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Why is FP3 (Edexcel) so damn boring??

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I don't doubt that of course; but wouldn't you rather do limits, continuity, proof, etc. than just more and more complicated integrals (which they really aren't complicated, it's just that it's too much work for something we don't know anything about, hyperbolic functions that is).

No because limits and continuity and stuff (real analysis) is really hard and I don't like it.

Reply 21

1144297

Original post by gagafacea1

Seriously! It's the worst module of all the pure ones. And that integration stuff just feel so useless, except the arc length and surface area of course. Oh and those damn hyperbolic functions, I have yet to see them used somewhere other than this module. Wouldn't it have been more useful to put a chapter about limits instead?

Oh and don't even get me started on the linear algebra, I have never been so bored in my life; and the thing is, they put ZERO applications in the book so we are basically just doing brainless calculator work with no insight to what it's all about.

The only good parts (which also got boring after a while) were the arc length and surface area parts, and they don't even come up that much in the exam since you can rarely get an elementary integral out of them!

Please somebody help me out of this miserable book...

My maths teacher basically explained it as FP3 being the module where everything they didn't want to put in the others went.

Reply 22

Blazy

Original post by gagafacea1

Original post by Cadherin

I don't know - seems very odd how different MEI is. We get to choose three from differential geometry, vectors (bread and butter Edexcel also I'm assuming?) and then the multivariable calculus, groups/sets and the Markov chains.

It's a shame that Edexcel seems to be so useless when it comes to further pure.

It actually amounts about the same if you compare the exam board as a whole.

MEI FP3 sounds wonderful but the reality is that it's not actually that useful for preparing you for university, in the sense that once I got to university, all the stuff I learnt was only useful for about 2 lectures max and possibly one problem sheet...the only plus side is that you get to meet those concepts earlier.

The reason why the MEI FP3 course contains all these topics is because it takes out all the differential equations which other exam boards do in FP2/FP3 and puts it into one separate module. Likewise, there used to be an option to do hyperbolics or conics when taking FP2, but basically nobody answered the conics questions, so conics is now in a separate module (FPT) and hyperbolics is now compulsory. Numerical Methods is also in a separate module. This means that MEI can put everything that is in FP3 from other exam boards into their FP2 and free up about 3-4 topics, so they introduce things like Group Theory, Differential Geometry, Multivariable Calculus and Markov Chains, but they don't actually go into that much depth.