The Student Room Group
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

Starting AS Maths in September...

Scroll to see replies

Original post by AdvancedNothing
Evening to all you fine people,

•

Firstly, do I need to purchase all of the gubbins like a maths set?

•

Secondly, do I need squared paper or will lined paper suffice, I ask because I am used to doing maths on squares but aren't the papers on lined paper at A Level

•

Finally, is there any advice you would give to someone just starting Y12, doing A levels in Maths, Chemistry, Sociology and Physics/English Literature (not decided yet!)




1. No I did not all I needed was pen/pencil, ruler and calculator

2. I used lined paper and you do only have lined in the exams but if you provide your own paper no one is going to tell you that you can't use it, and if they do well that's just stupid.

3. I did similar for AS, maths, chemistry, physics and further maths and am hoping to take all to A2, AS maths is quite easy at least for me. If you did any kind of additional maths qualification there is very little new material at AS. I did AQA chemistry and at first it seems like it is quite easy but as you near the end especially with CHEM2(the later and harder exam) it gets quite tricky. I can't talk for English/sociology but as for Physics it is my favourite subject along with Further Maths and am hoping to continue it at uni, so while I may be a biased towards it I would say take physics especially if you enjoy maths as that will help a lot with your enjoyment of physics if you thoroughly understand the maths. At AS level the maths in physics is quite easy but at A2 the teachers sometimes start doing maths before we cover it in maths classes, I can cope as I am quite good at maths and have covered it in FM, but others in my class who haven't covered it sometimes get confused.

Hope it helps and enjoy year 12/13 they have been the best years of my school career.
Original post by profmatt
I recommend the Casio fx-991ES (plus) and not any of the cheaper models. As well as allowing you to type in expressions so that they look onscreen like they look in writing, it has built in functions that are very useful for checking your work.


What are the odds, that calculator is the one I had primarily been using for my GCSEs in maths, so I know how to use it!

As for using Wolfram Alpha, would it be better for me to attempt at drawing the graphs, and then using Wolfram Alpha to see how it should correctly be drawn and compare, as I feel that may be a very effective way of improving my graph drawing skills
Reply 22
Avatar for profmatt
profmatt
1
Original post by AdvancedNothing
As for using Wolfram Alpha, would it be better for me to attempt at drawing the graphs, and then using Wolfram Alpha to see how it should correctly be drawn and compare, as I feel that may be a very effective way of improving my graph drawing skills


Yes, although for graph drawing, I don't particularly recommend Wolfram Alpha. Desmos (www.desmos.com) is much better. Or, if you have an Apple Mac and some cash, Graphing Calculator is superb: I use it every day.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you