AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012 !Poll, paper and unofficial MS (first post)!
Maths exam discussion - share revision tips in preparation for GCSE, A Level and other maths exams and discuss how they went afterwards.
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View Poll Results: How did you find the exam?
Pshh I could do it in my sleep! 14 5.56% Went pretty well 
29 11.51% It was okay... (maybe made silly mistakes?) 82 32.54% 
62 24.60% I died. 61 24.21% Fine I guess, couldn't careless. 4 1.59%
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012i think ur lost(Original post by redmonkey7)
Did any of you guys see question 12 on the back? It was Soooo difficult. What did you guys get?
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012If so, I'd be more worried by the fact that you would then have missed out on a question 9, question 10, and question 11..(Original post by redmonkey7)
Did any of you guys see question 12 on the back? It was Soooo difficult. What did you guys get?
This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-N7000Last edited by SomeoneIveNeverMet; 14-06-2012 at 16:33. -
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012You're looking at it rather blindly. The recent papers weren't very difficult (see June 2011) yet, they had ridiculously low grade boundaries.(Original post by Rennit)
I'v looked at numerous exam threads and they've ALWAYS said there will be low marks; there hasn't really been much change.
I'd say that TSR is actually below average.
Loads of people say they found it really hard, it wasn't much different from any of the other papers!
Why? Because even the best and most able candidates falter under pressure. -
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012Updated.(Original post by Oromis263)
Home.
Question 7.
a)![l_1 = l_2
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\begin{bmatrix} 2\lambda \\ -2 \\ q - \lambda \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 8 + 2\mu \\ 3 + 5\mu \\ 5 + 4\mu \end{bmatrix}
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so\ 2\lambda = 8+2\mu
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-2 = 3 + 5\mu
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q-\lambda = 5 + 4\mu
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\Rightarrow \mu = -1 \Rightarrow \lambda = 3
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q = 3 + 5 -4 = 4
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P (6, -2, 1)](http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/latexrender/pictures/26/269741ead670e2d0dccc789add176c80.png "l_1 = l_2
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\begin{bmatrix} 2\lambda \\ -2 \\ q - \lambda \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 8 + 2\mu \\ 3 + 5\mu \\ 5 + 4\mu \end{bmatrix}
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so\ 2\lambda = 8+2\mu
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-2 = 3 + 5\mu
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q-\lambda = 5 + 4\mu
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\Rightarrow \mu = -1 \Rightarrow \lambda = 3
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q = 3 + 5 -4 = 4
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P (6, -2, 1)")
b)![\begin{bmatrix} 2 \\ 0 \\ -1\end{bmatrix} \bullet \begin{bmatrix} 2 \\ 5 \\ 4 \end{bmatrix}
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\Rightarrow 2(2) + 0(5) -1(4) = 0 \Rightarrow cos\theta = 0, \theta = 90\ \therefore\ perpendicular](http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/latexrender/pictures/e8/e87bafbae4f280546f30cc155be76732.png "\begin{bmatrix} 2 \\ 0 \\ -1\end{bmatrix} \bullet \begin{bmatrix} 2 \\ 5 \\ 4 \end{bmatrix}
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\Rightarrow 2(2) + 0(5) -1(4) = 0 \Rightarrow cos\theta = 0, \theta = 90\ \therefore\ perpendicular")
I think I'll do the rest of this one by hand and upload a picture >.<
Attachment 157069
Thus coordinates of B were
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012I dont? :\(Original post by f1mad)
You're looking at it rather blindly. The recent papers weren't very difficult (see June 2011) yet, they had ridiculously low grade boundaries.
Why? Because even the best and most able candidates falter under pressure. -
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012And finally!
Question 8.
a)
bi) This is a lot of work, I used integration by parts, but integration by substitution was another viable method (or any other way that got you to the answer really!)
Final equation
bii) Sub 2 in to above formula.
And that is it!
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012This is what happened to me.. I completely broke down under pressure today. First time that's ever happened to me. I only needed 34 UMS for an A and I'm not sure if I've got that. I completely broke down in the exam for some reason, the questions looked much harder than when I looked at the paper at home. Maybe it's because I knew it was my last shot no retakes - but even then I had my last Chemistry exam yesterday and I felt okay in that. I went into the exam thinking no pressure I'll get 34 marks, but as soon as I sat down I panicked.(Original post by SomeoneIveNeverMet)
I think, outside of exam conditions, the papers do seem rather easy. But I guess when you're in the there it's more a panic, and so people make silly mistakes.
I think the grade boundaries are lower when the examiners have created more chances for people to get caught by silly mistakes.
But I'm the same as you; A-level A grade, fine, whether it's an A* or not, that's another matter. -
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I did the full equation of the normal line in a question (3 or 4 I think). I said the gradient (1/3) at one point but do you think they'll mark me down for the equation? ( damn we reading the question wrong!)
Also I used integration by parts and came up with a different equation but the same constant and value of t. Think I'll still get full marks or any marks at all for that? Cheers
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012I wrote both as my answer, however I agree. It was just I did a paper at some point that gave it in mixed fractions, and nothing else. I didn't want any silly examiner missing the fact I'd got it correct
(also made sure I noted which two were the same as each other etc, I am so paranoid the marker would be just like, "pssht, 4 solutions? WRONG!") :P
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012I found BP instead of PB which gave me lots of negatives in brackets which simplified to the same expression only a negative x-term, 9x^2 - 18x + 5, so my factors were (3x-5)(3x-1) so I got positive values of x = 1/3 and 5/3.
Which gave me different coordinates
How many marks do you think I'll lose? -
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012(Original post by f1mad)
As I said, it comes down to how the majority found it.
Nobody I know in my college found it particularly nice (apart from myself
).
nice to hear bro....ADD ME ON SKYPE
i made an account brah...GRIMESTARR 
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012dh/dt=k(2-h). They might condone that though. Maybe not though, because then for the equation to make sense you should have written dx/dt=k(2-x).(Original post by f1mad)
dx/dt= k(2-h).
Overall relieved. Think i can pretty much bet on the A* now for core maths. All went perfectly besides the vector question where i (predictably) made some arithmetic slips and got ap^2=60 instead of 20 which obviously led to some pretty groovy coordinates for the two positions of B.
The paper wasn't really that bad though. The only hard bits was the 3 mark rearrangement for the parametric equation ( at least i managed to run around in circles a bit), POSSIBLY the 8 mark implicit differentiation question ( it wasn't hard at all- but it was long and unguided and they havn't asked questions on this topic really much recently) and then maybe the 8 marker in the final question (but it really was just by parts or an easy substitution (personally i substituted).
That said, the grade boundaries aren't really determined by the intrinsic difficulty of a paper, but more by how everyone performed. Given a lot of people seem to have had great difficulty/time issues we can probably expect low boundaries.
I would hazard that the boundaries will be between those of June 011 and Jan 012, as in about 55 for an A, 62 for an A*. I don't really know why junes boundaries were so crazily low though, i found jan 012 harder personally.
Anyway, good luck all, stop stressing we can't do anything about how it went and just hope that low boundaries give you the UMS you need/focus on whatever maths exams you have left (if you have any) and make up for a poor performance in these! -
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012Isn't it dh/dt=k/(2-h) ??
The rate of increase of depth is proportional to the change in difference between maximum depth and current depth
As depth increases, the distance between the water level and the rim (2-h) decreases - therefore rate of increase of depth would be inversely proportional to the difference.Last edited by Neimad; 14-06-2012 at 16:52. -
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012Did anyone else find there wasn't really enough time? I got to the last question with about 15 minutes to go thinking it would be alright because I usually ace differential equations, but that one completely threw me and I know i've lost 8/9 marks. It's annoying because i'm pleased with how the rest of the paper went. I was sat for about 5 minutes trying to figure out how to separate the variables.. I actually thought it could be integration by substitution but I wouldn't have had the time anyway. June 2011 was piss compared to this one.
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012Would just like to offer that if you did this question by substitution, the form you get to is t=2/3(2x-1)^(5/2)+2/5(2x-1)^(3/2) -4 EDIT: ACTUALLY t=3/2(2x-1)^(5/2)+5/2(2x-1)^(3-2) -4(Original post by Oromis263)
And finally!
Question 8.
a)
bi) This is a lot of work, I used integration by parts, but integration by substitution was another viable method (or any other way that got you to the answer really!)
Final equation
bii) Sub 2 in to above formula.
And that is it!
which is the same thing (though i don't think anyone will have bothered trying to condense this down).Last edited by In One Ear; 14-06-2012 at 17:08. -
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012I honestly couldn't say. It was out of 6, so you perhaps picked up a couple for your methods, but I don't think you'll get any accuracy marks? That being said, I'm not an A-level exam marker, I'm just a mere student.(Original post by Zoe_mj)
I found BP instead of PB which gave me lots of negatives in brackets which simplified to the same expression only a negative x-term, 9x^2 - 18x + 5, so my factors were (3x-5)(3x-1) so I got positive values of x = 1/3 and 5/3.
Which gave me different coordinates
How many marks do you think I'll lose?
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Re: AQA Core 4 Exam Discussion 14/06/2012Hopefully(Original post by Oromis263)
I honestly couldn't say. It was out of 6, so you perhaps picked up a couple for your methods, but I don't think you'll get any accuracy marks? That being said, I'm not an A-level exam marker, I'm just a mere student.
Thanks for putting all the answers on
(also made sure I noted which two were the same as each other etc, I am so paranoid the marker would be just like, "pssht, 4 solutions? WRONG!") :P
i made an account brah...GRIMESTARR 
