math Department

Most of the math courses at St. Nicholas are structured to be completed in approximately 6 weeks:  2 weeks of lessons, a midterm week, 2 more weeks of lessons, a final exam.  'L' and 'E' level courses will not have a midterm exam and will have an in-school open-book RST at the end of the course, rather than a final exam.
A typical week will include:
  • 6-10 activities. Each activity will have the online lesson plus a homework activity which may include practice questions and/or a multiple choice quiz.
  • 1 - 2 summative assessments. Each summative assessment will usually be printed, completed by hand, scanned as a single PDF file and submitted to the appropriate dropbox by the end of the week for evaluation.
Many of our courses use an online textbook as a resource. If your course requires a textbook, information on how to access the textbook will be found when you have access to your Brightpace course, in the Orientation Unit. ​

Materials Required:
  • computer with internet access
  • printer and scanner - Except for 3E and 4E students, all assignments should be printed, completed by hand and then scanned into a single .pdf file.  3E and 4E students have the option to print and scan or complete the assignments online.  See the Department Tools section (below) for information on CamScanner, an app for smartphones.
  • scientific calculator - NOT a graphing calculator and NOT a phone.  Students should be familiar with the features of their calculator prior to exams
  • ruler/straightedge - for drawing axes, lines, diagrams, etc.  Presentation marks will be deducted for poorly drawn lines.
Students should have some comfort with the following online tools (some guidance will be provided within the courses):
  • Desmos graphing software (all P, D, C and U level courses)
  • Google Sheets (or another spreadsheets such as Excel) (MEL3E, MEL4E, MAP4C)*
  • TVM Solver (MEL3E, MBF3C, MCR3U, MAP4C)
  • Plot.ly (MDM4U)

To explore these very helpful Math Tools, follow this link.  

The following guides contain important information on how to be successful in your math course:
How to present math solutions
How to approach your math course and assessments
How to study for a math exam

Thinking of hiring a tutor to help you with your course?
Please read this guideline to help you use your tutor effectively.​

Course Outlines and "Getting Ready" activities

You have finished the orientation! You can always revisit these pages later but click below to get started.