The Student Room Group

OCR MEI FP1 Thread - AM 20th May 2016

Scroll to see replies

Reply 200
I didn't have time to read the last part on the last series question and so just had time to quickly work out 1-50 using the result, am I looking at 1/4 max for that? :/
Reply 201
Original post by jcouchman
I think, worst case scenario, I got about 54/72 best case scenario, about 59/72, what sort of grade am I looking at? Thought it was one of the most difficult fp1 papers yet

Realistically I'd think you're looking at a b on this paper..
I mean last year 59 was 72 UMS but the "MEI grade boundary overlords" might be nice to us for once...fingers crossed anyway.. :smile:
How many marks was the f(w/j)=0 question worth and what the hell did that one want me to do?
Original post by NickC98
How many marks was the f(w/j)=0 question worth and what the hell did that one want me to do?


2 marks. And you have to multiply to the roots you found previously by 'j' to get the new roots. That was the only bit that stumped me! :angry:
(edited 7 years ago)
I got alpha x beta as 1 not -1, i found alpha + beta, and did all the working for alpha x beta but used the wrong sign, i did alpha x beta =13/13. It was a 5 mark question how many marks do you think i lost?
unofficial mark scheme?
Original post by kikkandr
unofficial mark scheme?


page 7
Just so I'm clear- to get 100 UMS do you need to get 100% or it there like a cap? I think I've dropped a max of 4 marks- does getting 100 UMS matter a lot? thanks
Looks like I got about 59/60 out of 72, would you say that should be an A?
Original post by thebearissquare
I got alpha x beta as 1 not -1, i found alpha + beta, and did all the working for alpha x beta but used the wrong sign, i did alpha x beta =13/13. It was a 5 mark question how many marks do you think i lost?

Did the same thing :redface:
Reply 210
Original post by slamtheworld
Did the same thing :redface:


I was unsure for part (i) so did the rest of the question (getting the real roots by dividing the quartic by ZZ*) and then used the roots to answer part (i). For the -26/2 part I said that was -d/a instead of e/a which is what it was. Do you think I will lose marks for that even though I got the correct answer (as I already knew the answer from further workings)?
ugh I just realized on the last question I did the sum of n=50 - n=20 when I should have done n=50 - n=19 :frown: should still get method marks though?

I thought the paper was alright overall, only question I couldn't do at all was the f(w/j)=0 one.

I didn't have time to check though, so I probably made a couple of stupid mistakes.
(edited 7 years ago)
Does anyone remember how many marks that first matrix question was worth?
I'm an idiot and ended up writing (1/det) as the determinant, then using that as the area scale factor. **** me.
Original post by jn998
I was unsure for part (i) so did the rest of the question (getting the real roots by dividing the quartic by ZZ*) and then used the roots to answer part (i). For the -26/2 part I said that was -d/a instead of e/a which is what it was. Do you think I will lose marks for that even though I got the correct answer (as I already knew the answer from further workings)?

Didn't manage to do the last part tbh, but you'll surely get most of the marks, maybe loose one or two I'd say but you never know!
What boundary do you guys think it will be for an A? 60 ?
Original post by aeroline1999
If the world was just the A boundary would be like 50/72 for that paper. But the world isn't so no doubt it'll be like 60/72 for an A. By far the hardest FP1 Paper I've ever done, and I've song all of them from 2008 onwards! Also its so unfair, like just last night I got 69/72 in a past paper with like 96UMS and on this I'd be lucky to get a B let alone an A. I don't have confidence the boundaries will reflect how hard it was. Although you never know, the did get done to 48/72 in January 2013. If the A is between 48-52/72 I should be absolutely fine, but I reckon it'll be 58/72. I just have a hunch. Also I hate OCR MEI WHY IS MY SCHOOL JEOPARDISING MY FUTURE BY CHOOSING SUCH AN AWFUL EXAM BOARD?! I want EDEXCEL or AQA or even just normal OCR!!!!!!!


100% agree with you. The test was so much harder than previous ones!


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 216
Original post by -Gifted-
What boundary do you guys think it will be for an A? 60 ?


55
Original post by Natalie_13
Just so I'm clear- to get 100 UMS do you need to get 100% or it there like a cap? I think I've dropped a max of 4 marks- does getting 100 UMS matter a lot? thanks


No. only thing that matters is that you get an A because thats all you need for A* overall in FP1. Its just the A2 modules you need more than 90UMS in. Getting 100% doesn't count for anything. Last year I got full UMS in my IGCSE Biology exam and it means nothing. All i have is the same A* that 80% of the rest of people in my school got. All it meant was I won my schools biology prize that year. And in A-level maths it might not even mean that because you might not get 100UMS in the other modules. Of course its not a bad thing if you get 100UMS in FP1 its just attainment is capped beyond 80UMS. However it does mean you can screw up another module and still get an A* overall, assuming its an AS module. If its A2 you can't. So yeah, basically meaningless, sorry.

Oh and yeah, you need 100% of raw marks. They just scale it down. TBH no one understands UMS after 80 anyway so could be wrong. But I tried testing it on OCR's UMS converter mefthingy and basically yeah, its 100% = 100UMS which is basically the only time UMS matches properly to percentage. Not like that for GCSE/ IGCSE though or other exam boards. Its just MEI have really high boundaries because only pretentious schools who think they are better than everyone else use MEI (like mine) because the boundaries are too high and the questions harder. And thus the vicious downward (or upward if we're talking grade boundaries) continues, because only "clever" people end up doing it so the boundaries are inaccurate and artificially higher because of self-selection (except I wasn't given a b*****y choice!), and so even less schools enter for MEI.

Why we don't just have 1 national exam board I don't know! It would actual create some consistency and accuracy in the exam system. As it is the exam system is corrupt, inefficient, unfair, unreliable and inaccurate.
(edited 7 years ago)
This exam was such a piss take tbh, I've done all the past papers and except for Jan 13 this is by far the hardest. Section A was very straight forward but the final method of differences question was bs, we had never done an example like that in class. I can't see the grade boundaries being any higher than mid 50's but if they were I know a lot of people personally who would be severely misrepresentation by their grade...
Original post by chemari1
true, what do you reckon the boundary will be for a b?


Knowing MEI 57/72 or something. Not even kidding. Lots of people have said it was hard and I thought so too, but lots disagreed. I'm starting to worry I was just one of the stupid people who think it is hard each year because they aren't very good not because it was hard. Although TBF, last night I got 69/72 in a paper but I would be surprised if I even got 55/72 int that! I know I definitely can't get anymore thats 63/72 anyway, and that would only be if everything else was correct, which it probably won't be

Quick Reply

Latest