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CIE Maths IGCSE 2013

Hey people, I'm taking the CIE IGCSE maths exam in about 2 weeks now, just wondering how others are doing in terms of preparation etc. I'm doing the extended course and am expected an A*, I'm only in year 10 and this is my first exam so any pre-exam tips would be appreciated!!!

How have you guys been getting ready for the exam? I've been doing past papers mainly and today my teacher gave me a sheet of model answers... other than that I plan on winging it! I haven't even been taught all the GCSE syllabus yet so this is kind of just for fun :P

Good luck if you're taking the exam :smile:

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Reply 1

Notnek

Original post by Meandmydream

For expected A* students, I recommend doing as many past papers as you can. I find that textbooks and revision guides don't prepare you very well for the kinds of questions you can get in IGCSE.

You've probably noticed already that there are types of questions that come up every year in paper 4 that focus on one topic e.g. a transformations question or a graphs of functions question. You'll find that these are very similar every year so make sure you're aware of the general structure of these questions and are prepared for what could come up.

Also make sure you practice sequences questions, which are often at the end of paper 4. Textbooks don't prepare you at all for these kinds of 'unseen' questions.

There are certain areas where it is very easy to lose marks. Here are a few: not rounding properly (make sure you know the rules), Estimating gradients and finding solutions using a curved graph (you need to be very accurate with these questions and practice makes perfect). Also, for 'show that' questions e.g. show that x rounds to 32.1 to one decimal place, make sure you write down all of your calculator display and then show that this rounds to 32.1.

I'm currently preparing a group of Year 10's for their IGCSE exam in May so let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to help :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2

Meandmydream

Thank you, that's really helpful :smile:

I think I've done about 18 past papers now or something ridiculous like that (as you can probably tell I absolutely love maths!) and so I think I've got a feel for the usual questions. My teacher did lend me a textbook but similar to you, I didn't find that particularly helpful.

One of the biggest areas I've been losing marks for is rounding to 2d.p. but I'm working on this! One question I have is can you lose marks for not showing workings?? Thanks again :smile:

Reply 3

Hebbamundo

Original post by Meandmydream

Thank you, that's really helpful :smile:

As a CIE student for IG and A level, my advice is to do all the past papers back to 2002.

For IGCSE, you don't need to show workings. If you get the right answer, you're awarded full-marks for the question. I advise you show your workings though.

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Reply 4

Meandmydream

Awesome, thanks :smile:

Reply 5

Notnek

Original post by Meandmydream

One of the biggest areas I've been losing marks for is rounding to 2d.p. but I'm working on this! One question I have is can you lose marks for not showing workings?? Thanks again :smile:

Most of the time you will get all the marks if your answer is correct. But if a question says 'show your working', then you will lost marks if you don't write any.

Also, I have seen questions that don't say 'show working', where you would you would lose marks for no working. These are normally big 4+ marks questions.

Reply 6

Meandmydream

Original post by notnek

Oh ok thanks, I think I'll probably start showing my workings for most questions now just to be on the safe side!

Reply 7

giuliaprivato98

Oh no. The test was so difficult. Wasn't it? Did you do paper 4?

Reply 8

islander97

Original post by giuliaprivato98

Oh no. The test was so difficult. Wasn't it? Did you do paper 4?

Agreed, although since most people found it difficult grade boundaries are hopefully pretty low...at least the paper 2 wasn't bad.

Reply 9

giuliaprivato98

What do you think its going to be? The grade boundaires? Range?

Reply 10

islander97

I'm not sure but paper 4 is out of 130 and my math teacher said that some years its been as low as 80 marks for an A.

and a*?

Original post by giuliaprivato98

Oh no. The test was so difficult. Wasn't it? Did you do paper 4?

This paper was horrible!! I really didn't like the question on the water flowing through the cyclindrical tube into the 12l bucket and the radius of the pool....

Some of the questions were ok and I enjoyed some parts of the paper but overall it was evil! Normally I can finish a paper 4 in about an hour but with this one I was working right up until the end :frown:

Reply 13

giuliaprivato98

Original post by Meandmydream

same here
how much do u think grade boundaries ll be?

Reply 14

Zilch

Ah, I remember when I did IGCSE Math about 5 years ago. Oh the good times, I drive myself almost insane now at university with the math that comes in front of me. I sometimes forget how easy math was back then. Hope you guys do well.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 15

Hebbamundo

Original post by Zilch

It's all relative though isn't it? I found some of IG maths tricky when I did mine.

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Reply 16

Zilch

Original post by Hebbamundo

It's all relative though isn't it? I found some of IG maths tricky when I did mine.

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Good Point, I suppose different people peak at different times as well. I've known people who did horrible in IGCSE/AL but then just suddenly become brilliant at uni.

Reply 17

Meandmydream

Original post by giuliaprivato98

same here
how much do u think grade boundaries ll be?

I'm hoping that the grade boundaries will be fairly low, maybe 90 for a an A? I'm not really sure what the grade boundaries have been in the past...

Reply 18

Meandmydream

Bit of a change of topic but have any of you guys done Additional Maths? I'm going into year 11 next year and my teacher wants me to have a go at it (seeing as the rest of my year will be doing the igcse which I've already done), I've studied a fair bit of the textbook but I was wondering what the exam papers are like... are they difficult?