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PiXL Maths App
Education
App
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note, this application is for PiXL school members only and you will need to get your school id from your teacher if your school is a member of the PiXL club. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The PiXL Maths App (PMA) is a skills based assessment program. The app successfully highlights your strengths and your areas to develop. This is a very useful and accurate tool to use prior to any test to help rank which revision topics are of the most importance. The app is setup in such a way to guide you through a wide range of Mathematical topics. The PMA assesses generic skill based Mathematical knowledge; it therefore suitably matches the AQA, Edexcel or OCR schemes of learning. INSTRUCTIONS: After installation, you are presented with a login screen. You will need to create your own account following the on screen instructions. Keep your login details safe as all future results will be stored under your account. This incredibly powerful tool then helps you to start identifying areas you need to revise. By answering each of the online questions, the app highlights the objectives you have successfully completed and which ones you will need to work on. After some targeted revision, you can then return back to the app to see if you have improved. With each access, the questions are refreshed so you can assess yourself with a similar problem but with different numbers. To aid with closing the gap, therapy videos can be found within in question to help target specific skills. Take a challenge - select your target grade and you will be given a bespoke program of questions to help you achieve it. CONTENTS: The app covers the following range of topics: Statistics and Number - 1) Mean, mode, median and range 2) Pictogram and tally tables 3) Bar charts 4) Probability 5) Stem and leaf 6) Two-way tables 7) Scatter diagrams 8) Percentages and ratio 9) Pie charts 10) Frequency polygons 11) Cumulative frequency tables and graphs 12) Box plots 13) Histograms 14) Upper and lower bounds Number and Algebra - 1) Operating with integers, decimals and directed numbers (negatives) 2) Place value, BIDMAS and rounding 3) Factors, multiples, HCF and LCM 4) Indices and standard index form 5) Surds 6) Ratio and proportion 7) Fractions, decimals and percentages 8) Equations and simultaneous equations 9) Quadratics - factorising and completing the square 10) Sequences - inc. understanding of nth term rules 11) Linear graphs - y = mx + c 12) Real life graphs - speed, distance and time calculations 13) Inequalities - inc. interpretation of graphical inequalitites 14) Substituting into formulae 15) Changing the subject / rearranging a formula Geometry and Algebra - 1) Properties of shapes - inc. angles on parallel lines, interior and exterior angles 2) Circle theorems 3) Congruence and similarity 4) Area and perimeter 5) Volume and surface area 6) Transformations 7) Vectors 8) Direct and inverse proportion 9) Bearings and measure - inc. approximations and metric/imperial conversions 10) Algebraic manipulation and equations 11) Pythagoras' theorem 12) Trigonometry 13) Trial and improvement 14) Graph transformations 15) Dimensional analysis 16) Ratio and similarity 17) Loci 18) Nets, plans and elevations 19) Real life graphs SUPPORT: Before rating the app, please let me know of any suggestions you might have on how I might improve the app. Any topics you think I may have missed or you happen to perhaps find some glaring glitches, then please email me first at mrwslab@gmail.com. The app has taken a considerable amount of my personal time to develop so please give it 5 stars to say "thank you".
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Sarah (7798 KP) rated Mean Girls (2004) in Movies
Nov 22, 2020
The third film on my 100 Movies Bucket List is Mean Girls, a film I’ve seen but never had any strong emotion for. Mean Girls stars Lindsay Lohan as Cady, who after living and being homeschooled in Africa for most of her life, must now enter the terrifying world of an American high school. Here she meets Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese) who clue her into high school hierarchy, including introducing her to the Plastics: Regina (Rachel McAdams), Karen (Amanda Seyfried) and Gretchen (Lacey Chabert).
Mean Girls is a teenage movie that is unlike many others – instead of being dumb and crude, it’s surprisingly smart and humorous. From the opening scenes, it’s obvious that this is intelligent. It’s full of subtle jokes and remarks and some absolutely superb one liners, and these are all down to Tina Fey who has written an excellent script. And in the process appears to have some of the best lines as teacher Mrs Norbury, but do you blame her? Mean Girls manages to portray the high school hierarchy and social interactions perfectly. Whilst is is obviously catering more to American high schoolers, I doubt there are many that would watch this and not see something that they personally experienced at high school. It’s almost poking fun at the high school experience but in such a smart and enjoyable way. There are moments and lines in this that are almost verging on inappropriate, and likely wouldn’t be acceptable in today’s society, but even though this was made in 2004 I don’t doubt that this impropriety is still reflective of modern day high schools.
The acting on offer here is superb. Lindsay Lohan is entirely believable as Cady and this is hugely important considering the message Mean Girls is portraying. This film is entirely about the realisation that you should be happy about you are, and that putting other people down will never achieve anything. Getting this message across is done very well, in a funny yet almost heartwarming manner although admittedly it is all rather obvious. Although at least this tries to avoid as many teenage film clichés as possible, which makes for a refreshing change.
My problem with Mean Girls is the whole bitchiness of it all that underpins the second act. I know “mean” girls were to be expected, but by the end I found myself getting very irritable with how horrible these girls were and the constant sniping at each other. This may stem from my own sometimes unpleasant experiences at high school, but teenage girls stabbing each other in the backs gets very old very quickly. Fortunately the ending does at least relieve some of the meanness and provide a surprisingly heartwarming and uplifting resolution, but I’m afraid some of the damage remains. And I must admit that seeing a smart girl play dumb and risk failing for a boy really makes my blood boil, and yes I do know it’s only a film.
Overall Mean Girls is a well done teenage film which stands out mostly because of its very smart script. It’s probably one of the best high school based films out there but it isn’t perfect, and I do question as to whether it deserves a spot on the bucket list when there are so many outstanding films that have missed out.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Yesterday (2019) in Movies
Jun 28, 2019
They want to know where he came up with this amazing song. Jack tells them the greatest pop band in history…The Beattles. But they have no idea who that is and neither does the rest of the world. Now Jack is the only person in the world who knows the songs of one of the top selling iconic bands in history. It’s not long before the world comes to know of Jack Malik the single greatest song writer of all time. But will he be found out as a fraud, will fame and money change him and most importantly will he leave behind the people he cares for most.
This Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) director comedy is original and well written, by Jack Barth (story) and RAbbey Mordue
ichard Curtis (screenplay). The story is part romantic comedy and part fantasy film. It’s original and fun but there are times that the story is clunky and oddly put together. There are times that feel like major events are skipped over. The soundtrack is definitely filled with The Beattles with some modern music sprinkled in, including Ed Sheerran who plays himself in the film. If you are a fan of The Beattles you will definitely enjoy the film and how they wind the music into the story. The cast is fun and fit well together. Patel is both awkward and troubled and he does a well in the lead. He also does a great job singing. Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters, Saturday Night Live) is great as a money hungry music executive.
I admittedly am a huge fan of The Beattles and was very excited but premise of this film. At the very least I would be able to listen to good music for two hours. But I really enjoyed the originality and visuals that were put together. The story while clunky at times was overall fun to watch. When you thought it was predictable and knew where the film was taking you the story would divert slightly and surprise you. It is a fun date movie that worth the price of a movie ticket.
4 out of 5
http://sknr.net/2019/06/27/yesterday/
Andy K (10821 KP) rated Vox Lux (2018) in Movies
Sep 18, 2019
She achieves instant success with her song, so much so, she gets a recording contract and her and her sister are whisked away to Sweden to record it officially and make a music video. Her manager chaperones her time there, but does not have much success. The girls have a good time partying and choosing every excess including the consequences. The video is a success and she becomes a star.
Eighteen years later, the aging pop star is trying to make a comeback and show she can still keep up. Her relationships with her sister, teenage daughter and sister as she has lived the ego-driven life of a celebrity now for too long. One the eve of a concert performance, another massive multi-person shooting happens at a beachfront, the perpetrators donning masks used in one of her videos making her the target of paparazzi and media scrutiny at a pivotal time in her life.
She tries to salvage her relationship with her daughter who is going through her own teenage angst with mixed success. It seems she is her own worst enemy questioning her choices and continuing leading the lifestyle of a demanding celebrity.
The movie seems like a tale of two halves with the teenage Celeste and the "grown up" version even having screen captures saying so. For me the first half was way more interesting than the second. The teenage Celeste was more believable, maybe because you didn't know her, but the screenplay was more interesting for her as well.
One can only imagine the emotions of having to live through such a tragedy and having to rebuild your life afterwards. Then adding on top of it, her instantaneous global stardom could not have done well to heal her physical, but emotional scars as well.
I felt Natalie Portman seemed out of place and her acting felt very wooden and dry to me unlike most of her portfolio. She even was an executive producer on the film along with her costar Jude Law, so she may have been focused on that instead of her acting performance. She doesn't appear in the film until close to an hour in and filmed her scenes over 10 days. It is unfortunate, but I really didn't believe her and took me out of several scenes as a result.
It is hard to empathize with the celebrity lifestyle of excess and demands having never lived it myself. It has certainly been portrayed onscreen much better than it is here and it really felt like the two halves of the film were disconnected and not resolved.
I certainly don't mind, or even encourage, the vague open-ended type of film generally speaking if it is left you to think about the plight of the characters their decisions, and ultimate destinations; however, this film accomplishes this only through bad writing.
The concert footage was well done and Portman certainly delivered on transforming into a Madonna/Britney Spears type icon. I was just hoping for more of a payoff and felt disappointed in the end.
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