Maths and Statistics

Refresh and improve your maths skills!

The resources on this page contain easy-to-understand explanatory notes, worked examples and exercises for each topic. Begin with our guides to studying mathematics.

Guide to studying mathematics (PDF, 230 KB)

Quick guide to math strategies (PDF, 211 KB)

Many word problems in science, engineering, maths, business and health require numerical calculations to solve.  You will apply your understanding of your discipline to tackle the problem, but you may also need to apply some mathematical skills to find the solution. Developing a strategy for approaching problems may help overcome the ‘Where do I start?’ hurdle. Two suggested approaches are given below.

The problem-solving template will help you dissect the question and clarify a path to finding the answer, particularly for non-routine (abstract or subjective) questions.

Problem Solving Template (DOCX, 44 KB)

The checklist approach will help ensure accuracy 100% of the time for more routine problems.

Qualitative Problems Checklist (PDF, 195 KB)

In research, and more recently in public forums, statements and decisions are increasingly required to be supported or justified using data. Statements and decisions are now commonly supported by data representations, but sometimes these representations are misleading or incorrect. We need to know how to critically evaluate graphs so we can establish the validity of any data representation and ensure that it actually supports the claim.

Read further about critical evaluation of graphs

Maths Anxiety is a real thing and it is very common! It is estimated that 20% of all people are affected by anxiety when faced with situations involving mathematics. Maths anxiety can affect your ability to do mathematics, but it does not mean you are bad at mathematics. Conversely, you are probably better at mathematics than your results show. Maths anxiety affects your ability to use your brain to do maths. It is not that you cannot learn maths or that you're bad at maths, but that the anxiety you feel reduces your capacity to learn or do maths. You can continue to learn maths, even with maths anxiety. Better still, there are strategies you can use to reduce maths anxiety, and thus improve your maths performance.

Read further about math anxiety and strategies against it.