knowing what equation to use - M1

My M1 exam is tomorrow. I know all equations and content i need to know, but when i sit in front of a paper I can never think of which equation to use! I read the questions like 5 times and sometimes i suddenly click and the answer is obvious, but the rest of the time i have to quickly glance at the first line of the mark scheme to get me started off.

I just wanted to any tips anyone could give me, and wondered how people go about tackling the questions

Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

Peterpop

just keep doing practice questions do not look at the mark scheme then you will remember the equation for particular qs because you will think oh yeah i got it wrong trust me you will click on everything.

Reply 2

Beth_L_G

Original post by Peterpop

I tried this the first time round. This is my retake. I got a C first time round and I've done all the past papers

Reply 3

Groat

What sort of questions are you stuck on?

Reply 4

Boristhethird

i write uvast down the side of the page, then the figures appropriately

e.g.
U=4.0ms^-
V=6.0ms^-1
A=
S=/
T=5.0s
so to get a, i can see i want to use V=U+at

Reply 5

The Bagel Guy

write down the 3 main equations, then wirte down uvast, pick the equation that contains the relevant unknown. But not the one that involves two unknowns

Reply 6

Beth_L_G

Original post by Boristhethird

i write uvast down the side of the page, then the figures appropriately

e.g.
U=4.0ms^-
V=6.0ms^-1
A=
S=/
T=5.0s
so to get a, i can see i want to use V=U+at

Yeah i do that with the suvat questions so i can do those, but the inclined plane questions and the vector questions are where i tend to get a little lost

Reply 7

Boristhethird

Original post by Beth_L_G

Yeah i do that with the suvat questions so i can do those, but the inclined plane questions and the vector questions are where i tend to get a little lost

i use the same for vectors, and the inclined plane are usually just resolving forces

Reply 8

Sokka

Original post by Beth_L_G

Yeah i do that with the suvat questions so i can do those, but the inclined plane questions and the vector questions are where i tend to get a little lost

in the inclined plane questions, us f=ma if or f=mu*r

This makes it easy, because lets say you want to find the coefficient of friction. You can first try using the friction equation, and if that doesn't work, you can try resolving parallel to the plane and then find it via the f=ma method. It's all about knowing what to use when, but if you can't do that, just use trial and error, i.e use one equation, then quickly move on to the next one if you can't see a way out.

I used to be in the exact same position but as I did past papers, I kept finding more tricks I could use which helped me out.
Like for example when they tell you to find the propulsive (driving) force in a car or something, I don't tend to look at the crater/car seperately, but I just look at the car and the crater as a whole object (add the masses and resistent forces and cancel tensions). Whereas before, I used to try and resolve each one serperately which got me know where. Hope this helps, good luck! ;]

Reply 9

Peterpop

Original post by Beth_L_G

I tried this the first time round. This is my retake. I got a C first time round and I've done all the past papers

well its just advice take it or leave it, it worked for me i got an a* in Maths a level it seems to me that you need to do all of the past papers and then to do all of the questions that are in the textbook, i used the Heinemann advancing in maths textbook 2nd edition for AQA