Through measurement to knowledge

Only those students achieving ‘Advanced’ or, at an extreme pinch ‘High’ in maths at Grade 8 will have any real chance of success in Year 11/12 higher levels of maths. 

Algebra is correctly described as the ‘gateway to further mathematics’.  Weak algebra in lower secondary school leads to trouble later.  TIMSS subdivides the results into categories one of which is algebra in Grade 8.   Algebra outcomes: (TIMSS scale average 500)

All of the top five performing countries were East Asian (>558). The only European countries to reach the 500 mean were Armenia 532, Russia 518, Hungary 503 and Serbia 500. The weak performance of the three English speaking countries is noticeable. US managed to be average, England, despite the better performance overall noted earlier is algebraically weak and Australia’s performance is frankly embarrassing. 

Similar data analyses for science at Years 4 and 8 are:

TIMSS also sub-divides science content into four groups: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science. The results below all have a TIMSS scale average of 500 as usual;