M1 Jan 2012 Edexcel Post-Exam discussion - Solutions and Paper in first post

Should have been an easy 100%, but I made one horrendous error and another pretty bad one:

1) Equated i components instead of j components in the ships question, then solved everything (correctly) from there, so my answers for time and distance were for when one ship was due north of the other rather than west

2) Immediately assumed on the stone throw above 6 3/5 metres question that I needed the larger solution to the quadratic for t and that the other was <0 as is usually the case for these types of questions, forgetting the stone would pass the height at two different times. So I got the negative of the correct answer but just ignored the minus sign and wrote down the correct answer.

How badly are these likely to affect me?

1) 7(c) = 0 marks (d) = 1 mark as you had a correct method.

He is.......definitely.

Seems a bit harsh to lose 5 marks for that mix-up. I would have expected maybe 1 mark for part c) for correct method and up to 3 for d) if they allow that as a carry-through error. Doesn't the fact that I clearly knew what I was doing count for anything?

sorry for not explaining. But edexcel do not give you accuracy marks if you do not have the correct anwser. Therefore although you knew what to do. You will still be penealised for your error in 7(c). M1 A0 // A0


7(c) would be eneterily wrong. As you were meanth to equate the j compents. Therefore you didn't get any accuarcy marks as no correct anwser and also you will get no method marks as you method was wrong. M0 M0 A0

there are less ft marks awarded than you would expect

yes and no, you can get accuracy marks if they allow follow through; however, there are less ft marks awarded than you would expect

Would I lose any marks if I drew the horizontal lines for the acceleration graph as 2 parallel lines, shaded in to make it stand out? Thanks

M1 would not really matter too much if you were going for an A*

the vast majority of centres do one module in Jan

i think we both will lose 2 marks as both of the first sections and third sections will be penalised.

The thing is my graph has the right shape, it's just that the lines I used to represent the acceleration is quite bold. Surely that okay right, I used dotted lines to represent time intervals.

thanks g what year you in?

will i lose a mark for giving the answer as 104.0 degrees when it asked it to the nearest degree?

On the moment question I did every thing right except missed out g... how many marks will this get me?

Hi
Many students who sit this exam are on a schedule of 12+ units in two years and the January sitting is often a prime opportunity for good candidates and good schools to get pupils through the modules they need to. I appreciate you are looking it from a students view but your experience is not in keeping with many other candidates or schools. I have had some of my pupils (at 3 different schools) on a schedule of C1/C2/M1/S1 in a January session (and more) and they, along with many others, do not fall into the bracket you stated.

In a previous post(s) you suggested all exams were now harder. This again shows that thought process is not correct with this M1 being fairly straightforward apart from the last 5 marks. The difficulty of papers is not by design as Im sure if they dished up a 2009 January M1 paper this time around people would be taking up basket weaving and dropping maths.

Ah didn't do too well

The keyword is good candidates...M1 is the unit most resit of those units you mentioned. It is more demanding especially for those that do not study Physics etc Agreed it was a relatively straightforward paper, however with the 'intensity' of the Winter exams, some would not be as prepared/motivated as others. They don't drop Maths most often Decision Maths and sometimes Statistics are studied and Mechanics is avoided. The exams were'nt harder, there were a few questions which were different to past papers, which certainly required 'thinking'. The good candidates who prepared well would've found this paper relatively straightforward. However there are large numbers of others who through lack of preparation would not have achieved their true potential So does this mean we can look forward to a January 2009 style M1 paper in the Summer?