FP1 June 11 Edexcel - Paper and Model answers in the FIRST post.

some centres took the W paper by mistake which is why Edexcel released grade boundaries.

It isn't necessarily the case that the paper is the' hardest. The grade boundaries are determined by the results achieved so the centres who took it might not be be representative of the centres as a whole.

Exam Boards determine grade boundaries based on the response of students in comparison to previous years not on how good the cohort is so this shouldn't be a massive problem I doubt Edexcel could compare all the responses of all students they probably only use a small sample and they had to make sure that these students got fair grades so the grade boundaries should be fair.

Have you by any chance done revision notes for FP1 ??

Before deciding on grade boundaries they will look at the statistics as a whole, so if the centres were weaker on average, the mean mark would be lower as would the grade boundaries. In theory, this could/should be accounted for by looking at prior data.

Grade boundaries are marked using criterion marking a set number do not get x% if only really dumb people sat modules in January for resits from June exams this wouldn't necessarily mean lower grade boundaries.Thats why Further Maths Modules have such high pass rates because the quality of the cohort is so high as entries to Further Maths increase due to several schemes like the Further Maths Support Programme and the ABac AAB in 3 facilitating subjects more less able people will be pushed into Further Maths which shouldn't lower the Grade Boundaries.This is a reason attributed to the fall in A-Level grades as people are going for harder subjects.Varying numbers of pupils with different abilities enter modules each year so this would make the whole system unreliable if it didn't use criterion based marking.

Yes but they use statistical evidence for deciding on comparative difficulty of papers. If the mean mark is lower it will impact the boundaries. However, they do also take into account prior data so if the cohort was weaker as a whole it wouldn't necessarily mean lower boundaries. The problem is how accurate is the prior data in comparison with previous years.

They mainly match up student responses and questions to the criteria required for each grade and what was necessary last year to get an A,B,C.Using the mean mark would be pretty invalid I would be surprised if they really used that because that would be skewed by high or low performers as Edexcel will know from their S1 module maybe the median but that still would depend on the ability of the candidates sitting the paper which shouldn't affect grade boundaries.I am not entirely convinced grade boundaries will decrease for C2 neither is the head of maths at my college the internet responses suggest a weaker cohort but its hard to pin point why.It has happened many times where students haven't accurately predicted grade boundaries even for papers people struggled with high grade boundaries are released and people on here go showing how hard people found a paper each year doesn't always correlate to how easy the paper was.

Hello Sir,
I was wondering if you had any tips on Divisibility Proofs by induction where f(k+1)-f(k) does not work or is very lengthy. I have come across such questions in the Edexcel Textbook and no real method is given.

An example being :

Prove by induction that 2(4²ⁿ⁺¹) + 3³ⁿ⁺¹ is divisible by 11.

Thank you!

Tip - Get a casio 991ES.

the complex mode and matrix mode are very useful to check answers.

Past Papers

graded FP1 papers

If they don't tell you whether the rotation is anti-clockwise or clockwise do you assume it is anticlockwise (this is with regards to matrices)?

Assume anticlockwise, yes. Positive is clockwise, similar to CAST diagrams. Likewise if in your answer you don't specifically write 'clockwise' or place a minus sign they'll assume you meant anticlockwise.