How hard is FP1?

I'm studying maths and further maths this year and am in year 12. (OCR)

We have finished C1 and D1 both of which I have found relatively easy and have done the majority of M1 which I have found slightly harder.

How much of a step up (if any) is FP1 from the other AS modules?

Reply 1

MathMeister

Original post by GM16

How much of a step up (if any) is FP1 from the other AS modules?

It's more like C2 (and the other core modules in comparison to the mech/stats/decision).
It is very easy imo and it's very realistic if you're good at maths to get full marks.

Reply 2

Awesome Genius

Back in my day, it was really hard. Had loads of hard integration. Then they made it really easy.

Pretty easy tbh.

Original post by GM16

Personally, I found it the hardest of the X1 units. A million times more difficult than C2, I honestly don't know where MathMeister is coming from.

Reply 5

GM16

Original post by MathMeister

It's more like C2 (and the other core modules in comparison to the mech/stats/decision).
It is very easy imo and it's very realistic if you're good at maths to get full marks.

Ah okay, thanks a lot. Is there anything that others could find difficult?

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Reply 6

GM16

Original post by Chlorophile

Personally, I found it the hardest of the X1 units. A million times more difficult than C2, I honestly don't know where MathMeister is coming from.

Did you struggle with the core units or only FP1?

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Reply 7

Chlorophile

Original post by GM16

Did you struggle with the core units or only FP1?

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Not really, I remember that last year M1 and FP1 were the two units I found more difficult. "A million times harder than C2" might have been a bit of an exaggeration but I definitely think the FP units (FP2 especially...) are a lot harder than the core units. There's just a lot of totally new stuff. It's still easier than the A2 units, but I do stand by saying that FP1 is the hardest X1 unit.

Reply 8

MrJAKEE

Original post by GM16

I've done about 50% of it earlier this year (I'm in Year12 too). It's quite easy when you get the hang of it, imaginary numbers, matrices etc are what I like to call alternative maths. Sequences and proof by induction looked a bit hard though. From the modules I've taken so far I'd put it :

C1 C2 D1 FP1 M1

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Reply 9

Chucklevisionary

I have just finished FP1, its not that hard at all. Initially it may take a while to understand the concepts as its all quite new but after going through a few examples of each question type and some past papers you should be fine :smile:

(I prefer it to D1 simply as its more interesting although quite a bit harder, I find FP1 easier than M1)

Reply 10

GM16

Original post by MrJAKEE

Cool, is it all completely new stuff?

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Reply 11

MrJAKEE

Original post by GM16

Cool, is it all completely new stuff?

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Pretty much yep.

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Reply 12

MathMeister

Original post by Chlorophile

Personally, I found it the hardest of the X1 units. A million times more difficult than C2, I honestly don't know where MathMeister is coming from.

a million times srsly :redface:

??
To OP, Chlorophile: :smile:

Yeah it is a big strange some of the content, however some of it (i.e. numerical methods and coordinate systems are a piece of cake I find)
Also there are two series chapters which definitely not hard.
None of the concepts are hard to grasp really and when you cover it formally in class it will seem far easier (probably)
I would agree it's harder than C2 but then again C2 isn't remotely hard to begin with imho... :/

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 13

Chlorophile

Original post by MathMeister

a million times srsly :redface:

??
To OP, Chlorophile: :smile:

I think the problem with the FP units is that they're new. Whereas the core units are pretty much building on the same thing (and mechanics is pretty similar in that respect too), there's a lot of new stuff in FP. Looking back at FP1 now I honestly don't know how I found any of the stuff hard (yet I still managed to lose a mark :angry:

) but I remember clearly that it was the unit I found the most difficult.

Reply 14

MathMeister

Original post by Chlorophile

) but I remember clearly that it was the unit I found the most difficult.

Yeah. Still better than mechanics I find because I can look at the question and know exactly what to do like with core whereas for example mechanics is setting up the situation and solving the problem.

Doesn't Fp2/3 build up kind of on C3/4 calculus? I haven't done Fp2/3 yet but it looks like it may require the same skills brought up by A2 maths.

Reply 15

Chlorophile

Original post by MathMeister

M2 is literally M1 but slightly more difficult. You could pretty much learn M2 in a couple of weeks if you wanted to, I think it's the easiest unit in terms of actual content you need to learn.

I've done all of the core units, two mechanics units and all the X1 units and I can honestly say that FP2 is a different world. I'm better at Maths this year than I was last year so I've not got any major problems but purely in terms of the difficulty, it's not even comparable to C3 and C4. The complex numbers, for instance, is waaaaay harder than the complex numbers in FP1 and whilst the calculus chapters do build on the C3 and C4 calculus, the harder questions make the core units look like a total joke. I love FP2, the calculus is really fun, but the top-end questions are genuinely hard.

Reply 16

MathMeister

Original post by Chlorophile

...

I better get started then lol

Reply 17

MathMeister

Original post by Chlorophile

I've done all of the core units, two mechanics units and all the X1 units and I can honestly say that FP2 is a different world. I'm better at Maths this year than I was last year so I've not got any major problems but purely in terms of the difficulty, it's not even comparable to C3 and C4. The complex numbers, for instance, is waaaaay harder than the complex numbers in FP1 and whilst the calculus chapters do build on the C3 and C4 calculus, the harder questions make the core units look like a total joke. I love FP2, the calculus is really fun, but the top-end questions are genuinely hard.

But once I properly finish C3/4 I will find fp2/3 approachable rightl? Just that the complex numbers looks very hard to understand same as the 2nd odes, 1st odes are mainly fine looking though. Other stuff looks easy though like mod graphs, Taylor and maclaurin and method of differences. amirite?

Reply 18

Chlorophile

Original post by MathMeister

It's definitely approachable, it's just a pretty big jump in difficulty in my opinion. In C3 and C4, you can pretty much work through stuff with no problems. FP2 requires actual thought, you can't just expect to absorb it.

Methods of differences and mod graphs are easy. Taylor and Maclaurin I've only just started. It's easy so far, I don't know if it gets harder.

With 1st and 2nd order differentials, most of the stuff is easy but the hard stuff is HARD. In both of them, whilst 90% of the questions are easy, the 10% that isn't is genuinely difficult. There are a couple of monstrous questions in both chapters. Lots of fun though!

Reply 19

username1560589

Original post by GM16

FP1 is little harder than C2 I think. The concepts are fairly simple and are covered without much detail, but they are areas of maths that you haven't come across before.

Original post by MathMeister

FP2/3 are a slight step up from C3/C4, but are approachable.
Complex numbers are simple and elegant once you get used to them.
The 2nd order ODEs are tricky in the exam, but you can just follow an algorithm so it's not too bad. It's just recognising what to do where. 1st order are easy.
The rest of it you mentioned is straightforward.