Maths AEA June 2010 (Edexcel)

electriic_ink

It's out of 100. And 50 for a merit, 70 for a distinction.

As memory serves, the questions total 93 marks, and there are 7 bonus marks for "clarity, style and presentation" or some such.

Also the boundaries for merit and distinction are not fixed, so can move up and down a little. But in practice merit has always been between about 48 and 52 and distinction betwen about 68 and 72. (In other words, the boundaries really don't move very much).

Reply 23

icegem100

I'm doing it for Warwick too :smile:

I've done all the past papers and I don't know what else to do to revise? Any ideas? Would looking at step papers be helpful?

Reply 24

icegem100

Would looking at step papers be helpful?

The exams are a bit different so not all that much, maybe doing STEP Qs that you know could appear on the AEA could be useful. Ultimately you can only prepare so much, Qs on the day will be different. Confidence and freshness going into the exam is a must ... and doing your best to read Qs carefully and cutting out silly mistakes. You don't want to miss out on a grade due to a stupid error(s). I'd advise going over weakpoints though.

Reply 25

Physics Enemy

The exams are a bit different so not all that much

It depends on how you look at it - having to do every question in the AEA, as opposed to less than half that for STEP is a pretty big difference.

I'd advise going over weakpoints though.

In particular, AEA often has a *very* long question on vectors, and the post-mortem on here is usually filled with people saying they got virtually no marks for it, despite having done well on the rest of the paper.

Reply 26

rbnphlp

11

ishta

Guyz any body has body got any tips.
I have done almost all the past papers but I had to look at the mark scheme to understand the question.I need to get a Merit in this..

Check the oxford /S paper thread , and there quite a lot of old aea type questions you can practise through

Reply 27

DFranklin

It depends on how you look at it - having to do every question in the AEA, as opposed to less than half that for STEP is a pretty big difference.

I agree, that's why I think they're not that similar. The type of Qs are also pretty different.

DF

In particular, AEA often has a *very* long question on vectors, and the post-mortem on here is usually filled with people saying they got virtually no marks for it, despite having done well on the rest of the paper.

Yep, people need to work on their weakpoints. There's always a Q on Vectors, so we need to be prepared for it.

Reply 28

Physics Enemy

I agree, that's why I think they're not that similar. The type of Qs are also pretty different.I agree, but I managed to completely misread what you'd said as "not that different"... Sorry!

Reply 29

Small123

15

DFranklin

It depends on how you look at it - having to do every question in the AEA, as opposed to less than half that for STEP is a pretty big difference.

In particular, AEA often has a *very* long question on vectors, and the post-mortem on here is usually filled with people saying they got virtually no marks for it, despite having done well on the rest of the paper.

Is it still possible to get a distinction without this long vector question? I haven't done vectors in 2 years and have thus pretty much forgot them :/

Reply 30

Small123

Is it still possible to get a distinction without this long vector question? I haven't done vectors in 2 years and have thus pretty much forgot them :/

It's possible, but you'd be leaving yourself without much margin for error. You should do some vectors IMO.

Reply 31

Small123

15

Physics Enemy

It's possible, but you'd be leaving yourself without much margin for error. You should do some vectors IMO.

Hmm okay, I'll read through the vectors in C3/4 again. I hate vectors haha.

Reply 32

username219321

14

Usually in the long vectors question the nasty bits are only 14 or so marks maximum so it's possible to get a distinction without it. Reduces the margin for errors by quite a bit though.

Reply 33

I think one year the vectors question was something ridiculous like 21 marks, although I grant you picking a few marks without much understanding of vectors is probably possible.

Reply 34

matt2k8

Usually in the long vectors question the nasty bits are only 14 or so marks maximum so it's possible to get a distinction without it. Reduces the margin for errors by quite a bit though.

Yes, then lost 'bonus marks' too. I just think it's bad, you're reducing your margin of error a lot.

Reply 35

icegem100

DFranklin

As memory serves, the questions total 93 marks, and there are 7 bonus marks for "clarity, style and presentation" or some such.

Also the boundaries for merit and distinction are not fixed, so can move up and down a little. But in practice merit has always been between about 48 and 52 and distinction betwen about 68 and 72. (In other words, the boundaries really don't move very much).

On some of the past papers the marks are out of 75... so have they changed them since? So you only need 50% to get a merit? That seems manageable... I hope although some of the questions are yukky!

Reply 36

username219321

14

icegem100

On some of the past papers the marks are out of 75... so have they changed them since? So you only need 50% to get a merit? That seems manageable... I hope although some of the questions are yukky!

It's a misprint,the past papers uploaded online aren't the ones that got distributed to centres (I hope atleast - on one of them there's 2 mistakes in one question, one of them making it impossible!)

Reply 37

.:excel4100%:.

14

DFranklin

I think one year the vectors question was something ridiculous like 21 marks, although I grant you picking a few marks without much understanding of vectors is probably possible.

I'm revising like crazy for FP3 now and I'm finding it hard to find any time to revise for AEA. I was just thinking whether it would be better for me to just focus on FP3 and leave AEA.

I did StepI on Monday and it went quite well:
I got Q6 pretty much all right except I had a random constant added on the ended so maybe 18/19.

I did Q4 and again pretty much everything except I had something like 2(pie)ln(5/root2) or something close to but not the exact answer they gave, so again maybe 18.

I then did Q1 and it went quite well and I got four solutions for it. So hopefully 19 maybe 20

I moved onto Q3 and got everything till the end where I had Tan(something) = Tan(something) and I just couldn't get past there. I found out what I had to do when I got home though (something to do with A = (pie)n + B??) but obviously too late, maybe 17 or more hopefully.

And then I tried starting Q2 and just simple differentiation and stuff to try and get the first part before the time ran out, so maybe max 5 marks there.

Sorry for the long winded post, but surely that's enough for a 2, right? Am I correct in thinking there would be no need for me to do AEA then...

Reply 38

Donor

AEA Questions are horrible. They aren't hard. They're more routine but very long, so its easy to make mistakes. So in essence what they're testing is your ability to concentrate and do everything properly and efficiently, not your ability to think cleverly.

I like the challenge STEP questions provide, i just think these are long and you just have to mess with them to get the right answer out. Not saying they're easy but a lot more boring to be truthful. Ah well few days of ploughing though past papers and hopefully I'll get the merit I need.

Reply 39