Year 12 Maths Help Thread

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Hey guys, I'm self teaching FM this year with the modules FP1, D1 and D2 and on OCR. Any suggestions on where to start, how to organise my time and any useful online resources? Some practice questions would be very helpful :smile:

Reply 81

C0balt

Original post by Princepieman

Ah, fair enough! I may as well just stick to the pure modules seeing as how I've done it before.

Thanks so much for your input though!

What are your plans for this year subject wise and uni wise?

Posted from TSR Mobile

I hope to study natural sciences at Cambridge, but will see how it goes....

Reply 82

tanyapotter

does anyone know how manageable it is to do maths, further maths, physics and (in my case) german all at a-level? i'm kind of scared of the workload but i really can't decide which one to drop and would love to carry them all forward

Reply 83

Palette

Original post by TeeEm

The special Papers are meant to be as hard as the super-hard.

Of course you can mention

Can I add you as a helper in the front page?

Reply 84

C0balt

Original post by ETbuymilkandeggs

1) Have you guys ever had the problem of running out of past papers to do? I know there are quite a few of them, but since I'll be doing two/three every week from the beginning of term, I'm worried that I'll eventually exhaust the existing ones. If this is the case, would it be worth it to do past papers from other boards? I'm doing MEI -- quite an unorthodox board from what I understand. But that shouldn't matter too much -- calculus remains the same discipline, regardless of board, right?

2) What ratio of your revision time was spent on maths and further maths? How many hours of revision a day/week did this translate to?

For example:
Subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry
Revision ratio: 3 : 3 : 2 : 2
Revision time: 1 hour(s) per day on maths-related subjects

3) How far would you say maths relies on 'genetics' or 'natural ability'? Would you say that being naturally competent at maths gives you a significant advantage at maths/FM A-level? Or does hard work and determination supersede all? It took quite a bit of work for me to get an 'A' at GCSE. I didn't work extremely hard, but I certainly didn't 'fly through the course without revising', like many people on TSR seemed to have done. I'm worried that this will hinder me for my A-levels, since there's so much more to the course than in GCSE. But I'm willing to put in as many hours as needed.

1) No, I had 17 papers per module and this was enough to score 100UMS. If you still want practice then as I said @TeeEm has his original disgustingly hard papers. I also recommend Gold papers from physicsmathstutor (google it). Those are compilations of hard questions from Edexcel papers.
How are you going to do two or three every week from the beginning, have you covered all the contents? Don't burn yourself out by working too much from he beginning...
Personally I'm not very fond of doing past papers without having done the entire module because then you'd have to skip questions in a paper which won't be a good practice with working to set time. I personally just used questions from book and sometimes topic questions again from physicsmathstutor before completing a module

2) Subects: Maths, FM, Physics, Chemistry
Revision ratio: 1: 2: 4:3
Did every single paper of current spec for each subject.
For physics and chemistry I made notes for questions I got wrong to perfect my exam technique.

3) It does help to be naturally good at maths but hard work and determination can replace it as long as you are smart with how you revise. Hours don't matter, even if you revise for short period of time if the hours were spent with high quality revision its better

Reply 85

TeeEm

Original post by Palette

Can I add you as a helper in the front page?

you can

Reply 86

Kai Diawara

the people who got aa in maths and further maths, how many hours a week did you practice

Reply 87

Joshthemathmo

Original post by Kai Diawara

the people who got aa in maths and further maths, how many hours a week did you practice

probably 5 outside of school for AS stuff, with countless hours of doing recreational maths

Reply 88

C0balt

Original post by Kai Diawara

the people who got aa in maths and further maths, how many hours a week did you practice

Throughout the year as long as my homework took me.
From March I started doing a past paper per week for modules I have finished and by the time of exam I had done every available current spec paper for each module

Reply 89

Number Nine

Got 96% MUMS at AS in maths/ further maths
Did C1/2 FP1 D1 M1/2
Would not mind being a helper

Reply 90

Palette

Original post by Number Nine

Got 96% MUMS at AS in maths/ further maths
Did C1/2 FP1 D1 M1/2
Would not mind being a helper

I've added you.

Reply 91

Ayman!

Sitting for A2 Maths and A-level Further Maths this year under Edexcel IAL. My modules are: C34, M2, M3, S1, S2, S3, F1, F2. I'm self-teaching a majority of my modules, so I'll be on this group a lot!

Reply 92

Palette

Original post by 1 8 13 20 42

Yeah no problem, I'm not doing much until uni in October anyway so I'll be here a lot of the time. :colondollar:

Well there are very many very capable mathematicians on the site; hopefully this thread will blossom but if you have a specific issue you can always count on it being sorted quickly if you post a thread about it. I'm sure those on the front page will be quite sufficient anyway. :tongue:

Isn't Chapter 10 trig? I hate all the CAST stuff but the proof/identity sections are quite nice.

Yes, and the trigonometry is so boring that I can't really solve that many questions before I give up. Self-teaching C2 is like marching to the Third Battle of Ypres only to get continually bogged down by a thick layer of wet mud.

Reply 93

Ayman!

Original post by Palette

C2 trig isn't that bad, tbh - it's C3 you have to watch out for... I presume you're using ExamSolutions or HegartyMaths?

Reply 94

math42

Original post by Palette

It's probably the area that you'll need to put most practice into for C2 (more manipulating trig identities rather than solving simple equations) You're really not going to like C3. :colone:

Reply 95

Palette

Original post by aymanzayedmannan

C2 trig isn't that bad, tbh - it's C3 you have to watch out for... I presume you're using ExamSolutions or HegartyMaths?

It's more to do with how boring it is which makes it more difficult than it should be (as I end up skimming over the examples).

Reply 96

Palette

Original post by 1 8 13 20 42

It's probably the area that you'll need to put most practice into for C2 (more manipulating trig identities rather than solving simple equations) You're really not going to like C3. :colone:

Maybe it's also because I'm not getting any help if I get stuck as I'm self-teaching it.

(I thought C3 was more calculus-based).

Reply 97

math42

Original post by Palette

Maybe it's also because I'm not getting any help if I get stuck as I'm self-teaching it.

(I thought C3 was more calculus-based).

I'm not sure if you've said you were on Edexcel (I kind of assumed it as Chapter 10 being trig would be rather coincidental otherwise)? If so C3 has lots of differentiation and lots of trig (two chapters on trig but one big chapter on differentiation I think). I think of it as the trigonometry-heavy unit and C4 the calculus-heavy unit, as even though differentiation beyond that of ax^n is introduced in C3 it is furthered and used in C4 along with integration.Some other boards have more of the calculus introduced in C3.

Reply 98

Palette

Which modules will you be taking?

Reply 99

Matt19-96

Original post by ETbuymilkandeggs

I'm not sure if this thread is for actual maths questions, like 'explain Argand diagrams to me', or if it's for questions regarding the course itself. I'm going to ask my questions in case it's the latter.

I'll be doing maths at my Sixth Form and further maths independently (didn't get an A* in GCSE). The school have agreed to help me complete further maths independently by providing me with revision notes, homework, and by allowing me to join in during revision sessions and ask questions.

I have a few questions:

1) Have you guys ever had the problem of running out of past papers to do? I know there are quite a few of them, but since I'll be doing two/three every week from the beginning of term, I'm worried that I'll eventually exhaust the existing ones. If this is the case, would it be worth it to do past papers from other boards? I'm doing MEI -- quite an unorthodox board from what I understand. But that shouldn't matter too much -- calculus remains the same discipline, regardless of board, right?

2) What ratio of your revision time was spent on maths and further maths? How many hours of revision a day/week did this translate to?

For example:
Subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry
Revision ratio: 3 : 3 : 2 : 2
Revision time: 1 hour(s) per day on maths-related subjects

3) How far would you say maths relies on 'genetics' or 'natural ability'? Would you say that being naturally competent at maths gives you a significant advantage at maths/FM A-level? Or does hard work and determination supersede all? It took quite a bit of work for me to get an 'A' at GCSE. I didn't work extremely hard, but I certainly didn't 'fly through the course without revising', like many people on TSR seemed to have done. I'm worried that this will hinder me for my A-levels, since there's so much more to the course than in GCSE. But I'm willing to put in as many hours as needed.

Sorry for so many questions.

Hey, at A2 I got an A in Edexcel Maths and a B in MEI Further Maths so I hope I'm speaking with experience when I answer your questions haha

1) Why are you doing two/three from the beginning each week? Surely it would be better to learn the course first then focus your attention on revision and past papers. Although it can be argued that you'd forget the stuff you learnt at the beginning by the time you finish, I found that after a couple hours of revision it all came back to me. Also, don't do two/three a week until shortly before your exam. Once you finish the course (which won't take too long if you are dedicated) do one or two then revise what you got wrong instead of moving on to the next paper straight away. That way you won't run out of papers but you still get fully prepared for the exam.

2) I did a rather strange combo of Maths, Further Maths and History at A2 (because I hated English Lit at AS) so I naturally found myself doing A LOT of Maths this past year. However it wasn't overwhelming in terms of revision, I managed to get the same amount of History done as I did with the Maths. That being said, the Maths was much harder in terms of actual work throughout the year because History was mainly coursework and essays.

3) Now this is the question I found myself asking right up until I got my results! Like you I didn't really smash out GCSE Maths and was really quite surprised when i got the A*, so when i was sitting in AS Further Maths I frequently felt out of my depth. However, with the hard work and determination that is required with any A Level subject, I managed to get B when others got a U. But yes, I must admit it would have been much easier if I was a natural mathematician as others on here get an A* without seemingly trying very hard lol. That certainly doesn't mean those of us who aren't geniuses can't get good grades though as long as the effort is there, so I', sure you'll be fine :smile:

PS Just out of curiosity, what modules are you doing??