Literacy and Numeracy
The Literacy and numeracy domain tests the communication and quantitative skills a teacher uses to read curriculum documents, write clear feedback, interpret school data and explain numerical ideas. It is not advanced mathematics; it rewards careful reading, accurate grammar and sound proportional reasoning.
Literacy
- Identify the writer’s purpose and tone; distinguish fact from opinion and main idea from supporting detail.
- Use subject-specific vocabulary precisely: “mass” not “weight”, “concentration” not “amount”.
- Write complete sentences with subject–verb agreement; avoid ambiguous pronouns.
- Summarise without copying long extracts.
Numeracy
- Percentage = part ÷ whole × 100.
- Percentage change = (new − old) ÷ old × 100; percentage points describe a difference between two percentages.
- Mean = total ÷ number of values; median is the middle value when data are ordered.
- Keep units consistent; convert before calculating; round only at the end.
Worked example
Class A has 40 learners and 24 pass. Class B has 25 learners and 16 pass. Which class has the higher pass rate, and by how many percentage points?
Reasoning: Class A = 24 ÷ 40 × 100 = 60%. Class B = 16 ÷ 25 × 100 = 64%. Class B is higher by 64 − 60 = 4 percentage points. It is not “4% higher”: the difference is 4 percentage points, while the relative increase from 60% to 64% is 4 ÷ 60 × 100 ≈ 6.7%.
Traps that cost marks
- Comparing raw numbers when group sizes differ.
- Confusing percentage points with per cent.
- Averaging two class averages without weighting by class size.
- Mixing units, such as cm with m, or minutes with hours.
- Choosing the mean for skewed data when the median is more representative.
- Rounding intermediate values and carrying the error forward.
Reading data questions
Before calculating, identify what the denominator is, whether the question asks for a rate or a count, and whether the comparison is absolute or relative.