Reading a Table
What a table is actually claiming: what one row counts, what one column measures, and how to tell when the figure you want is not the figure that was printed.
What the school is
A small teaching operation with one subject and a deliberately narrow catalogue: the arithmetic and the reading of figures that an ordinary week already contains. We publish what each course holds before anybody enrols, we teach it, and we mark the work that comes back. That is the whole undertaking.
What we do not do is equally short, and it is stated here rather than buried: we do not place anyone in a role, we do not award a regulated qualification, and we make no claim about what a course will do for your pay or your prospects. Probability is taught here as a way of reading a proportion that somebody else has stated, never as a method for predicting a particular outcome, and a school that sold the second thing would be selling something it does not have.
Six coursesEach with a published syllabus
16 to 28 hoursStated before you start
Recorded and writtenRead it or watch it
Marked by a tutorComments, not a score alone
The courses
Percentages in Everyday Use
The arithmetic behind every figure quoted as a share: which whole the share was taken from, and why two of them cannot simply be added together.
Basic Probability
What a probability is - a proportion of cases over a defined set, and nothing more - how to read one out of a forecast or a test result, and the two mistakes almost everybody makes with them.
A Spreadsheet from Scratch
Building a usable sheet starting from an empty one: one fact per row, a column that means exactly one thing, and a total you are able to prove twice.
Charts That Do Not Mislead
Reading a chart for what it actually shows, and building one that does not flatter whoever produced it.
Checking a Bill Line by Line
The routine that turns a statement from something you file into something you have verified: recompute the line, check the rate, and query the difference in writing.
How a course is studied
- 1
Recorded lessons
Every lesson is recorded and short, between twelve and eighteen minutes, and each one ends when the single thing it set out to show has been shown. There is no live attendance requirement, so a course fits around a working week rather than competing with it.
- 2
Written handouts
Each lesson has a written handout carrying the same content, with every worked example printed out in full. The material can be read instead of watched, searched later, and left beside the table or the sheet somebody is working through.
- 3
Practice on real figures
Exercises use published tables, exported files and real statements rather than tidy classroom examples, and each one comes with a worked solution that shows the reasoning and not only the answer.
- 4
A tutor who reads your work
Written questions are answered by a tutor within a few business days, and every graded exercise comes back with comments. In a numeracy course that marking is the part a video library cannot replace.
Study is self-paced inside the window of an intake. Nothing on this site has to be watched at a particular hour.
Who the courses are written for
Adults meeting numbers again after years awayPeople whose role has grown a spreadsheetSmall teams studying togetherVolunteers keeping records for a small groupSelf-taught practitioners filling the gaps
The material assumes an adult with a job to do and limited evenings, not a full-time student, and it assumes no mathematics beyond what school left behind. Lessons are short for that reason, handouts exist for the people who would rather read than watch, and every exercise is sized to be finished in one sitting.
Where a course is the wrong starting point for somebody, we say so before an enrolment rather than after it. A plain no at the beginning costs everybody less.
The certificate of completion
Every course ends with a certificate of completion carrying the participant, the course, the number of hours and the date. It records that the material was completed and the exercises were marked.
It is not a public licence, not a regulated qualification, and not an equivalence to a state examination. It certifies attendance and completed work, which is exactly what a school is in a position to certify.
Common questions
How do I enrol?
By writing to the address on the contact page and saying which course interests you. There is no sign-up form on this site and no payment is taken through it: the schedule, the material list and the conditions are sent to you in writing first.
Do I need to be good at mathematics?
No. Every course starts from arithmetic and is written for adults who have not studied the subject in years. Nothing here needs algebra beyond rearranging a short expression, and each syllabus states the knowledge it assumes at the top.
Do I have to be online at a fixed time?
No. Lessons are recorded and studied at your own pace inside the course window. Where an optional live session is arranged, it is recorded for the people who miss it.
What does the certificate of completion say?
It records the participant, the course, the number of hours and the date of completion. It certifies that the material was completed and the exercises were marked, and it says nothing beyond that.
Is this preparation for an examination or a qualification?
No. This is a teaching operation, not an examining board and not a licensing body. Nothing published here should be read as preparation for a particular state examination, or as a statement about hiring, pay, or the result of any test.
Asking about a course
Enrolment is arranged in writing. Send a note to contact@lanternephemeris.online naming the course you are considering, and you will receive the current schedule, the assumed knowledge, the material list and the conditions before anything is agreed.
There is no enrolment form on this site and no payment is handled through it. If a message ever asks you to send card details to us, it is not from us.