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C3 Jan 11 Edexcel - Solutions and Paper in the first post (Now On) + TIPS

Sorry for starting a new thread on C3 but I will edit this post to include the paper and solutions 12:00 Tuesday, if I am awake and if the thread is unlocked.... this way the solutions will be easily to find.

Here is a link to the current C3 discussion

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1503521

Here is a link to the C3 June 10 thread on the post where I uploaded the solutions, there was some good discussion and useful tips in the pages before it.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25883540&postcount=370

I attached the specimen paper to that thread before the exam, well worth doing as it is fairly challenging.

Here are the grade boundaries to the previous C3 papers

Module Session 100ums 90ums 80 (A) 70 (B) 60 (C) 50 (D) 40 (E)
C3 Jun-09 75 71 67 59 52 45 38
C3 Jan-08 75 70 64 56 49 42 35
C3 Jun-08 75 70 64 57 50 43 37
C3 Jun-10 75 69 62 55 48 41 34
C3 Jun-05 75 68 61 53 46 39 32
C3 Jan-06 75 68 61 53 46 39 32
C3 Jan-09 75 68 60 52 44 36 29
C3 Jun-07 73 66 59 52 45 39 33
C3 Jan-10 73 66 59 52 45 39 33
C3 Jan-07 74 66 58 50 42 34 27
C3 Jun-06 70 63 56 49 43 37 31


I will put some tips up and answer some pre-exam questions in this thread.
(edited 13 years ago)

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Reply 1
Discuss all your enquiries and queries leading up to the exam :biggrin: How are people preparing? Good luck :biggrin:
Reply 2
Mod, made a mistake in title, could you change it to 24 please :colondollar: thanks
RIP YH :colone::colone::colone::colone::colone: and Rahu :colone::colone::colone::colone::colone:
Reply 4
:wink:
In iteration, once we have two consecutive results to the appropriate degree of accuracy, can we stop there, or should we carry on to see if there is greater convergence?
Reply 6
Original post by ViralRiver
In iteration, once we have two consecutive results to the appropriate degree of accuracy, can we stop there, or should we carry on to see if there is greater convergence?


I just look at what degree of accuracy the question asks for like 4 significant figures, for example. Then i just keep pressing equals on the calculator until the numbers on the calculator relevant to 4sf don't change. Works for me, i guess. :smile:
this is going to be my first ever resit. Hopefully I will improve on my last score
Reply 8
Original post by extricated
rip yh :e:e:e:e:e and rahu :e:e:e:e:e


rip shu :colone::colone::colone::colone::colone::colone::colone:
Reply 9
C3 exam is in a months time so I thought it would be good to discuss tips and exam practice? Who has finished their exam revision? Also does anyone have old P2 and P3 exam papers from before 2000?
Woooo, C3! Im not actually completely dreading this one. Just gonna plough through past papers :p:
Reply 11
Yeah same here just exam papers. Have you done much revision for it?
Reply 12
Yeah I dont tend to worry about 'revision' for maths, as it's basically just practicing on exam papers.
So probably just going to work my way through papers from 2006 :P
Reply 13
That was what I was planning to do but I didn't do good in C2 so I didn't want to make the same mistake again for C3 especially since C3 counts towards an A* I don't want to be resitting that.
So I'm doing all the past papers.
Not dreading this exam, but need at least 95/100 UMS to make the C4 exam less stressful! How about we collect some of the harder questions for extra practice? One I found in a recent paper is:

If x=tanyx=tany, show that dydx=1x2+1\frac{dy}{dx}=\frac{1}{x^2+1}

Made me think, but once you spot the trick it's simple. 5 marker there :smile: .
Reply 15
Original post by ViralRiver
Not dreading this exam, but need at least 95/100 UMS to make the C4 exam less stressful! How about we collect some of the harder questions for extra practice? One I found in a recent paper is:

If x=tanyx=tany, show that dydx=1x2+1\frac{dy}{dx}=\frac{1}{x^2+1}

Made me think, but once you spot the trick it's simple. 5 marker there :smile: .


You're right it is actually simple just a bit of identities, it took me a long time to do this. This would be the question I'm bogged on for most of the exam.
dx/dy=sec^2(y)
dy/dx=1/sec^2(y)
dy/dx=1/tan^2(y)+1
dy/dx=1/x^2+1
I need to get better at identities I only know cos^2+sin^2=1 and I convert from that.
What year was that paper?
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by jam277
You're right it is actually simple just a bit of identities, it took me a long time to do this. This would be the question I'm bogged on for most of the exam.
dx/dy=sec^2(y)
dy/dx=1/sec^2(y)
dy/dx=1/tan^2(y)+1
dy/dx=1/x^2+1
I need to get better at identities I only know cos^2+sin^2=1 and I convert from that.
What year was that paper?


Ahh you did it differently from me, I wouldn't have even thought of doing that. I did the following:

dx/dy=sec2ydx/dy = sec^2y
dy/dx=cos2ydy/dx=cos^2y

Now, I drew a right angled triangle, angle y, adjacent 1, opposite x (tany = x/1). From that, the hypotenuse is x2+1\sqrt{x^2+1} from Pythagoras' Theorem.

Hence: dy/dx=cosycosy=(1x2+1)2=1x2+1dy/dx=cosy\cdot cosy=(\frac{1}{\sqrt{x^2+1}})^2=\frac{1}{x^2+1}, as required.
I'm doing C3 and C4 in January and need to get an A* overall for myself and my universities as well! Would be a good idea to discuss a few difficult questions on here
Reply 18
Original post by sportycricketer
I'm doing C3 and C4 in January and need to get an A* overall for myself and my universities as well! Would be a good idea to discuss a few difficult questions on here


Yeah get the hard questions infact solomon press ones if you can. I'll find some hard ones as well. Gonna aim for at least 94 so I beat my other modules.
Reply 19
Original post by ViralRiver
Ahh you did it differently from me, I wouldn't have even thought of doing that. I did the following:

dx/dy=sec2ydx/dy = sec^2y
dy/dx=cos2ydy/dx=cos^2y

Now, I drew a right angled triangle, angle y, adjacent 1, opposite x (tany = x/1). From that, the hypotenuse is x2+1\sqrt{x^2+1} from Pythagoras' Theorem.

Hence: dy/dx=cosycosy=(1x2+1)2=1x2+1dy/dx=cosy\cdot cosy=(\frac{1}{\sqrt{x^2+1}})^2=\frac{1}{x^2+1}, as required.


I never even knew you could do that my spatial awareness is not that good, probably why I flopped C2. Sometimes identities are so long to find so your way is generally foolproof.

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