[Draco56]

How did everyone find it? I thought it was pretty good except for the last question where I couldn't really make heads or tails of the wording they used.

[Minerva McGonagall]

I thought this was a nice paper
Couldn't show that X=4cos@ to save my life though!

[aberlad93]

same @Draco56 - the wording was confusing :P!

[M1K3]

(Original post by Minerva McGonagall)
I thought this was a nice paper
Couldn't show that X=4cos@ to save my life though!

Split it into 2 right angled triangles, or perhaps easier, use the cosine rule.

[Minerva McGonagall]

(Original post by M1K3)
Split it into 2 right angled triangles, or perhaps easier, use the cosine rule.

Now I feel like an idiot! Haha, thank you

[Beep-Beep-ima-jeep]

I felt it was a nice paper, nothing to catch you out. Maybe the last question, but it was similar to last years final question :P

[M1K3]

(Original post by Llewellyn)
I think the last question was trickier than last years because it gave you no help at all. It was just a paragraph, and they wanted the students to determine the distribution, set the hypotheses, state the range, figure out the continuity corrections, etc.

I agree it was a nice paper though, any idea for grade boundaries?

I'd guess 42 - 50 - 58 - 66 - 74 for C - B - A - A* - 100. Which is a bit higher than last years (because last year had that uniform question which everyone couldn't do apparently). Those boundaries are roughly the same as 2010, which I think would be a good approximation as it was of a similar difficulty.

My answers were, in order:

Spoiler:

Show

27, 39, 30, 153, 0.30854, 4.729, 0.8, 0.13, 0.01321, 0.94062, [0.9205, 0.9435], (ref. lifetime with 90%), 0.0996, (0.8 vs <0.8), 0.32997 (accept Ho), 0.02852 (reject Ho), (cosine rule), 8/pi, 0.460, 0.00193, 0.04182

2b) was worth a lot of marks now that I look back

I agree with your estimate on boundaries. And I think my answers are similar to yours except I cannot remember my Q4 answers, and for the CI in Q3 i got [0.913, 0.951] and for Q6 my P(X=<3)=0.540 so i think i mite have screwed up.

btw, Ive seen you around the step threads, congrats for even doing step1 in yr12, I wouldnt have been able to do it when i was in yr12, how many completes did u get (i only got 2), just curious, r u planning on doing maths or similar at uni/ applying to oxbridge?

[M1K3]

(Original post by Llewellyn)
Oh **** I've messed up the confidence interval, your answer is correct. I think I forgot the coefficient 1.645 in my answer. I just did +/- 0.1/ sqrt(75) without multiplying first ah, that's at least 3 marks... For question 6 your answer is 1- 0.460, so maybe you took the length from pi/2 instead of 0? Seems quite minor IMO

Step I was ok. I attempted 11 questions iirc. I finished 10 and I was satisfied with my reasoning for ~4 of them. STEP is quite natural for me; it's a lot easier than Olympiads and it always guides you through the questions. I'm applying for physics next year probably.

Ah, dont worry, being this good at step is way better than screwing up some ****ty confidence interval, and yeah i might have been thinking about the inequality being the other way when i did it getting 1-0.46 instead of .46.

I find both STEP and olympiads hard lol, i did bmo1 for the first time in 2011 and got an abysmal 20 (given that that paper was easy), but yeah i see wot u mean by step being harder than olympiads, as they pretty much give us no help there. So, how much preperation have you been doing for step, or did, as you say, come naturally and you were on point from the start? have u done much olympiad prep?

And good luck with your uni application!

[roseroserose.]

I did awful, I hate stats but with ANY kind of revision i could've done alright, like someone said you just memorise the paper. Devoted far too much time towards M2 and M3. Although bizarrely I'm pretty sure I got the last question right. Lots of pressure on Fp2 and Fp3 now

[M1K3]

(Original post by Llewellyn)
Ah, yeah they messed up bmo1 this year... the first 4 questions were too easy (for the calibre of the students sitting it) which meant the boundaries shot up. And that meant I missed out on a gold in 2011 despite getting it in 2010... 20 is still a very good score considering the modal score is 0 and the mean score is around 12

No it doesn't come naturally... I do a lot of work and I read up a lot on number theory and geometry when I have free time. I also enjoy solving problems, the harder the better. Inevitably that overlaps a lot with the Olympiads. I'm trying to do more Olympiad prep in the hope I can make it further this year (as it will be my last year). But compared to the ruthless, open-ended and tricky style of olympiads, STEP comes much easier. I did all the STEP I papers before the exam though, so I guess that's quite a bit of preparation But I probably got into the swing of things faster because of my experience with longer-style questions. STEP is sometimes quite algebra-intensive, but it manages to stay quite cool/ interesting so I do enjoy it. I must say I find STEP III noticeably harder though (probably because it's based on more advanced maths). The best part of STEP is the really cool applied questions (especially in mechanics).

Bah, this S2 exam was another example of why I wish they'd make A level maths harder. It's so easy for candidates to just memorise the techniques and the steps to take in each situation and it just means the grade boundaries go way too high. Good luck with any remaining exams you have (I'm guessing Fp2/ fp3). I'm free now

Oh wow so I take it uv been doing olympiad stuff for some time. A gold, is that where you have to be in like the top 20 in the counrty or something similar? That is really impressive! And since youve done all STEP1 questions and as well, no wonder you did well!! I did most pure questions from 2000 and that was it regarding step1.

Yeah, with regards to A level, it is a bit annoying and i reckon that the number of careless mistakes we make is inversely proportional to the level of difficulty. I make loads of slips at a level but considerably less on step, and on the few bmo problems ive done i havent made any. Oh well, we've got step/bmo to keep us happy.

Yeah ive got a few days untill im free, fp2,fp3 and step3 left.