The Edexcel M1 (16/05/12 - AM) Revision Thread

Ah right, you live in Canada??

Congrats on the grades btw!

We're doing edexcel maths, but aqa chemistry! The aqa grade boundaries for the practical component of the a level is ridiculously high, every year you seem to need 50/50 raw marks to get 60/60 ums!

So far, i've got 200/200 in maths and 100/100 in chem but those were the easy starter modules so the ones in june are more important...im aiming for A*s in everything although economics isn't taught as well as I had hoped in my school so I will seriously need to put in many hours to achieve the grade i want!

I think in my ISA test , I either scored 29 or 30 out of 30, so I'm hoping I won't drop a mark there

I'm doing the exact same modules as you though...it must be hard to self teach further maths! Other than using the heinmann books, how do you do it??! You must be really smart haha

Apparently we're going to be taught both M3 and S3 in my school and then we get to decide which module to sit the exam in...

Which do you prefer, mechanics or statistics??

I live in UAE, not canada. Where do you live?

You have done really well in maths and chem so far, you look to be good enough to get the A*'s.

I only use the heinmann text books, if i get a doubt then i usually post it on TSR. But as i studied self-studied maths so i don't feel it much difficult to self-study further maths, but it does take a lot of time.

I prefer mechanics, its a very interesting module and M3 is really interesting, however i scored poor marks, 84/100, in it.

I will be doing FP2-3, S1-2 in the summer along with physics. I have taken the FP1(97/100) and M3(84/100) exam in Jan 2012.

I live in London, UK. I looked up those unis that you've applied to and on google they said they were in Canada? Do you intend to study there or am I just reading everything wrong haha??

Yeah that's quite a good idea, I don't normally post my problems on TSR but I reckon I should in future...I'm learning ahead myself these holidays anyway, C4 and FP1 look reasonably straightforward, but FP2 and 3 look like a mission!

How long do you spend on a topic such as matrices in fp3? i think that's almost half the book lol!

Yeah I used to find mechanics really hard, but having done M2 everything makes a lot more sense and I'm beginning to enjoy it!

By the way, do you do the C3L6 challenge??

As all the review exercises are past papers questions (they date back a long way sometimes) , they are worth doing true. However, some are completely unnecessary for example there's a question in my final M2 chapter in the review exercise of a ladder problem where the wall and ground are rough. However in the spec , it says that they won't ask questions where both wall and ground have frictional components, hence for the purpose of the M2 exam, it is utterly irrelevant to do! (although certainly worth it for pleasure/honing your maths ability if you seek to study it at uni)

The more recent past papers probably give an indication of what the chief examiner is going to aim to throw at you and hence I feel doing these are worth more.

Assuming that you are talking about Edexcel, M2 ladder questions can certainly involve a rough wall and rough ground.

The specification says
"Equilibrium of rigid bodies.
Problems involving parallel and non-parallel coplanar forces. Problems may include rods or ladders resting against smooth or rough vertical walls and on smooth or rough ground."

In M1, the examiner has, over the last few years, started reviving questions from much earlier papers in order to give a bit of variety, so it is certainly worth looking at the older exam questions that are contained in the review exercises. I think the same is likely to be true of M2 as it is tending to have the same problem that M1 had up until 2008, that the grade boundaries are very high. The January 2009 M1 paper (that paper) was a deliberate attempt to bring the grade boundaries down, though he did admit that he'd rather overdone it.

ah okay, i was just repeating what my teacher told me and he is in charge of setting the M2 paper!! (or so he claims but i sort of believe him because he had access to extra stuff on the edexcel website like showed everyone in our class the questions on which they lost marks and had access to past papers up to 1990!)

what do you mean by "that paper" with regard to the jan 09? was it purposefully made a lot harder or something?

Anyone teaching Edexcel who is clued up to the Edexcel website can find the breakdown of marks for each student. Anyone teaching Edexcel Maths can get access to papers going way back - I've just had a look at the first paper I ever marked, back in 1989.

I have to say though, looking through the past papers, that there have been no ladder questions involving rough ground and rough walls since M2 started in 2001, though there is nothing in the specification that says that there can't be.

Yes the January 2009 M1 paper was deliberately made harder to bring the grade boundaries down, so that candidates making a couple of slips didn't drop down below the A grade boundary.

Your are reading everything correct, i am intending to study there.

FP1 is really easy, do it first. Then move on to C4. I haven't started FP3 yet, i am almost done with FP2, i will today complete it. I have actually completed all the chapters of it, doing the review exercise which is almost done, then the examination style paper.

Matrices i think are usually easy, but i haven't studied FP3 matrices.

Make sure that you complete the core units(C1-4) before moving onto units like FP2, FP3 and M3.

I have never heard of the C3L6 challenge, what is it?

And if you need help with any maths question, feel free to ask me, you can pm me the question.

Cheers

ah okay nice, good luck there what did you say you wanted to study? how old are you at the moment? 17 or 18?

thanks for the advice, i think i will do fp1 first, it does seem quite basic and i've already done two chapters...my c4 book is the old version and looks quite bland haha

i am working through the matrices chapter in fp1 at the moment, but going quite slowly on it because it's an area of maths i've never really done anything on before!

the C3L6 challenge is the cambridge chemistry challenge done online at the start of every month from jan-jun. Jan is a practice round and the other 5 are competitive...they put a series of 5 questions on the internet (where you have to answer the first to get to the next) typically in order of difficulty and it requires some chemical aptitude (mainly you have to be good at calculations) and a lot of internet research! they are normally quite fun and in our school we have a competition to see who can score the most points over the year.

Thanks haha, i might have to ask you a few things now and then

can someone please tell me how to do question 7b-d on this paper,
thanks in advance,

Have you drawn a diagram, remember for questions like this you always use arctan to find angles.
For part C, you want to find velocity and then multiply is by t (time) and add it to the initial position vector, then rearrange. Constant velocity tells you acceleration = 0.

From just reading Part D, I can assume that you will end up with a quadratic and 2 answers. You have distance, from looking at the question I think you're going to end up with a triangle with the 10km being the hypotenuse - you need to do a drawing to find out.

yes i have drawn a diagram,
sorry, i still don't understand how to do them.

For part B, the first thing you need to do is work out velocity.



Then do the drawing for the direction in which it's moving.

I have all the M1 past papers from 2001 to jan 2012, the solomon papers and the textbook if anybody wants them.

I want the jan2012 paper + Mark scheme
and the Solomon papers , thank u very MUCH <3

thank you very much, now that question makes sense,
(i'm out of rep, i'll rep you tomorrow), thank you very much

(hang on, don't you mean for part c?)

I want the jan2012 paper + Mark scheme
and the Solomon papers , thank u very MUCH <3

can someone please tell me how to do question 7b-d on this paper,
thanks in advance,

I want the jan2012 paper + Mark scheme
and the Solomon papers , thank u very MUCH <3