[Yorrap]

Do I lose the M1 mark for the red step, if I use my calculator in the blue step to solve the quadratic equation and simply write down my answers like the green step (without showing the quadratic formula)?

Mark Scheme




Question Paper

[Zii]

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: There are often questions which have a specific mark for showing a specific bit of the working. Using your calculator to do the working for you is not deemed worthy of that M1 mark, and too right; in my opinion, it shouldn't be! I mean how much harder is it just to write down the quadratic formula, or to try to factorise the quadratic?

[Yorrap]

(Original post by Zii)
Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: There are often questions which have a specific mark for showing a specific bit of the working. Using your calculator to do the working for you is not deemed worthy of that M1 mark, and too right; in my opinion, it shouldn't be! I mean how much harder is it just to write down the quadratic formula, or to try to factorise the quadratic?

Thanks!

It's not hard but when I solve questions, I usually do this kind of steps on my calculator and do not write the long way to the paper "to save some time". I was worried because i can simply do the same thing during an exam and loose marks :O

[Zii]

(Original post by Yorrap)
Thanks!

It's not hard but when I solve questions, I usually do this kind of steps on my calculator and do not write the long way to the paper "to save some time". I was worried because i can simply do the same thing during an exam and loose marks :O

I can confirm there are sometimes specific marks available for key bits of working. In this example, you can still get the M1 if you show an alternative method, but showing no method at all results in a mark dropped.