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Revision hints for Monday's Edexcel Calculator Exam (Higher)

Hey my maths teacher is the head of maths and gave all of our class a sheet to help revision, I thought I'd post it to help out. I can't be bothered to scan it in sorry :frown:

Hopefully this will help some of you who aren't sure what topics to revise. My maths teacher also has connections with other schools and he said he thought it was a very hard paper and other schools also found it hard so he reckons the grade boundaries will be lowered. He also said because the non calc was hard, the calculator should be easier.

Maths Department Psychic Predictions Higher Tier Calculator Paper

Ok, ok, so we're not psychic but here are a few topics that haven't appeared much in the non calculator paper so could well come up in the calculator paper to help your focus your revision.

Number
Product of Prime Factors (LCM and HCF)
Compound interest
Bounds (Greatest value/least value)
Using a calculator to get an answer
Fractions
Reverse Percentages

Algebra
Trial and improvement
Plotting a curve
Rules of Indices
Solving equations or inequalities
Forming equations (angles in a triangle/ quadrilateral)
Nth term rule

Shape
Trigonometry
Volume and surface area
Pythagoras
Similarity
Angles (alternate and corresponding)
Bearings and construction
Enlargement
Circles and parts of circles
Vectors

Handling Data
Pie charts
Averages (including from a frequency and grouped frequency table)
Box plots
Histograms
Frequency polygon
Sampling
Questionnaires

(edited 12 years ago)

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Reply 1

SnoochToTheBooch

bring a calculator with you.

Reply 2

I Persia I

Original post by iJess

Thanks for this. :biggrin:

Does he reckon the overall grade boundary will still be reduced if the difficulty of the calculator is moderate? The topics you've put on above aren't that hard but hopefully it's not a shocker like the non-calc.

Reply 3

jcarz

Great. Thanks very much. 'Awkward' is how I would describe that test. The actual content wasn't very difficult, but the question wording was very queer indeed.

Reply 4

iJess

Yes I know to bring a calculator :P I'm afraid he didn't say Persia :frown:

But I think overall if it's been a struggle then that will be that, I hope it's not a shocker too :frown:

@jcarz I knew how to do the stuff but it was just so hard :frown:

Reply 5

JOR2010

Original post by I Persia I

Thanks for this. :biggrin:

I doubt it was a harder paper than June 2011's! If it was, you're looking at boundaries under 160/200 for an A*!

Reply 6

I Persia I

Original post by JOR2010

I doubt it was a harder paper than June 2011's! If it was, you're looking at boundaries under 160/200 for an A*!

It was definitely harder than June's. What was the required percentage for an A* in June?

Reply 7

JOR2010

Original post by I Persia I

It was definitely harder than June's. What was the required percentage for an A* in June?

Well, June 2011 was 81% raw for an A*. Does anybody have a copy of the paper they can send me?

Reply 8

123_456_789

Original post by I Persia I

It was definitely harder than June's. What was the required percentage for an A* in June?

It wasn't harder than June's paper. It was the same difficulty.

Original post by JOR2010

Well, June 2011 was 81% raw for an A*. Does anybody have a copy of the paper they can send me?

Here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1834485

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 9

Vorsah

Do lot think it could be Overall 110-120 for an A out of 200 for nov 2011 exam?

Reply 10

eman4show

Original post by Vorsah

Do lot think it could be Overall 110-120 for an A out of 200 for nov 2011 exam?

Yeah there's a pretty good possibility. Try not to listen to the '140-145' grade boundary predictions you hear. i did the june 2011 exam, which was ridiculously hard and everyone was saying '140ish' for an A and it turned out to be 119!

Relax you did fine :smile:

Reply 11

Vorsah

Original post by eman4show

I don't think I did fine I think I got around 30/100

Reply 12

eman4show

Original post by Vorsah

I don't think I did fine I think I got around 30/100

In both papers?! well 58 was a C last time so you probably passed :colondollar:

Reply 13

iJess

I'm worried too, I tried my best on non calculator but don't think I did very well. I tried to show working on questions I couldn't even do so do you guys think I would get marks for that?

Reply 14

iJess

Some schools take both in november. At ours if you wish to take higher you do it in november and if you wish to sit foundation you do it in june but they try and get everybody to sit in november so that we have maths out of the way, to concentrate on other exams in summer :smile:

Reply 15

Simpliey

Thanks for that, although I'm not sitting the higher tier there is a chance of these coming up :smile:

the foundation paperr was also really hard. What's wrong with edexel this year?

Reply 16

roberto111

I am not doing that exam but why not get past papers. They help you identify what you need to revise!!!

Reply 17

jcarz

Original post by iJess

I'm worried too, I tried my best on non calculator but don't think I did very well. I tried to show working on questions I couldn't even do so do you guys think I would get marks for that?

Definitely.

They have to give you some marks if you show the correct process, get part of the working correct, or even stating theorems helps. I remember just getting a mark for just putting the area of a triangle formula 1/2abSinC on a past paper.

Reply 18

Ace

Good luck everyone for Mondays exam. The grade boundary shouldn't be higher than 162 for A* as that was the boundary for June and this year seem to be harder than June. Calculator should be easier but still hard in general.