and any questions involving angles in triangle, area of triangles…

I can’t show you the questions due to copyright but you can get a copy of Ten Years Series book (released in January 2011).

Questions on Trigonometry in 2010 ‘O’ Level E-Maths Paper 2

Question 1 (10 marks) tests candidates on

• TOA CAH SOH (extensively since the diagram consists of 3 right angle triangles). I suspect some might use SIN rule (nothing wrong but more manipulations) instead of TOA CAH SOH to answer the questions
• Understanding of bearings

Question 7 (11 marks) tests candidates on

• Usage of COS rule to find angle
• Ability to ‘see’ and find angle of depression from paper
• Manipulation of area of triangle using formula with ‘sin’

Question 8bii (4 marks) tests candidates on

• Ability to find the height of a triangular surface using TOA CAH SOH

The challenges many students face include:

• Knowing all the formulas but not being able to select the correct approach fast and accurate enough in test and exams.
• Not being able to ‘see’ 3D from paper.
• Lacking the flexibility to manipulate formulas (due to poor Algebraic foundation in Secondary 1 and 2)
• Not learning from repeated mistakes
• Unaware of the misconceptions
• Assumption that you know the important usage of every formula but in fact you don’t

If your child is not scoring ‘A’ for E-Maths, he must know the reason and be prepared to do something about it. In ‘O’ Levels, A1 is unlikely to be 75% and above. It is determined by the bell curve of the entire cohort.

Trigonometry is a very important section in E-Maths and A-Maths. I would like to share with your child the strategies proven to have helped my students to achieve better results in their exams.

Join me in the Dec Trigonometry Workshop today! Click  here to read more.

I would love to hear your comments.

Click on this link to view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3ykmKa4MLU