Useful enough to act on.
Honest enough to question.

What the evidence labels mean

Each label describes the intended evidence mix recorded in a guide’s editorial metadata; it is not a certification. Official-source guide points readers toward primary government, institution, application-centre, or regulator material. Official + community also discusses clearly labelled lived-experience themes. Research & practical combines cited research or professional guidance with a practical framework. Community claims audited starts with recurring public claims and asks what the cited evidence can actually support. Readers should still open the live links for consequential decisions.

The source ladder

1. Law, regulation, government policy, or official system rule for province-wide requirements.
2. The institution or program that owns the decision for admissions, fees, curriculum, progression, accommodation, residence, and deadlines.
3. Accreditor, regulator, application centre, or public data steward for professional recognition, applications, and comparable indicators.
4. Peer-reviewed or established professional evidence for learning and wellbeing claims.
5. Student, parent, counsellor, and public discussion for questions and possible experiences—not universal facts.

A secondary summary can orient a reader, but it should not outrank the current authority for a consequential decision.

What a decision guide tries to separate

• What a source supports: a claim tied to a cited authority.
• What varies: an answer that depends on cohort, board, school, institution, program, campus, applicant type, or date.
• What people report: a lived experience that may be real without being representative.
• What to do next: a concrete verification, question, checklist, or support route.

Dates, cohorts, and changing rules

Ontario graduation requirements, financial-aid rules, admission cycles, program inventories, fees, campuses, and deadlines change. A visible source-snapshot date records the page’s stated research point; it does not guarantee that every linked authority remains unchanged or that every line received independent human re-verification on that date. Confirm live details with the decision owner before acting.

University and college comparisons

The comparison method avoids a context-free ranking and instead separates exact program, campus, curriculum, progression, work-integrated learning, accreditation, cost, commute, support, and outcome questions. Institution-level data should not be presented as if it proves a program-level result.

Reddit and student experience

Forums can reveal recurring questions about commute, residence, workload, belonging, offers, co-op, costs, and regret. They are also vulnerable to selection bias, unverifiable identity, outdated information, program mixing, and extreme experiences. When community material is used, it should be paraphrased as anecdotal context and factual claims should be checked against primary sources. One person’s experience does not establish what happens to everyone.

What the mathematics publication gate checks

The static builder checks structure: minimum length, a minimum section count, worked-example markup, a common-mistakes section, and attached practice data. 464 lessons currently pass those automated requirements. This gate does not prove that every equation, worked step, prompt, solution, interaction, or accessibility behaviour is correct. Teachers, tutors, students, and families should independently check high-stakes or assessed material.

AI-assisted production and review limits

AI can help organize research, draft explanations, generate and inspect code, and find omissions. Kamran remains the independent author/editor responsible for publication and correction decisions. Neither AI output nor an automated build counts as a primary source or expert peer review. This release should not be described as line-by-line independently expert-validated.

Editorial-image boundary

Each non-mathematics guide has a distinct AI-assisted editorial illustration with a visible disclosure and curated alternative text. The image is atmosphere and orientation, not evidence. It must not impersonate a real person, university, government document, policy screen, application portal, or historical event; generated text, logos, crests, and simulated records are rejected. Search metadata may identify the image as representative of the guide, but never as proof of a claim.

Search metadata must match the page

Titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, structured data, image alternatives, and sitemap records are maintained as publishing infrastructure—not as permission to overstate the material. Machine-readable claims must correspond to visible content and supported page types. Math101 can make a page understandable and crawlable; it cannot promise rankings, rich results, traffic, or inclusion in a particular search feature.

Question and correction inbox

Guide pages accept private submissions with optional name and email. Anonymous submissions are possible and are not published automatically. A reader may separately permit an anonymous paraphrase or quotation; Math101 still decides whether it is safe, useful, and non-identifying. Readers should not submit student numbers, passwords, health records, or other sensitive information.

Commercial independence

Tutoring links are identified. A guide should remain useful if the reader never books. Math101 does not claim guaranteed marks, graduation, admission, funding, work placements, employment, licensing, health, or legal outcomes.

Corrections

A useful correction names the page, disputed statement, supporting source, and date. The source Markdown or template is updated, the snapshot date changes when appropriate, the site is rebuilt, and relevant structural, link, data, and interaction checks are rerun. Material disagreements should be resolved in favour of the primary authority and narrower wording.