I'm failing maths help!!! >.<

Lydia2011

I'm currently studying Engineering and on average getting 20% of the marks in my mathematics course work for this first semester. If I can't do well in the new-year exams I'm probably going to fail this module :frown:

. The reason is it studied Engineering at BTECH and we didn't do much maths at all. The maths we did was basically just putting numbers in place of the letters.

So right now I'm frantically working through A-level maths on my own so I can catch up. What can I do now to get good at maths and pass this semester other than stay up day and night studying??? :confused:

Reply 1

MrShifty

9

If you haven't already, I'd talk with your tutor or whoever's responsible for pastoral care in your department as soon as is possible and mention your concerns to them, to see if they can advise you or suggest things you can do or services the university offers to help. There might even be foundation level mathematics courses at your university which they might let you attend, which should help structure your learning.

Other than that, there's not a great deal you can do other than go through the material yourself; then it becomes a matter of managing your time and your study habits in an effort to make the most progress in the shortest possible time.

Good luck.

Reply 2

non

15

Original post by Lydia2011

I'm currently studying Engineering and on average getting 20% of the marks in my mathematics course work for this first semester. If I can't do well in the new-year exams I'm probably going to fail this module :frown:

. The reason is it studied Engineering at BTECH and we didn't do much maths at all. The maths we did was basically just putting numbers in place of the letters.

So right now I'm frantically working through A-level maths on my own so I can catch up. What can I do now to get good at maths and pass this semester other than stay up day and night studying??? :confused:

i can see that your btec prepared you very well for uni

Reply 3

Lydia2011

OP

3

Original post by MrShifty

If you haven't already, I'd talk with your tutor or whoever's responsible for pastoral care in your department as soon as is possible and mention your concerns to them, to see if they can advise you or suggest things you can do or services the university offers to help. There might even be foundation level mathematics courses at your university which they might let you attend, which should help structure your learning.

Other than that, there's not a great deal you can do other than go through the material yourself; then it becomes a matter of managing your time and your study habits in an effort to make the most progress in the shortest possible time.

Good luck.

Hi thx! I'd do that if it the university wasn't shut for Christmas. I know I should have thought about it earlier!

@Jed123 I know, we should have studied a lot more maths than other stuff like 'Health and safety'. The electronics classes are easier because I do know about electronics, just when they say calculate the '.......' of this circuit I just kind of shut down :frown:

.

Reply 4

davros

16

Original post by Lydia2011

Hi thx! I'd do that if it the university wasn't shut for Christmas. I know I should have thought about it earlier!

@Jed123 I know, we should have studied a lot more maths than other stuff like 'Health and safety'. The electronics classes are easier because I do know about electronics, just when they say calculate the '.......' of this circuit I just kind of shut down :frown:

.

Can you give us some idea of the sort of maths that is giving you problems? It might not be necessary to try to cover the whole of the A level syllabus - just focus on a few key topics that are relevant to your course!

Reply 5

nemoshish

17

what engineering do you study ? I have seen some of my uni mate in civil engineering who failed their maths modules just because they didn't have solid maths foundation, but best advice would be talk to your maths tutor , they might show tell you what to do. best.

Reply 6

Lydia2011

OP

3

@Davros I'm thinking that the way I go about solving problems is the issue. My lecturer said that a lot of it was almost right but on the assignments it says a lot of the equations don't make sense. That's probably because they don't make much sense to me either :confused:

Differentiation for example at college we just learned that we take the power and move it down to the front of the equation and remove one from the power. What we are asked is are things like:

Find the expression for the dy/dx for y2 + y = x

I'm not sure how to start solving this without reading though a load of books. :s-smilie:

Reply 7

Lydia2011

OP

3

@nemoshish I'm studying Electrical engineering

Reply 8

Mr Ben

14

For the expression above, you can use the property dy/dx = 1/(dx/dy) (I think at least, hopefully a better mathematician can back me up).
So you have dx/dy = 2y + 1,
so dy/dx is 1/(2y + 1) For all y =/= -1/2

Reply 9

matthew769

18

Original post by Mr Ben

For the expression above, you can use the property dy/dx = 1/(dx/dy) (I think at least, hopefully a better mathematician can back me up).
So you have dx/dy = 2y + 1,
so dy/dx is 1/(2y + 1) For all y =/= -1/2

This would have been my approach, though I'm only finishing c3 atm so might be wrong :/

Reply 10

davros

16

Original post by Lydia2011

Find the expression for the dy/dx for y2 + y = x

I'm not sure how to start solving this without reading though a load of books. :s-smilie:

In a case like this, you've got a couple of choices:

(i) you can use the fact that dy/dx = 1 / (dx/dy) as the 2 previous posters mentioned, and because you have a nice simple expression for x in terms of y, you can write down dx/dy using the "bring down the power" rule you quoted earlier to get dx/dy = 2y + 1, and so dy/dx = 1/(2y + 1);

(ii) the other way of attacking something like this is to use what's called "implicit differentiation" which turns up later in A level - look it up. In this case it tells you that 2y(dy/dx) + dy/dx = 1 or (2y+1)(dy/dx) = 1, which leads to the same result we got using method (i).

Sounds like you need to hit the algebra/differentiation/integration chapters of C1-4 most of all.

Good luck, and don't be afraid to post in the Maths forum if you get stuck!

Reply 11

Lydia2011

OP

3

Thanks again for all your help! Yeah I think i need to dig into the A level books again :biggrin:

Reply 12

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by Lydia2011

Thanks again for all your help! Yeah I think i need to dig into the A level books again :biggrin:

You mentioned earlier when it said "Calculate the ___ of the circuit" you struggled. What kind of things are you struggling to calculate outside of the C1-C3 stuff?

Reply 13

Lydia2011

OP

3

@Hype en Ecosse one example type question is: Find the impedance of the circuit at 100hz express the answer in regular and polar forms.

o-----8mH-----------------------------------
===========|============ |
_Z eq======3.75ohm ======= 318 micro F
=========== | ============|
o----------------------------------------------

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 14

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by Lydia2011

@Hype en Ecosse one example type question is: Find the impedance of the circuit at 100hz express the answer in regular and polar forms.

o-----8mH-----------------------------------
===========|============ |
_Z eq======3.75ohm ======= 318 micro F
=========== | ============|
o----------------------------------------------

Going to need someone a bit more skilled than me in electrics to do that, I'm afraid.
If the below can't get it, just be patient for someone who can. :tongue:

JordanR

...

Does this happen to fall into the AH course?

Reply 15

kantoman

try examsolutions.com

Reply 16

Zuzuzu

12

A further alternative approach would be to complete the square on the LHS and then rearrange to get y in terms of x.

Reply 17

boredom_personified

Original post by Lydia2011

@Hype en Ecosse one example type question is: Find the impedance of the circuit at 100hz express the answer in regular and polar forms.

o-----8mH-----------------------------------
===========|============ |
_Z eq======3.75ohm ======= 318 micro F
=========== | ============|
o----------------------------------------------

My knowledge of electronics is rather sketchy but i'm pretty sure impedence is the extension of resistance to AC circuitry, which i'm pretty sure requires the use of complex numbers (a class of numbers which are the square roots of negative numbers, amongst many other things), and will not be covered in A-level maths, but instead will need Further maths. The fact it is asking for a polar representation seems to support this.

Reply 18

«WD»ddd

This may help u though
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/accircuits/parallel-circuit.html :redface:

Reply 19

alibee

2

Original post by boredom_personified

My knowledge of electronics is rather sketchy but i'm pretty sure impedence is the extension of resistance to AC circuitry, which i'm pretty sure requires the use of complex numbers (a class of numbers which are the square roots of negative numbers, amongst many other things), and will not be covered in A-level maths, but instead will need Further maths. The fact it is asking for a polar representation seems to support this.

This is not basic maths! Did your course require further maths? If not, you should be taught how to do this from scratch.... Speak to your tutor when you get back after christmas.

I'm failing maths help!!! >.<

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