AQA FP2 9th June post exam discussion

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I'm so glad I did June 07 the night before. Made that paper so much easier.

For the solving the question giving the exact value of tanhx, I got a quadratic in e^x, solved it, got e^x = 5/2 and e^x = -ve. As e^x cant equal a negative number, the only answer was 5/2. I did some manipulation to get tanhx = (1 - e^2x)/(1 + e^2x), then I substituted 5/2 into it, and got 21/29. I messed up the argand diagram completely though.

I couldn't get alpha^2 + beta^2 + gamma^2 = p +13, I got it equal to 4 - 2p or something (good thing most of those parts were worth only 1 mark).

At least then I could use my previous answers to get p + 13 = 4 - 2p --> 3p = -9 --> p = -3

Arc length was surprisingly easy, got 30 (pi/6). De Moivres question seemed too easy. First part where you had to write 1 + sqrt(3)i and 1 - i in the form re^itheta, they didn't ask for a range.

The part where you had (1 + sqrt(3)i)^8(...)^5, I ended up with r = 1024*sqrt(2). But for the last part, I got 8 * sqrt(2), two negative values for theta, and one positive value.

I did both MM1B and FP2 at the same time, I think FP2 went better :frown:

Reply 61

Adam92

Btw, do you reckon I'd lose some marks for messy working?

I hope it's all legible, it's just not presented very clear. I.e. I had arrows all over the place, and scribbled out some brackets, then added them back...

Reply 62

Tomato_Soup1992

Adam92

As long as it is legtible it will be fine.

Btw, i've been thinking and I think for Q4 I accidentally wrote f(x)=Z^3 etc. rather than f(z). Do you think they'll mark down for that?

Reply 63

Weeman5872

I had a bit of scribbling in Q1. I didn't realize they had given extra pages for the integral question, so I had rushed that question down on extra paper. I found the extra pages, so I copied it up in the question paper. I've seen their marking; even in pages of scribble, they are still very thorough. So you shouldn't lose marks :smile:

Reply 64

Adam92

Tomato_Soup1992

As long as it is legtible it will be fine.

Btw, i've been thinking and I think for Q4 I accidentally wrote f(x)=Z^3 etc. rather than f(z). Do you think they'll mark down for that?

Highly doubt it. They don't deduct marks for that, I know people have had to differentiate x = f(t) and wrote dy/dx, and miss out the dx when integrating.. it will be fine.

Reply 65

fab cesc

Katermerang

It makes me wonder why the FP2 and FP3 grade boundaries are so similar, surley most of the people who take on also take the other so should do better therefore one should be lower than the other. Who knows, I'm hoping for a nice straight forward C3 and FP3 on Friday, and hopefully that damn A* in my offer will be done with.

We only do FP2 at my school, as well as FP1 and FP4, as apparently FP3 is much more difficult.

Reply 66

Adam92

fab cesc

We only do FP2 at my school, as well as FP1 and FP4, as apparently FP3 is much more difficult.

Nah, fp3 is predictable and hence easier to prepare for.

Reply 67

Tomato_Soup1992

Adam92

Nah, fp3 is predictable and hence easier to prepare for.

So is FP2 the hardest one, or is that FP4?

Reply 68

Adam92

Tomato_Soup1992

So is FP2 the hardest one, or is that FP4?

I've not done fp4 so I can't comment, but fp3 is easier than fp2 in my opinion.

Reply 69

fab cesc

Adam92

Nah, fp3 is predictable and hence easier to prepare for.

To be honest i think my teacher was just making excuses as he didn't know the FP3 course :biggrin:

Reply 70

fab cesc

Tomato_Soup1992

So is FP2 the hardest one, or is that FP4?

It depends what you're good at. Pretty much all FP4 is on vectors and matrices so if you struggle at all with either of those things you'd do well to get a B. Especially the vectors part of it as there are so many variations of questions invloving lines and planes so you really have to understand what you're doing so you can slightly modify the method for solving it for each question. Personally i found FP4 easier but i think just about everyone else in the class hated it.