Your teenager sits down to study Advanced Functions. They recognise the examples from class and can follow the teacher’s notes. Then a homework question changes the graph or combines two ideas, and they cannot decide where to begin.
If your child is taking Grade 12 Advanced Functions (MHF4U) in Ontario, you may be wondering whether this is an ordinary difficult week or a sign that they need more support. For Nigerian and African parents in Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Ottawa and other Ontario communities, it can be especially hard to help when the course names and teaching approach differ from those you knew at school.
The first useful step is to find out what kind of question stops your child. A lower mark tells you there is a problem. Their working shows you where it starts.
What is MHF4U?
MHF4U is Ontario’s Grade 12 Advanced Functions university preparation course. Students work with functions in several forms, including polynomial, rational, logarithmic and trigonometric functions. They investigate properties, connect equations with graphs and solve problems using what they understand about those relationships.
Ontario lists Grade 11 Functions (MCR3U) or Grade 12 Mathematics for College Technology (MCT4C) as prerequisites for MHF4U. A student may have passed an earlier course and still have a gap that becomes noticeable in Advanced Functions.
Why does Advanced Functions suddenly feel harder?
In earlier Maths courses, your child may have learned a method, practised several similar examples and performed well on a test. MHF4U often asks them to choose which ideas apply to an unfamiliar question.
For example, a student might know how to solve an equation but struggle when asked to explain what its solutions mean on a graph. Another might draw a graph accurately yet miss a restriction on where a rational function is defined.
These are different difficulties. Giving both students the same stack of practice questions will not necessarily address either one.
Four signs that show where your child needs help
1. They can copy a solution but cannot start alone
Ask your child to cover the worked example and explain the first step