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Lifeskills Mathematics

New National Qualifications

Maths instruments: ruler, compass, pencil Lifeskills Mathematics sits within the Mathematics curriculum area.

Finalised Course and Unit documents are now available for all the new qualifications, from National 2 to Advanced Higher. These documents contain both mandatory information (in the Specifications) and advice and guidance (in the Support Notes). You can download all of these documents for this subject from our download page, using the button below, or use our check-box facility to download a selection of documents.

Assessment support materials are also now available for all the new National 2, National 3, National 4 and National 5 qualifications. Information on Course assessment support material (such as Specimen Question Papers and coursework information) is available on the National 5 subject page and, for all National 2 to National 5 qualifications, information on how to access Unit assessment support materials can be found on each subject page.

Following the development of these support materials, some documents with mandatory information (Course Assessment Specifications, in particular) have been updated with further information and clarifications. In line with our standard practice, these documents contain version information and, if necessary, a note of changes. This ensures you can recognise the most up-to-date documents.

Development process

The final documents have been published following a lengthy engagement process. Find out how we got here. Considerable work has been carried out by the Curriculum Area Review Groups (CARGs), the Qualifications Design Teams (QDTs) and Subject Working Groups (SWGs) to develop the final documents.

At each stage of the qualification development process, we publish draft documents outlining our proposals and plans.

Visit our timeline to find out when the next documents for each qualification will be published.

Key points

National 3 to National 5

develops confidence and independence in being able to handle information and mathematical tasks in both personal life and in the workplace
motivates and challenges learners by enabling them to think through real-life situations involving mathematics
has mathematical skills underpinned by numeracy and is designed to develop learners’ mathematical reasoning skills relevant to learning, life and work
provides opportunities in Units for combined assessment
has a hierarchical Unit structure that provides progression from National 2 to National 5
has a test as the added value assessment at National 4, and question papers at National 5

National 2 Lifeskills Mathematics

offers opportunities for flexible delivery through the use of Units which can be delivered sequentially, in parallel or in a combined way
offers increased opportunities for personalisation, choice and flexibility in Unit assessment, with opportunities for integrated assessment
provides increased opportunities for interdisciplinary and cross-curriculum working
includes both mathematical operational and reasoning skills in the Units
provides an opportunity to use mathematical skills in real-life contexts

The Unit titles have been changed to better reflect the Unit content, which has been reorganised. Units, including the National 4 Added Value Unit Outcomes, Assessment Standards and Evidence Requirement statements, have all been revised to increase flexibility. Additional information is provided in the Evidence Requirements for all Units.

At National 2, there has been a change of Unit title from Personal Mathematics to Shape, Space and Data to better reflect content. There is now a range of small optional Units, which aims to improve accessibility for learners at this level.