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CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) A-Levels Anyone?

Ok, so i do Physics , Math and Chemistry. anyone doing anything similar. First exam on wednesday. 9702 Physics p4.

Any tips or anything anyone would like to discuss

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Same here ! Physics 42
Reply 2
Original post by thecandydoll
Same here ! Physics 42



Original post by CreativeBetch
Ok, so i do Physics , Math and Chemistry. anyone doing anything similar. First exam on wednesday. 9702 Physics p4.


Any tips or anything anyone would like to discuss


Is their an advantage doing CIE A levels compared to normal ones? And, are you only doing International A levels, because your an International student?
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by Datbreh
Is their an advantage doing CIE A levels compared to normal ones? And, are you only doing International A levels, because your an International student?

What do you mean by normal ones? If you are talking about other exam boards, then no. You won't get any particular advantages over other applicants when applying to universities.
Reply 4
Original post by Dhanoo
What do you mean by normal ones? If you are talking about other exam boards, then no. You won't get any particular advantages over other applicants when applying to universities.


Okay, thanks. :colondollar:
Original post by Dhanoo
What do you mean by normal ones? If you are talking about other exam boards, then no. You won't get any particular advantages over other applicants when applying to universities.


You do/did physics??. Any tips for the practical (paper 3) and the planning (paper 5) exams
Reply 6
Me Me...P4 day after tomorrow:frown::frown:

I hate A2 physics...
Reply 7
Original post by CreativeBetch
You do/did physics??. Any tips for the practical (paper 3) and the planning (paper 5) exams

Yes, I did physics. Finished A-levels last year. :smile: p3 you just need to get used to many practicals, and know how to do them.

and with p5, they can be tough at first but through practices, you will start to know how to answer the questions, and the marks that can be easily secured ; like for e.g. the errors, and most of the calculations in question 2. Seriously, provided you are careful with what you are doing, you could easily score full marks on question 2! Also, go through the examiner's report and markschemes - they helped a lot!

In question 1, there is no need to write in essay style - just list out the steps in point form as what the markscheme did. What i usually do is I write out the subheading for point I'm about to make for e.g.

Defining the variables
Independent variable = ....
Dependent varibale = ....
Controlled variable = ...

Methods
1) do this and that
2) blah blah blah
3) ....
4) ....

Analysis
1) ...
2) ...
3) ...

Safety Precaution
.....

Additional Details
- ...
-....
-...

(Sometime those additional details can be include in your methods so don't worry about where to put them.)
------------------------------

a little tips (if you haven't already knew this yet)... to find the absolute errors in the table: error = max - actual

that is say (from Nov 07), I/A = 1.2 +/- 0.1 then lg (I/A) is lg(1.2) +/- 0.03 = 0.08 +/- 0.03

how to get +/- 0.03? from above; error = max - actual ... max is the maximum value you could possibly get, so it's lg(1.2+0.1)

therefore error = lg(1.3) - lg(1.2) = 0.03 .... there you go!

I'm sure you know how to draw line of best-line and worst/best acceptable line, don't you? if you don't, seek help from your teachers :tongue: (it'd hard to explain here) .... the errors are simple; best fit - worst accept. whatever they want. say gradient, then it's gradient of best line - gradient worst acceptable.
Reply 8
I have a bio practical paper tomorrow and a hell lot more to ensue :frown:
Took AS Math Paper 1 and AS English Language Paper 2 today. Anyone else do math and/or english?
Reply 10
I took Maths P1 and Portuguese P2 this morning. Next Wednesday P3 Portuguese and the next Bio P2.

Anyone else??
Anyone Biology Paper 5?
Sorry to interrupt the thread for a moment... while there's nothing wrong with the discussion here yet, I just wanted to make sure that you're all aware of our exam discussion restrictions. Take a look at this announcement: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/announcement.php?f=51&a=629 :smile:
Original post by Dhanoo
Yes, I did physics. Finished A-levels last year. :smile: p3 you just need to get used to many practicals, and know how to do them.


a little tips (if you haven't already knew this yet)... to find the absolute errors in the table: error = max - actual

that is say (from Nov 07), I/A = 1.2 +/- 0.1 then lg (I/A) is lg(1.2) +/- 0.03 = 0.08 +/- 0.03

how to get +/- 0.03? from above; error = max - actual ... max is the maximum value you could possibly get, so it's lg(1.2+0.1)

therefore error = lg(1.3) - lg(1.2) = 0.03 .... there you go!


Thanks a lot for those tips..:biggrin:
Did you do chemistry as well????
I find chemistry P5 harder than physics P5 especially first question:redface:

I have little doubt here:
In P5 physics:
-- For finding error as you said lg(I/A), can I do error=[max - min]/2 i.e. [lg(1.3) - lg(1.1)] / 2

And Q2 of P5 for example equation I=pdqI=pd^q

After resolving is gradient is q
and y-intercept is log(p)

now in last question it usually asks to find p
Suppose I get y-int is 3.5 +/- 0.03

then how to find p along with its error???
Reply 14
Original post by cazzy-joe
Thanks a lot for those tips..:biggrin:
Did you do chemistry as well????
I find chemistry P5 harder than physics P5 especially first question:redface:

I have little doubt here:
In P5 physics:
-- For finding error as you said lg(I/A), can I do error=[max - min]/2 i.e. [lg(1.3) - lg(1.1)] / 2

And Q2 of P5 for example equation I=pdqI=pd^q

After resolving is gradient is q
and y-intercept is log(p)

now in last question it usually asks to find p
Suppose I get y-int is 3.5 +/- 0.03

then how to find p along with its error???

Yeah I did Chemistry, but got horrible grade on that. I too, found physics p5 much easier than chemistry. :tongue:

No offense, but I wouldn't advise you working out the errors using [max - min]/2 . You see, it isn't the best way to work out the errors - it takes longer to workout (you have to punch too many things into the calculator). A friend of mine once did that, and hadn't got enough time to finish the paper. And the answer via that method isn't the same as mine ?

I can't remember what I used to do there. The stuff was nearly one year for me, and if I hadn't got any worked examples with me (probably thrown them away :frown:) otherwise I would have helped you there ... sorry. Go through the markscheme and examiner's report, or even better, discuss it with your teacher.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by guigao
I took Maths P1 and Portuguese P2 this morning. Next Wednesday P3 Portuguese and the next Bio P2.

Anyone else??


How did ur math paper 1 go? Any questions u found particularly difficult?
Good luck to all. I finished my CIE A Levels.
Physics tomorrow :frown:
Reply 18
Original post by Prisonbreak94
How did ur math paper 1 go? Any questions u found particularly difficult?


I found the whole exam a bit difficult. The style of the questions was different from the others past papers. Most of my friends said the same...

In general, I think I did well, some questions I am still in doubt if I did right or wrong.

The second part of the vectors question ( I don't remember the number) about the paralelogram was tricky and I haven't had time to finish that one.
The other one about the arithmetic progession and the circle was "unusual" as well, but I managed to do this last one.

What were your impressions?
Original post by guigao
I found the whole exam a bit difficult. The style of the questions was different from the others past papers. Most of my friends said the same...

In general, I think I did well, some questions I am still in doubt if I did right or wrong.

The second part of the vectors question ( I don't remember the number) about the paralelogram was tricky and I haven't had time to finish that one.
The other one about the arithmetic progession and the circle was "unusual" as well, but I managed to do this last one.

What were your impressions?


Well as you said, the style was different and I was a bit annoyed about that. AP's and GP's were my favourite subject in the whole syllabus and I was most confident about those, I considered the arithmetic and geometric questions as 5-6 points at least in my pocket, because I would always do them correctly, and quickly. But this question was completely unusual. When I saw it, I said I don't want to waste time on this now, I'll do the rest and then come back to this and see if i can do it. But after doing the rest, I didn't have much time, and for some reason it didn't occur to me that we had to do Sum to 6 = 360 degrees :/ It seems so simple now...But it didn't occur to me :s-smilie: and I didn't do the GP either. So angry at myself...! But I did the line 1 line 2 coordinate geometry question and the last question fine, so I'm hoping for at least 45/75, which would hopefully be a C, and then a better grade in P2 to lift me up to a B or so which was my target for my AS Level grade...Fingers crossed!

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