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Core 1 is coming!!

Core 1 is coming in a few days (18th May). I did five past papers so far on Core 1, and there are still four past papers to do. My board exam is AQA, by the way.

The past papers that I did have been marked. The first past paper was awful - particularly because of my silly mistakes :frown:

I've got an E (32/75) and the past paper was June 2012.

The second past paper has gone up - reaching up to 56/75 - two marks away from B! It was January 2013.

The third one, somehow, has gone down from the dreaming moon! An E, 41/75 - 3 marks to get D. I was so shocked because the grade boundary has gone up so high - and it was June 2014. If we compare this to June 2012, to get E in June 2012 is 30 marks, and to get E in June 2014 is 38 marks... So I guess that in June 2016 the grade boundary will go up :frown:

The other one, it was June 2010, and I seemed to be building my confidence - I've got B (62/75), one more mark to get an A!!

As for the last one, my teacher is marking it (can't remember the date), I'm hoping to get an A.

So what I'm planning to do now is to complete two past papers today, then do two past papers tomorrow. On Tuesday (which is the day before the exam), I will revise all the Core 1 sections in case if I haven't missed anything despite doing my past papers. Is this a good idea?

The two past papers that I'm going to do today are: January 2011 and June 2011.
Tomorrow: Januray 2012 and June 2015 (2015 exam has to be in the end so I know what's coming up in 2016, as according to my Year 13 - 2015 exam was the hardest of all in mathematics).

Do you think the exam in Core 1 will be harder this year compared to last year? And also, because exams are approaching closer, I seem to feel a bit of anxiety, how can I cope it?

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Reply 1

rayofsunshine98

Hey...

I'm doing AQA c1 on weds as well, and I'm scared as well. We've done every single exam question from the last 11 years in lessons (literally!) and I'm normally fine then, but put me into an exam situation and I actually fall apart. I guess just trying to ignore that it's a real exam for as long as possible helps me, I just try to treat it like a mock exam to be honest. Although I went backwards between my 2 C1 mocks so who knows. Good luck on weds!!

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Reply 2

username2312801

Hey there,
Same board as you i think C1 would be harder than last year
B1 easier
If you revise everything it would be easy :biggrin:

Reply 3

username2312801

Original post by rayofsunshine98

I swear C1 is on Thursday ?!

Reply 4

KaylaB

Original post by nisha.sri

I swear C1 is on Thursday ?!

They're on about Core 1 Maths for AS, not Chemistry 1 GCSE

Reply 5

username1955053

I think it would be better to first learn all the content and then do the past papers and then recap the content again. Doing past papers without being sure of all the content is a bit pointless imo. The exam is 3 days away so you should really be aiming to do more than 2 papers today, tomorrow and Tuesday. You can easily manage a minimum of 3 in one day. Really push yourself so you have the best chance of reaching the top grades.

The best thing for you to do would be to learn and recap all the content today. Do a paper tonight. Tomorrow do 4 papers. Tuesday do 3 papers until around 4pm then recap all the content. I know this seems like a lot but you really need to push yourself if you want to achieve highly.

In terms of the difficulty of the exam, C1 has always been the easiest module and never has been really challenging so they won't suddenly change it this year.

Make sure by the end of Tuesday you have done all the past papers and all the questions from the textbook. If you do this, you would have pushed yourself to the max so you won't have any regrets and you'll know that you definitely tried your best. This should hopefully get rid of any anxiety you have.

Hope that helps :smile:

Reply 6

rayofsunshine98

Hey 😀 thanks for this it really helps...

I've done all of the questions that exist - my teacher put together a pack of question 1s and 2s and so on until he had done every question, and they are fine when I do them on my own.. I think it's the exam nerves that make my life hell tbh

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Reply 7

ForestShadow

Im doing OCR, getting B/A atm :tongue:

Reply 8

PedanticStudent

I'm doing WJEC and getting between 73 and 75 marks. Hoping it can be repeated in the real exam.

Btw if any of you are doing WJEC too, and you want to do some last minute revision, I have all of the papers and mark schemes including the ones before 2012 over on my site, which are unavailable on the WJEC site for some reason.

http://jacktilson.uk/edu/maths

All of the other modules are also available.

Best of luck to everyone whatever board you are doing. :biggrin:

Reply 9

CBMFM99

I'm doing OCR (Not MEI) As maths. These are my results from the mocks so far:
June 2015-E
June 2024-B (one off an A)
June 2013-C
June 2011- C
June 2006- B (One mark from an A)
Hoping for a B/A

Reply 10

Bobjim12

9 papers?

bruh there's 18, papers as old as 2006 are available and useful.

Reply 11

RegrettingAS

Original post by nisha.sri

Hey there,
Same board as you i think C1 would be harder than last year
B1 easier
If you revise everything it would be easy :biggrin:

What do u mean B1?

Reply 12

rayofsunshine98

Original post by RegrettingAS

What do u mean B1?

I think they are referring to the GCSE science exams!

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Reply 13

CrazyFoxes

I did the c1 exam last year and the year before that in the real exam.I got an A in both but looking for close to 70 marks so im goin to re do it on the 18th OCR board.Whwn u do A2 u feel that c1/c2 is nothing.Im doing fp1 and fp 2 which makes even c3/c4 look easy.Dont get it twisted it is hard but as u go up a level in maths it gets harder.

I only did 6-8 papers,u just got to remember the method,all they do is change the numbers and try to disguise certain things to make it harder to solve.Or they may add a fraction etc...As long as u know the method and how to tackle the problem it should be fine even tho u dont get the answer...Answer just nets u 1mark/2 in a 7mark question.Hope it helps!

Reply 14

rayofsunshine98

Good luck for tomorrow everyone!

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Reply 15

PedanticStudent

Original post by rayofsunshine98

Good luck for tomorrow everyone!

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You too!

Reply 16

CBMFM99

It's my first ever As-Level exam tomorrow... I'm quite nervous to be honest! Good luck everyone!

Reply 17

thefatone

Original post by CBMFM99

I'm doing OCR (Not MEI) As maths. These are my results from the mocks so far:
June 2015-E
June 2024-B (one off an A)
June 2013-C
June 2011- C
June 2006- B (One mark from an A)
Hoping for a B/A

What's the 2024 paper like?

Reply 18

Phoebe_Lynch

I'm so nervous and I don't know why?! Maths was one of my strongest subjects at GCSE and I've been through 6 past papers in a row and got comfortably into the A grade each time. (I'm doing OCR)
I just hope there's going to be nothing unexpected.
My biggest failure is on reciprocal graphs and graph transformations. I've been back through my notes and the textbook, but if anyone has any useful tips then I'd welcome them!

Good Luck for tomorrow!

Reply 19

L0gical_2

Original post by Phoebe_Lynch

For transformations, just think anything attached to the x does something weirder than expected (eg adding move it negative, and multiplying stretches it its reciprocal (3x scale factor 1/3). That's how I remember it anyway. Good luck! I'm doing OCR tomorrow too!

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