Our Method is simple.

We teach you how to write the Grade 12 exam of your country with the full power of the Internet at your disposal.

When we first started to develop this site we expected to be creating all the content. we found  a web full of maths resources, but none  focused on preparing you for this exam. You can spent hours on the web looking for and practicing concepts that you already know. Point and click multiple choice exercises don't help you much in IEC and NSC. Unfortunately in the real world these exams are taken with the 20^th century methodology of exam-room–pen-and-paper. You  have to get  skilled in pen and paper and focusing your mind for three hours. We do this with a combination of handwritten exams and online marking. We call this blended learning.

Its a bit more complicated that that - see more detail on our method

We simulate the exam  environment and record your progress We have a online network and community that will evaluate your progress and keep a feedback loop that keeps you focused towards your weakest areas. You don't waste time practicing the questions that you already understand and show great competence. We do this through a self grading method that will help you to understand how examiners think.

Grade 12 Exams are always the same!

To the first time student this is not always obvious. Think  it through. More than any other exam in your education history this is the one that is both the most complex and the easiest to standardize. No matter the base language or the country involved, maths is maths. Even the most developed counties are under pressure to deploy the best resources in maths education. The examining authority has to deliver an International standard examination that the examiners will not screw up in marking.

Between 5% and 10% of students are going to make it with distinctions. To make it less stressful for the markers,  examiners keep it constant from year to year. They might change the numbers, but the principles are always the same. They are not watching us. We sneak in under the radar and and Bingo we leave with an A! There are only so many ways they can do it. Follow our method and when you get to the exam, you will have seen it all before. They may just as well give us the paper now and let us practice!

We don't compete with your teachers we complement them.

Copeman Academy  not a registered institution competing in the formal education space. We are here to beat the system, not succumb to it.

What makes our method neat is that it gives you feedback as to where your weak points are. We find the best material and best deliveries on the Web. Our instructors then provide you videos, links and exercises that fix those weak points. You can present your Copeman Academy results to your teachers and they can help to hit these weak spots. Then when you are ready we feed you back into our exam system and test you again. Keep doing this and even the weakest students becomes capable.

Discipline over Creativity

You have the rest of your career in the Copeman Academy to be creative. Just this once you have knuckle down and follow the rules.

We are going to ask you to follow some really parochial rules (like spacing and formatting your answers as works of art). This is not us being nasty or bullying you, just our way of beating the system. You can type on a keyboard for the rest of your life - for this exam you have to go back 20 years and scribble on a a piece of paper. The good news is that you will come to know the meaning of the expression, "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king". 

Don't question the syllabus. The Grade12 exams are an exercise in Global standards. The Examining Authorities even have to confirm to a global standard. We need you to give them what they want – in exchange they will give you a distinction pass. Once you have that the gates of freedom begin to open. We emphasize self discipline, because if you do continue with the Copeman Academy for Tertiary Business Education, self discipline will be your greatest asset.

Grade 12 IEB or NSC is not a democracy. If you have any doubt about this read this instruction to Exam markers:

Prelims are important

It varies from examination centre to centre, but a general rule is that prelim marks will count around 25% of your final mark. Here are the IEB assessment criteria

By way of example:

Say you have a School Year Assessment of 60% and you wish to get 80% for your final mark you will need 85%  in Paper 1 and 85% in Paper 2 to achieve a final mark of  80%!

(0.65*100 + 0.85 150 + 0.85 * 150 )/4 = 80%

We will always aim to get you at least 5% above the hurdle that you wish to achieve. If you want 80% we aim for 85% This means if you approach the Copeman Academy with a teacher assessment of 65% we have to aim for 85%. If you approach us with an assessment of 50% you have to aim fof 90%. These are tough figures but doable.

Every school has a dark secret

Your school teachers are almost always on your side, but not always. You will have to go into the Dungeons of Azkaban before they admit this and maybe your school is the only one that doesn't do it but for all the others, here is the ugly truth:

Schools and their Maths teachers are measured on two criteria, their pass rate and the number of distinctions.

The guys in the middle are their cannon fodder. No one cares if you got B,C or D. When teachers put in their class year marks it would be the easiest thing for them to put in really high marks for ALL their students. They want to do this as your marks are their marks. The limitation is set by the examiners board usually using a Z score. This is a test whereby the normalised data – the mean and variance - of the years score must match - the mean and variance - of the final years exam marks (Otherwise the authorities will suspect that you have a cheat for a teacher).

 To understand what a Z score is see:

The Central Limit Theorem
The Central Limit Theorem

Now you may have had a crush on your teacher for the last 5 years, but her life is on the line here. Beautiful and sweet as she is, behind closed doors the monster will out. This is what she is going to do (sub-consciously or not, it is beyond her control.) She is going to steal marks from the middle students and give them to her highest performers and her weakest performers. This way she meets her evaluation criteria, gets a high pass rate and gets the maximum distinctions. No one cares about the Bs,Cs,and Ds. This is why they cull the Mass Lit Students. If they are offering you Maths Lit then the Red lights should be flashing.

You have to make her bet on you getting a distinction. When she fails in that, she is no longer our friend and we are on our own. Its not over but it is a harsh an unfriendly world and forever you will be left lettting her know that you got an A without her. It is a whole lot easier with a great year mark. A 90% plus Final mark is difficult without a year mark. Try not to go there.

Get your teacher on your side

You have got to prove to your teacher that you are capable of achieving a Distinction in Mathematics. There are a number of ways to do this:

Tell her you are going to do it.

Do not be a number in her class list.

Prove it by scoring well in the tests and prelim exams and point it out to her.

Show her your ever improving progress report in the Copeman Academy

Don't take Maths Lit

You will regret it for the rest of your life. Certainly don't take Maths Lit until we have given up on you. You will be surprised what can be achieved if you apply our method. We won't waste your time. Only when we see that you lack tenacity, will we give up on you. Until then, if you get pressured at school do both. Stick with mainstream maths, you can change to Maths Lit one week before exams and then apply the methods you have learned here to get at least an A in Maths Lit (sadly still not worth much).

Time is not on your side

This is likely the first time that you are doing this and you are like to have a below average understanding of the General Theory of Relativity. In a nutshell, time is not what it seems. It is going to disappear in a flash. In 20 years time you won't even be able to distinguish the period between when you read this paragraph and the time that you sat down to your final exam.

You need to change your ways today. What ever you have learned in 12 the last 12 years of maths class, the die is cast. You must now take whatever you have and start practicing exams. NOW!

Examiners want you to succeed!

Can you imagine what its like marking hundred of thousands of drab papers? The same thing over and over again. Then along comes you, everything neatly and clearly a laid out. No scratchings, no errors answers easily readable. That examiner is going to do everything she can to launch you successfully on your career path. That is why our core activity is practicing exam writing.

Be honest in your self-assessments.

The best results can be achieved from the Copeman Academy by self-assessment. Be honest in your self-assessment. Be worse than that - be hard on yourself. There is no shame in not knowing a topic. There is weakness in not have the courage to fix it. There is shame in not fixing it and pretending to fix it.

This is the sure way to get yourself kicked out of the Copeman Academy – cheat in your self- assessments. When you cheat in self-assessment, you cheat mostly yourself, but you cheat your parents and you cheat your instructors. You waste the time of our instructors who could be helping you, but instead are wasting their valuable lives sorting through rubbish data to help a cheat. We are not as much interested in your marks, but in your rate of improvement. We are more interested in f '(x) than f(x)

Will you get away with cheating? You  may get away with it for a short time, but not likely for any extended period. Some of our Instructors got upwards of 95% for these exams, they can read maths like a book. You are likely cheating because you do not understand the material. If this is the case, you are also likely to be unable to cheat them. We have been doing this for a long time, this is likely your first attempt at cheating. We have a 100% record that is more important to us than your feelings. We catch you cheating we throw you out, you won't even have a chance to appeal. At best you might get you money back. At worst you miss that chance to get an A for Maths and enter the netherworld of those that didn't - it is a life sentence.

There is a real reason not to cheat. We have a 100% record of success. We have taken really weak students to A marks. We seek only tenacity. You may be weak, and it may make you slow but you will get stronger with repetition.

We won't waste your parent's Money

We are not here to force you to do Mathematics. I you have not yet realized that Grade 12 Math is one of the most important courses you will do in your life and you don't particularly care if you succeed or not, then best you go enjoy yourself somewhere else.

If you do understand this but have come to this revelation at a late stage in life and you are willing to correct the situation, then you are in the right place. There are no half measures here. We are here to get a distinction pass, because that is the only one worth having.

You are never too old to correct this. Once you get a grip on Maths – everything else becomes easier. A world of riches awaits you at the Copeman Academy

Get lots of sleep

The best thing to do on the night before the big exam is to go to bed early!

We will have conquered this syllabus a long time before you have to perform your finals. You will have proved on numerous occasions to the most important person – yourself – that you have the ability to do this.