Edexcel maths as past papers?

R papers are for students outside of the UK. They are different papers for the same specification. Quite often though they are slightly harder, and have slightly lower grade boundaries as a result.

Oh okay, should I still use them for revision?

Oh okay, should I still use them for revision?

Yes. They are still A-Level Mathematics papers that give just as good an indication of your performance as non-R papers due to the fact that the grade boundaries for them are adjusted to account for any difference in difficulty - I used them myself, and got AA in Maths and FM. Without doing R papers I would have had roughly half as much exam practice. You should use them in revision just as if they were non-R papers.

Thank you very much! Congratulations on the two As! Do you have any other tips for getting amazing grades in Maths?

Make notes on your computer while you are studying each new topic. This will be immensely helpful during revision time - I don't think revision would have been possible for me without doing this. Using your computer is much better for making notes because they can be adapted and condensed for clarity over time; using paper means you have to rewrite them each time you want to change them.

In the three-month period leading up the exams, revision must be your top priority (up there with food and water). Using your notes that you made over the period of learning the course will allow you to revise much more easily without faffing about with textbooks and extracting the information from them - you'll already have it written down in a flexible, easy-to-digest format.

In my revision period I had to revise Maths 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 months, but there was because I did all the exams in one session. Hopefully for you things will be less stressful

Hello, I was downloading some past papers from the website but I am confused about something. Say I look at June 2013 series there is a C1 Paper 1 and a C1 Paper 1R? Why is there two?

R papers are for students outside of the UK. They are different papers for the same specification. Quite often though they are slightly harder, and have slightly lower grade boundaries as a result.

The R papers are not always harder than the non-R equaivalent, some are easier. They have been written by the same people as the non-R ones so just treat them as extra papers.

On the printing front, are you printing out the whole 24 or 28 page booklet? Your teachers will have access to the 4 - 6 page versions on Graham's Edexcel Emporium.

Yes. They are still A-Level Mathematics papers that give just as good an indication of your performance as non-R papers due to the fact that the grade boundaries for them are adjusted to account for any difference in difficulty - I used them myself, and got AA in Maths and FM. Without doing R papers I would have had roughly half as much exam practice. You should use them in revision just as if they were non-R papers.

Did you take any of the modules: FP2, S3 and M3 out of curiousity? Im currently taking 13 mods but may do an AFM AS so just wondering if you took those and the difficulties as 15 mods make good space for movements.

FP2 and S3. I didn't do much mechanics (only M1). I did 12 modules and S1-4, and I would say that the difficulties in doing applied units would come from doing them from a number of fields.

I did FP1-3, S1-4, M1, C1-4. The FP units simply build on core knowledge, so though their content get quite difficult, its 'more of the same'. I actually loved doing Statistics, which made doing all 4 units a breeze, generally speaking. This is probably the most important aspect of your choice - only do what actually interests you. If you end up doing D1, M1-3, S1-2 as an A-Level, I think you might have added difficulties over studying one field thoroughly.

How did you find S4? How much more difficult is it to S2?I thought about it but realised that it would be really hard to get an A or B as grade boundaries are super high as hardly anyone takes it and the people who do are generally future economists/geniuses. I also assume that its quite articulate; drawn out unlike some of the others.

S2 is a big change from S1, admittedly. S3 though, is when things start to really develop. You learn about goodness-of-fit tests, which allow you to actually test whether or not a particular distribution can be applied to real-world data, and a lot more about testing using the Normal distribution.

S4 just builds on that knowledge further. It's probably the smallest unit across all of A-Level Mathematics, and if you can do S3, it is probably the easiest in a lot of ways. It really just builds upon S3. The questions are for the most part quite unsurprising, since S4 covers a very specific set of topics. It's really like, 'if you remember the distribution to use, you'll do fine'. You're correct to say that S4 is 'articulate', though - the terminology used comes at you thick and fast, but once you're in it you start to feel quite clever: you can say all kinds of statistical things that sound like nonsense to other people! S4 was actually my best unit - I got 98/100 UMS.

If you can do S3 and you enjoy it, deciding to do S4 is pretty much a no-brainer

Yes I did S2 and found it much easier than S1, most people as well. If I were to do AFM AS, as I have already done 9 units, im already pretty sure im doing FP3,S3,M1,M2. Would you recommend doing M3,FP2 or M3,S4 or FP2,S4?
Wow 98! You must have got 74/75 as the boundaries are a joke which kinda puts me off since if you flop one 8 marker than your looking at a C or B for sure. Thats why im looking into M3 even though its really tough.

If you're doing FP3, do FP2. They don't depend on each other, but I'm guessing that you like doing Pure Maths and there is a lot of interesting things in FP2. As for doing M3 or S4, I would personally do S4 because I love doing stats, and it's also a lot easier than doing M3! M3 and S3 are from what I have heard on a par when it comes to the amount you have to step up to do them. If you've done S3, your pretty much on the home stretch with statistics, so why not bag what will be a relatively easy unit? S4 took me about 2 weeks to learn completely - it's that small. It really is worth doing if you can be consistently accurate in your calculations.

It's all about what you prefer, really: Statistics or Mechanics.

I do make silly errors actually :/. I find mechanics more interesting but obviously stats is quite easier. The main thing is the boundaries and also the dates of the tests have some effect on the choice I guess. Does taking S4 make S3 seem easier? I understand Fp2/3 make c3 and 4 seem easier but not sure with stats as S2 did not help S1 really.

S1 covers descriptive statistics; S2 introduces theoretical statistics. You're right about S2 not making S1 easier. S3 and S4 continue the study of theoretical statistics, so S3 will definitely help with S4. In fact, you should not do S4 without S3. In a way, S4 just 'fills the gaps' in S3.

But I cant do S4 unless I have done S1-3 anyways lol? you mean if I do S3, than it will help if I do S4?