Edexcel C3,C4 June 2013 Thread

try questions from other exam boards e.g. OCR MEI?

Is it likely that the C4 paper will be similarly difficult? After speaking to my maths teacher, she said that both C1 and C2 were pathetically easy papers - so the harder C3 paper doesn't seem to be in keeping with the rest of Edexcel's thinking!

Are those questions more difficult?

yup compared to Edexcel papers, here's a link to them: http://www.mei.org.uk/?section=resources&page=alevelpapers#C4

I don't understand how it can be claimed that the whole paper was of a different style to normal. Do people have trouble extracting information from questions these days, or were they expecting to be able to half-ass through it without any thought, as with the past papers that they had trained themselves on?
Granted the final question did have some weird context which somehow lead people to believe that it was a Mechanics question, but in reality it is their own fault for failing to realise that it was a simple Rcos(x+a) type question.
Supposing that 6/8 of the questions could have been the last question on a normal paper -- so what? That will only affect the people who wouldn't normally be able to answer those questions, whom I have no sympathy for.

I agree that this exam was the hardest C3 paper that I have ever done. However, it was completely doable and the top students will be rewarded appropriately.

Is it unfair that other students mistakenly sat the old paper? No, it isn't. The grade boundaries will be appropriately set for each exam paper, so I fail to see how their paper would affect the results from ours.
Regarding getting flustered under the pressure: contact your university and Edexcel to try and get the extraneous circumstances taken into consideration. Really though, how do you get to 17/18/19 years old without proper exam technique? Spending more time on low value questions is a rookie mistake.

The press release in May stated that the replacement papers are just a precaution; nowhere have they stated (afaik) that the papers were actually leaked.

To be honest, I'm more insulted by the people that have been complaining and calling for resits. I worked just as hard on C3 and I feel that I did reasonably well -- why should other people get a second chance due to their poor performance?
Heck, marking hasn't even begun and people are already moaning about losing their place at university; failing to realise how UMS works.

Thanks but what's up with the comprehension part, don't think that would be worth doing

My main problem with this paper was the time! a lot of people are looking at the paper without sitting it and commenting that the questions are hard but do-able. That's true, looking at them all now I can see what to do and that they are sort-of on syllabus, but almost every question was as hard as the hardest one on a normal paper, despite the fact we only had the time set for a standard paper! Having done the past papers we learnt about how much time the exam board expected us to spend on each mark - that way in this paper the amount of work needed for a low mark question just made me think i was doing it wrong! It also gave me no time to check through for mistakes

Yep, this is exactly what happened w/ me as well, looking at the answers, I know I could of picked up more more marks if I carried on with my working but I thought I was doing it wrong hence left it as I was like there's no point in wasting time when I've probably got it wrong whereas I was actually on the right track!! Also I think that because I revised so much for it, when I came across questions that seemed tricky, I lost confidence in my ability & started making stupid mistakes & overcomplicating stuff

Just wondering, No matter how much they adjust the grade boundaries... you still need 90% each for C3 & C4 for an A*, right?

Ah im screwed.

same! 100% agree! that ff(0) wasn't actually too bad, but i saw it and thought "oh this is the same as the January exam, i can do this" i knew what i had to do and started working out the gradient etc. to find where it crossed but i figured since it was worth exactly the same marks as the January one where the co-ordinates were given then i must be doing it wrong/have missed something and moved on! bah!

I think I'm in the 61-65 range ( I'd say 63-62most ) Depends if I get marks for workings. Any hope for 90?

In Q7 if I worked equations of both lines by getting their slopes, then got thier intersection subbed it, then relalized that I should sub each equation, so I attempted first one but time was over, would I get any marks for that?

I think you're being a bit unfair. Because you say people are demanding a resit because of their "poor performance' which is insinuating that they didn't revise well enough.
I will use myself as an example. I have been preparing for this exam since January? February? NO. November 2012.. You can decide to believe me or not.. I've done every single question on the edexcel website, I did Solomon papers, i even did past papers from the old edexcel syllabus, including p2 and p3 papers... You can't tell me that i have not prepared enough, and i walk into an exam and see the 'mother of all messes' including further maths and m1 questions?
I know the edexcel maths spec inside out. Never have i seen a question in c3 asking me to find the distance a girl called Kate travelled. First of all, i don't care about Kate. Second of all, it was not on the syllabus.
I know you're probably going to say i crammed past papers or whatever. No i didn't. The amount of effort, time and tears i've spent on A level mathematics could not have prepared me for that exam yesterday, and no, i did not freak out during the exam. I used my 'exam technique' and tried as much as possible to salvage my potential C3 grade. So now forget me. Think about all the other thousands of people who like me, worked tirelessly to prepare for c3.. Surely, we are not going to work hard and start complaining that an exam is hard, if it wasn't really hard? As much as i'm stressed about Alevels and cannot wait to finish, i feel a resit is very well in order. I can't have spent 6 months just to get a D or C? You should really try and put yourself in other people's shoes tbh.
Grade boundaries make no difference here. Imagine someone got 60/75 in january has a B, then someone this time round, has 50/75 and has an A.. Surely, you can still tell that there is a difference in 10 marks, to the favour of the person who has a B.. who will obviously end up with a higher ums, whichever way you want to look at it.
Can i ask? Do you do further maths?

I think you're being a bit unfair. Because you say people are demanding a resit because of their "poor performance' which is insinuating that they didn't revise well enough.
I will use myself as an example. I have been preparing for this exam since January? February? NO. November 2012.. You can decide to believe me or not.. I've done every single question on the edexcel website, I did Solomon papers, i even did past papers from the old edexcel syllabus, including p2 and p3 papers... You can't tell me that i have not prepared enough, and i walk into an exam and see the 'mother of all messes' including further maths and m1 questions?
I know the edexcel maths spec inside out. Never have i seen a question in c3 asking me to find the distance a girl called Kate travelled. First of all, i don't care about Kate. Second of all, it was not on the syllabus.
I know you're probably going to say i crammed past papers or whatever. No i didn't. The amount of effort, time and tears i've spent on A level mathematics could not have prepared me for that exam yesterday, and no, i did not freak out during the exam. I used my 'exam technique' and tried as much as possible to salvage my potential C3 grade. So now forget me. Think about all the other thousands of people who like me, worked tirelessly to prepare for c3.. Surely, we are not going to work hard and start complaining that an exam is hard, if it wasn't really hard? As much as i'm stressed about Alevels and cannot wait to finish, i feel a resit is very well in order. I can't have spent 6 months just to get a D or C? You should really try and put yourself in other people's shoes tbh.
Grade boundaries make no difference here. Imagine someone got 60/75 in january has a B, then someone this time round, has 50/75 and has an A.. Surely, you can still tell that there is a difference in 10 marks, to the favour of the person who has a B.. who will obviously end up with a higher ums, whichever way you want to look at it.
Can i ask? Do you do further maths?

Second of all, it was not on the syllabus.

It genuinely makes me when I hear people say that the stuff they asked was out of the syllabus, roflmao.

It genuinely makes me when I hear people say that the stuff they asked was out of the syllabus, roflmao.