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AQA Further Maths FP1 June 5th 2015

Anyone here doing the AQA FP1 module this year? If so, how's prep. going? Anything you would like to ask/discuss? :biggrin:

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Reply 1
Original post by PrimeLime
Anyone here doing the AQA FP1 module this year? If so, how's prep. going? Anything you would like to ask/discuss? :biggrin:



Hey I'm also doing this exam. What other modules are you doing? How are you finding this module?
Reply 2
Original post by a123a
Hey I'm also doing this exam. What other modules are you doing? How are you finding this module?


Wahay! Someone else who's actually doing this module! :party:

I'm doing C1,C2,S1 (WJEC) for Maths and FP1,D1,S2 (AQA) for FM. I assume you're not doing S2 but something else instead?

It's actually a really enjoyable module. I wouldn't say that it's that hard, but sometimes questions can be a little bit tricky, making you think more than usual. But what with the increase in difficulty in pretty much all the exams (especially WJEC exams) this year we might be looking at a tough paper. Having said that though, I do like challenging questions once in a while, :biggrin:

I'd have to say that of all the topics, the hardest is probably matrix transformations, purely because I can't understand all of it that well. I can do the questions, but sometimes I don't fully understand what I'm doing, which bothers me.

How are you finding it? What sort of mark are you aiming for?
Reply 3
Original post by PrimeLime
Wahay! Someone else who's actually doing this module! :party:

I'm doing C1,C2,S1 (WJEC) for Maths and FP1,D1,S2 (AQA) for FM. I assume you're not doing S2 but something else instead?

It's actually a really enjoyable module. I wouldn't say that it's that hard, but sometimes questions can be a little bit tricky, making you think more than usual. But what with the increase in difficulty in pretty much all the exams (especially WJEC exams) this year we might be looking at a tough paper. Having said that though, I do like challenging questions once in a while, :biggrin:

I'd have to say that of all the topics, the hardest is probably matrix transformations, purely because I can't understand all of it that well. I can do the questions, but sometimes I don't fully understand what I'm doing, which bothers me.

How are you finding it? What sort of mark are you aiming for?


Wow you can do FMs on a different exam board to your A level Maths? I'm actually doing FP1, S1 and S2 as part of my AS for FMs. (I'm in yr 13 and finished A level Maths in yr 12) Not a lot of people seem to be doing AQA S2! How you finding S2? Is there a thread for it?
Yeah I like this module too. I understand what you mean; I think because the concepts can't get too hard they rely on tricker questions to trip people up.
Matrix multiplication is something I understand quite well surpringly. Anything I can help with?
I'm hoping for 100 ums in this unit so I have more marks to spare in S1 and S2. In past papers I'm generally getting 70+. But on the June 2013 I got 65 :redface: What about you?
Original post by PrimeLime
Anyone here doing the AQA FP1 module this year? If so, how's prep. going? Anything you would like to ask/discuss? :biggrin:


I'm doing this exam as an extra module this year, (I am in the first year), but it seems due to the lack of comments, not many people are taking this exam...
Reply 5
Original post by a123a
Wow you can do FMs on a different exam board to your A level Maths? I'm actually doing FP1, S1 and S2 as part of my AS for FMs. (I'm in yr 13 and finished A level Maths in yr 12) Not a lot of people seem to be doing AQA S2! How you finding S2? Is there a thread for it?
Yeah I like this module too. I understand what you mean; I think because the concepts can't get too hard they rely on tricker questions to trip people up.
Matrix multiplication is something I understand quite well surpringly. Anything I can help with?
I'm hoping for 100 ums in this unit so I have more marks to spare in S1 and S2. In past papers I'm generally getting 70+. But on the June 2013 I got 65 :redface: What about you?


Yeah, and I have no idea why our school does a different exam board for FM! I guess we're kinda cheating because half of our S1 overlaps with our S2! :colondollar:

I'd really have liked to do FP2 instead of S2 though. It looks like the most interesting maths module ever! Plus it's pure maths which I like a lot more and I'm a lot better at. I know S2 is going to be hard for us this year, probably gonna be my lowest UMS Maths module. And whyyy D1? I mean, most of the stuff is ridiculously easy but it's hardly even maths...
I think we do need a thread for S2; I'll get one started later. :biggrin: S2 is quite hard and I don't like it for two reasons. 1. Half of the content is to be memorised without understanding it because understanding it requires undergraduate level knowledge. 2. Because it's stats and I hate stats XD.

FP1 is great because it's more challenging than C1 and C2. They just got boring after a few papers. Matrix basics are fine, it's those pesky matrix transformations that annoy me :angry:. I see we're both aiming for 100 UMS! Me because I'm trying to apply for Cambridge Maths and they want sky-high UMS in all Maths modules!

That being said I'll have to teach myself 3 extra mechanics modules (which is alright because I like mechanics) and the FP2 module for the STEP papers (the admissions tests). So next year, I'll effectively be taking 4 subjects: Maths (with one module of mechanics M1), Further Maths (another module M2), Physics (a bit more mechanics) and basically a separate subject Mechanics (M3, M4, M5).
Yeah, I'm gonna be really familiar with mechanics by the end of the year...
Reply 6
Original post by student0042
I'm doing this exam as an extra module this year, (I am in the first year), but it seems due to the lack of comments, not many people are taking this exam...


I think it's because not many people like Maths enough to take Further Maths... :frown:
Reply 7
I'm doing FP1. Overall, I find it kind of boring really.

Does anybody have any good notes on integration? I can integrate fine but when it starts asking me if things exist and why they're improper I stumble.

Thanks in advance!
Reply 8
Original post by Rabadon
I'm doing FP1. Overall, I find it kind of boring really.

Does anybody have any good notes on integration? I can integrate fine but when it starts asking me if things exist and why they're improper I stumble.

Thanks in advance!


It's an improper integral if the integrand is undefined at at least one point in the interval of integration. Hope that's clear. I'm not sure if it's an 'if and only if' statement though.
The ONLY other thing you need to know for AQA FP1 integration is that the integral diverges (does not exist/does not have a value) or it converges and you treat any improper integral as an appropriate limit of the corresponding proper integral.
If I haven't explained it well or in enough detail please let me know. :smile:
Original post by PrimeLime
I think it's because not many people like Maths enough to take Further Maths... :frown:


Well I know I do. I actually want to take all the modules for maths because it's a very interesting subject.
Reply 10
Original post by PrimeLime
Yeah, and I have no idea why our school does a different exam board for FM! I guess we're kinda cheating because half of our S1 overlaps with our S2! :colondollar:

I'd really have liked to do FP2 instead of S2 though. It looks like the most interesting maths module ever! Plus it's pure maths which I like a lot more and I'm a lot better at. I know S2 is going to be hard for us this year, probably gonna be my lowest UMS Maths module. And whyyy D1? I mean, most of the stuff is ridiculously easy but it's hardly even maths...
I think we do need a thread for S2; I'll get one started later. :biggrin: S2 is quite hard and I don't like it for two reasons. 1. Half of the content is to be memorised without understanding it because understanding it requires undergraduate level knowledge. 2. Because it's stats and I hate stats XD.

FP1 is great because it's more challenging than C1 and C2. They just got boring after a few papers. Matrix basics are fine, it's those pesky matrix transformations that annoy me :angry:. I see we're both aiming for 100 UMS! Me because I'm trying to apply for Cambridge Maths and they want sky-high UMS in all Maths modules!

That being said I'll have to teach myself 3 extra mechanics modules (which is alright because I like mechanics) and the FP2 module for the STEP papers (the admissions tests). So next year, I'll effectively be taking 4 subjects: Maths (with one module of mechanics M1), Further Maths (another module M2), Physics (a bit more mechanics) and basically a separate subject Mechanics (M3, M4, M5).
Yeah, I'm gonna be really familiar with mechanics by the end of the year...


Wow you really like maths! FP2 and FP3 are really interesting. I learnt them but I wasn't allowed to take the exams for it and I didn't really need the A2 in FMs. Good luck for your application at Cambridge! Ahh I remember last year when I worried so much about UMS. This year I'm just hoping to meet my offer grades! I like mechanics as well, but I have only done M1 and the mechanics in Physics.
Reply 11
Original post by student0042
I'm doing this exam as an extra module this year, (I am in the first year), but it seems due to the lack of comments, not many people are taking this exam...


I think Edexcel is a lot more popular than AQA for maths so you always see Edexcel threads. But even having said that, I expected to see some more comments for AQA.
Original post by PrimeLime
Yeah, and I have no idea why our school does a different exam board for FM! I guess we're kinda cheating because half of our S1 overlaps with our S2! :colondollar:

I'd really have liked to do FP2 instead of S2 though. It looks like the most interesting maths module ever! Plus it's pure maths which I like a lot more and I'm a lot better at. I know S2 is going to be hard for us this year, probably gonna be my lowest UMS Maths module. And whyyy D1? I mean, most of the stuff is ridiculously easy but it's hardly even maths...
I think we do need a thread for S2; I'll get one started later. :biggrin: S2 is quite hard and I don't like it for two reasons. 1. Half of the content is to be memorised without understanding it because understanding it requires undergraduate level knowledge. 2. Because it's stats and I hate stats XD.

FP1 is great because it's more challenging than C1 and C2. They just got boring after a few papers. Matrix basics are fine, it's those pesky matrix transformations that annoy me :angry:. I see we're both aiming for 100 UMS! Me because I'm trying to apply for Cambridge Maths and they want sky-high UMS in all Maths modules!

That being said I'll have to teach myself 3 extra mechanics modules (which is alright because I like mechanics) and the FP2 module for the STEP papers (the admissions tests). So next year, I'll effectively be taking 4 subjects: Maths (with one module of mechanics M1), Further Maths (another module M2), Physics (a bit more mechanics) and basically a separate subject Mechanics (M3, M4, M5).
Yeah, I'm gonna be really familiar with mechanics by the end of the year...


If you are interested in FP2 (and 3 and 4) there are books available as student resources on the website. They are found here at the bottom:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/mathematics/a-level/mathematics-6360/teaching-and-learning-resources

There are questions you can do and will probably help if you want to do mathematics at university.
I agree that D1 is easy and pretty pointless but I suppose it's there for the less abled students maybe?
Reply 13
Original post by student0042
If you are interested in FP2 (and 3 and 4) there are books available as student resources on the website. They are found here at the bottom:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/mathematics/a-level/mathematics-6360/teaching-and-learning-resources

There are questions you can do and will probably help if you want to do mathematics at university.
I agree that D1 is easy and pretty pointless but I suppose it's there for the less abled students maybe?


Hahaha you're probably right about D1. Do you even need to know maths to do D1 anyway? XD

That's actually how I've planned to teach myself FP2, with the AQA online textbook (in fact, I started reading in when I should've been revising other subject :colondollar:). But yeah, I was planning to do the exercises and read the stuff as part of my 'course' before moving on to papers. Thanks for the help anyway! :biggrin:
Reply 14
Original post by a123a
Wow you really like maths! FP2 and FP3 are really interesting. I learnt them but I wasn't allowed to take the exams for it and I didn't really need the A2 in FMs. Good luck for your application at Cambridge! Ahh I remember last year when I worried so much about UMS. This year I'm just hoping to meet my offer grades! I like mechanics as well, but I have only done M1 and the mechanics in Physics.


Yep, if it wasn't for STEP next year would be so much more relaxed... *only* having to get 90s rather than 100s XD. Main thing is no more chemistry though. Wow, I'm not gonna miss that subject...
Reply 15
Original post by PrimeLime
Yep, if it wasn't for STEP next year would be so much more relaxed... *only* having to get 90s rather than 100s XD. Main thing is no more chemistry though. Wow, I'm not gonna miss that subject...



Lol. At one point I considered applying for Maths, but then I realised I don't like it as much as I thought. Chemistry is the best subject ever :biggrin: Beats maths any day.

On a more serious note, you don't really need super high UMS; anything >93% for Maths should be more than enough. They tend to give a lot of offers for Maths and let STEP reduce the numbers for them. But obviously aim for as high as you can! And I don't think having a low score in the odd module will matter too much.
Original post by PrimeLime
Hahaha you're probably right about D1. Do you even need to know maths to do D1 anyway? XD

That's actually how I've planned to teach myself FP2, with the AQA online textbook (in fact, I started reading in when I should've been revising other subject :colondollar:). But yeah, I was planning to do the exercises and read the stuff as part of my 'course' before moving on to papers. Thanks for the help anyway! :biggrin:


Maths isn't really sufficient but I guess D1 is a stepping to D2 which, at least to me, is more interesting.
Will you be sitting the FP2 exam or are you just self studying?
Reply 17
Doing FP1 too! Along with S1, S2, M2, FP2 self study, C3 resit, and had the exams for FP3 and 4 in the last few weeks already :smile:
Original post by Lau14
Doing FP1 too! Along with S1, S2, M2, FP2 self study, C3 resit, and had the exams for FP3 and 4 in the last few weeks already :smile:


How well do you think you did?
Reply 19
Original post by student0042
How well do you think you did?


I think they both went well enough, definitely. If the official markscheme is right I only dropped about one mark on FP4, and other than the tricky bit at the end of FP3 it went smoothly and judging from the overall reactions the grade boundaries for that paper will be pretty low!

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