Year 9 Maths covers a lot of key concepts that are built upon in senior maths. If you’re a parent that would like to know the ins and outs of your child’s Year 9 maths curriculum, or a Year 9 student who is curious to know what you will be learning throughout year, you’ve come to the right place!
We’ll provide you with a detailed outline of all the learning areas in the Year 9 maths curriculum, including things that you will learn, how they relate to the real world and the standards that Year 9 students will reach by the end of the year.
Although these things may vary between schools based on teachers’ preferences, this article should give you a good idea of what this level of maths encompasses.
Let’s get started!
The Year 9 Maths Curriculum
#1: Number and Algebra
#2: Measurement and Geometry
#3: Statistics and Probability
Assessment Types
Achievement Standards in Year 9
Looking for Maths guides for other year groups?
If you have a child in a different year group to Year 9, we’ve also got guides for them! Have a look at our guides for the various year groups:
Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 10
The Year 9 Maths Curriculum
The Year 9 Mathematics curriculum has 3 key components which each cover a variety of subtopics. These broad components are:
- Number and Algebra
- Measurement and Geometry
- Statistics and Probability
These areas are important in developing the bases for higher level maths, with a lot of these concepts being expanded and extended upon as high school progresses.
Each topic will assess and exercise and develop students’ mathematical understanding, fluency, problem-solving and reasoning. Don’t fret if these don’t make sense, because we will cover them in detail below.
There are also a number of major changes coming to the Years 7-10 NSW Maths Curriculum in 2024! Make sure you’re ahead of them.
Let’s break down each component!
#1: Number and Algebra
This is a super important part of mathematical foundations. Many topics in maths from here on out will involve many of the subtopics in this topic, and a confidence with algebra can really help in senior mathematics.
The subtopics covered in ‘Number and Algebra’ are as follows:
Real Numbers
This topic will cover a variety of concepts. A Year 9 student will learn to comfortably differentiate between real, rational and irrational numbers.
They will begin covering concepts of proportionality, in specific, direct and indirect proportionality and link this concept to both graphical (lines and hyperbolas) and real life situations (through worded problems involving money and other real world scenarios).
Students will then extend upon their Year 8 knowledge of index laws to include that of negative indices. Being familiar with index laws is a super important part of mathematics as it allows for fun simplifications in various tricky algebra problems.
The final section of this topic includes learning about scientific notation, and how extremely big or small numbers can be re-written in a manner that is succinct and easy to understand!
Money and Financial maths
This is a topic in maths is one whose real world applications are slightly more obvious. Students will learn the concepts of pay, tax, commission and interest, delving into both simple and compound interest.
Students will begin to understand how this kind of mathematics can help them make decisions in their future financial lives.
Patterns and algebra
This topic asks students to develop some creative thinking skills. They will cover the applications of index laws, and work on expansions, collecting like terms, and factorising.
It is often helpful for students to visualise and become familiar with the graphs of the functions they are expanding and factorising, which will help with understanding abstract concepts in graphing later on in the mathematics course.
Linear and nonlinear relationships
This topic focusses on understanding both linear and nonlinear functions. Students will learn to graph both linear and nonlinear functions by finding the x and y intercepts.
They will also learn how to find the distance between two points, the midpoint of a line and the gradient of a line segment. (This may sound complicated, but once you get a hold of the concepts, they become really fun to solve!)
Students will also begin to solve one, two and multi-step linear equations.
#2: Measurement and Geometry
This topic introduces Year 9 students to proofs, and understanding more abstract problems in maths.
The subtopics covered in ‘Measurement and Geometry’ are as follows:
Using units of Measurement
This topic focusses on teaching students how to find areas, volumes and surface areas of various shapes. Through visual explanations, students can start to understand the process of expanding upon a given mathematical formula, using it to solve questions that are different to its first intended use.
This topic also uses the knowledge gathered from scientific notation to solve these problems, leaving answers in a form that is succinct and easy to read.
Geometric Reasoning
This topic features important ideas such as similarity, congruence and scaling among shapes such as triangles.
Here, students begin to delve into forming mathematical proofs, and learn how to explain mathematical procedures in a clear and logical manner. This allows for the development of important mathematical communication skills which allows for students to solidify their own knowledge by explaining what they have worked out!
Pythagoras and Trigonometry
This topic covers key trigonometry concepts that will be greatly built upon in the remainder of high school maths. Pythagoras theorem, applications of the theorem and uses in questions will be covered in depth.
The foundations for harder trigonometry will also be set, with introductions to the sin, cos and tan ratios in right angle triangles. These ratios will then be applied to solving various trigonometry problems in right angled triangles.
Our Parramatta Maths Tutors are ready to provide individual, tailored learning support in your own home or online. Our holistic approach has been proven to increase confidence and results.
#3: Statistics and Probability
This topic has a variety of applications not only in the rest of high school maths, but also in various university subjects in which the skill of data interpretation and an understanding of chance becomes useful.
The subtopics covered in ‘Statistics and Probability’ are as follows:
Chance
Students will cover two-step chance experiments (such as flipping a coin), recognise how many possible outcomes there are in an experiment and use this information to answer basic probability questions. Concepts of ‘and’ and ‘or’ will also be covered utilising Venn diagrams.
Data representation and interpretation
Students will be introduced to various ways of representing data including stem and leaf plots. They will be taught to find means, medians and modes and will be introduced to various ways to describe data, using terms such as positively or negatively skewed.
Some overarching goals of Year 9 Maths…
…include being able to understand the mathematical concepts discussed, to be able to apply these concepts in a manner that is fluent and confident, to demonstrate and develop problem solving skills in various mathematical situations and to begin to use mathematical reasoning to justify mathematical arguments and procedures.
Assessment Types
Over the course of the year, students will be asked to complete a variety of assessment tasks to test their knowledge on the concepts taught. Although there is not much variety on how a student can be assessed in maths, some of the ways include:
- Topic tests
- Quizzes
- End of year exams
- Take home assignments
- Explanatory assignments (in which students are required to explain a topic)
These tasks may vary across schools; however, your child will be exposed to many of these over the course of the year.
Here’s an idea of the tasks and the standards to which Year 9 students would be completing these tasks:
Achievement Standards in Year 9 Maths
By the end of Year 9, students will have covered and will be able to do a variety of things in the three key topic areas covered — ‘Number and Algebra’, ‘Measurement and Geometry’ and ‘Statistics and Probability’.
These areas of confidence include:
- Solve problems involving interest, ratios, and similarity in shapes.
- Understand and apply trigonometric ratios and identities in relation to similarity.
- Compare data collection techniques and analyse data using means and medians.
- Apply index laws and scientific notation in mathematical operations.
- Expand, simplify, and factorize binomial expressions.
- Calculate distances, gradients, and midpoints on a Cartesian plane.
- Sketch linear and nonlinear relations and calculate areas and volumes of shapes.
- Utilise Pythagoras’ theorem and trigonometry to find unknown sides in triangles.
- Calculate probabilities and outcomes in two-step probability experiments.
- Construct histograms and stem-and-leaf plots to visualise and interpret data.
And that’s it for our guide to Year 9 Mathematics! We wish you the best of luck for your studies, and are super excited for you to engage with the course!
Check out our guide to acing your English studies in Year 9 here.
Looking for some extra help with Year 9 Maths?
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Yasmin Hasan is a current first year psychology student at UNSW. She loves making art, playing piano or reading in her spare time. She graduated from high school in 2021 so her memories of her own high school experience are still quite fresh. She would love to use her own experiences to help other students build their confidence and improve in their academics!
