Grade 9Mathematics
What your child actually learns this year
Every strand and every topic in the Grade 9 Mathematics curriculum, exactly as the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development sets it out. Written so you can read it in one sitting, without a teaching qualification.
1NumbersNumbers themselves: how they behave, and the shorthand for writing very large and very small ones.
Integers
4 skillsPositive and negative together: temperatures below zero, money owed, a lift going down as well as up.
Cubes and Cube Roots
6 skillsThe volume of a cube, and working backwards from the volume to find the side.
Indices and Logarithms
5 skillsShorthand for multiplying a number by itself many times, and the way scientists write numbers too big to say.
Compound Proportions and Rates of Work
5 skillsIf three people take four days, how long do five take? The arithmetic of sharing work and sharing cost.
2AlgebraLetters standing in for numbers, and the lines those letters draw on a graph.
Matrices
6 skillsNumbers set out in a grid. It looks strange at first; it is how timetables, prices and later computer graphics are organised.
Equations of Straight Lines
8 skillsHow steep a line is, and how to write it down. The beginning of using graphs to predict rather than only to record.
Linear Inequalities
5 skillsNot “equals” but “at least” and “no more than”. The maths of budgets and limits.
3MeasurementsThe largest strand of the year. Measuring real things, and knowing how far wrong a measurement might be.
Area
7 skillsBeyond rectangles: five and six sided shapes, and the surface of solid objects.
Volume of Solids
6 skillsHow much a prism or a pyramid holds.
Mass, Volume, Weight and Density
5 skillsWhy a kilogram of feathers and a kilogram of iron are both a kilogram, and why one fills the room.
Time, Distance and Speed
8 skillsKilometres per hour and metres per second, and what average speed really means on a journey that stopped twice.
Money
7 skillsCurrency conversion, and the arithmetic of earning, spending and being paid.
Approximations and Errors
4 skillsKnowing how wrong you might be. The most adult idea in the strand, and the one most often skipped.
4GeometryShape, position and direction, including the first proper introduction to trigonometry.
Coordinates and Graphs
5 skillsPlotting points, and drawing a line when you are given only its equation.
Scale Drawing
9 skillsBearings and maps: describing where something is by direction and distance.
Similarity and Enlargement
6 skillsSame shape, different size. How a photograph and its enlargement stay the same picture.
Trigonometry
6 skillsSine, cosine and tangent. In plain terms: how to work out a height you cannot climb and a distance you cannot walk.
5Data Handling and ProbabilityMaking sense of a lot of numbers at once, and putting a figure on how likely something is.
Data Interpretation (Grouped Data)
6 skillsWhen there are too many results to list, you group them, and learn to read the groups.
Probability
7 skillsHow likely is it? From coins and dice to weather and risk.
Why you can take this page at face value
Straight from the KICD design
The strands and topics on this page are the Grade 9 Mathematics curriculum as the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development sets it out. We have not chosen them, reordered them or left any out.
Nothing here is a sample
Every topic below is covered in our question bank, not a selection of the easy ones. The numbers beside each strand are the real counts.
Marked by a machine, written by a person
Each question carries its full working and a note on why every wrong answer is wrong, so a child who misses one is told what they were thinking, not just that they were wrong.
See what your child can already do
Twenty questions, free, across any of these topics, with the complete weekly report that tells you which are solid and which are slipping. No card, nothing renews by itself.
Start free — 20 questions 🚀400 Grade 9 Mathematics questions in the bank, covering every topic on this page.