The Student Room Group

Core 3 vs Core 4

Poll

Which do you find 'harder'?

A lot of maths teachers have told me that Core 3 is harder than Core 4. Most of my friends agree too. What do you guys think? Surely C4 should be harder?

I've learnt both and I can't make up my mind. Hence, thus thread.

*I'm on the AQA board.

PS: I remember seeing a thread like this once, but I can't find it. If anyone has a link to it, I would appreciate it.

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
im edexcel

i would say C4 is easy to learn but the exam is proper hard
Reply 2
Did Edexcel Maths and found C4 much harder. C3 is just difficult at first because of the trig but once you understand it you're fine :smile:
Reply 3
Edxcel c3 is harder, everything on c4 is pretty easy and if your ok at integration then its really ok.

the trig on c3 is a nightmare though
Reply 4
aqa - core 4 is deffo way harder but relies on core 3 knowledge so you need core 3 to do core 4 so yeah...
Reply 5
Edexcel - I find C4 harder :smile:
Reply 6
I'm on edexcel too... C3 was hard at first, but seems really simple after understanding all the trig, and doing C4 :tongue: Can't stand the C4 "Integration" chapter, a more fitting name would be 'Differentiating backwards and making an educated guess'.
Reply 7
I really enjoyed the trig in C3 (OCR). I found that C4 personally took more effort. Usually C3 exams are solid, but the C4 I did last year had so many synoptic elements that really changed my opinion.
Reply 8
C4 is way harderrrrrrrrrrrrr, core 3 is so simple
C3>C4
Same as
P4>P5 for physics.
I've only just done C3, have't done C4 yet but C3 was easy after doing all of the trig identity proving questions in the book.
Reply 11
I think core 4 is easier for those with a natural talent in maths as the exam papers always go that one step beyond what is actually taught clearly in order to really distinguish between the good (i.e the people who revised) and the excellent.
Reply 12
On aqa core 4 is harder. It requirers a deeper/natural understanding of maths especially because of the apllied maths topics in it like vectors and connected rates of change.
Reply 13
On CCEA this year, C3 was really easy, C4 was the total opposite
Reply 14
well, i'm on the ccea board, and personally i found both easy enough. I feel that c4 is slightly easier than c3, but the exam was harder. Still, i feel i did much better in the c4 exam than the c3.
It was explained to me like this, c3 is easier for the people who revise a lot, even if they aren't as good at maths, whereas c4 is easier for the people with a natural ability in maths, even if they dont revise as much.
Reply 15
I found C3 harder than C4 :s-smilie:
Reply 16
I do OCR Maths , and i reckon the C3 exam has more topics to learn so may be harder for some including me but that is offset by the lower grade boundaries whilst C4 is difficult but fewer chapters and i reckon if you know the difficult chapters well enough like Differential Equations and Integration they you are fine
Reply 17
did a C3 past paper after 3 months of no revision, I got 100%. From that I vote that C3 is easier than C4, as when I did my C4 class test I only got 73/75.

But seriously... C3 is easy. I don't know why people argue that C3 is harder than C4. Boo hoo trig boo hoo, trig isn't difficult at all if you know your stuff.
it depends on whether you find trig or integration harder
I have Vector nightmares at night, it's killing me!

Quick Reply

Latest