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For those that did FP3!

I am on the edge of self teaching and just wanted to ask a few questions. How hard did you find it compared to other pure modules in maths and further maths? How long did it take you to learn?
Original post by jwall
I am on the edge of self teaching and just wanted to ask a few questions. How hard did you find it compared to other pure modules in maths and further maths? How long did it take you to learn?


I found it by far the hardest module, substantially more difficult than FP2. The problem with FP3 isn't so much the content (which isn't especially difficult) as the fact that the questions they ask on that content can be absolutely brutal. Particularly with the co-ordinate geometry and integration chapters, the questions could be absolutely fine or they could be absolutely horrible. To be fair, when the questions are awful (such as this year), the grade boundaries do fall (59/75 for an A* this year if I recall correctly) but still, I thought it was a really unpleasant unit. Most of it's not a huge problem, the hyperbolic functions, matrices and vectors chapters are pretty straightforward, standard stuff, but particularly if you're going for an A* those odd awful questions are a big danger. I am very glad that I did not have to self-teach it, let's just put it at that!

Having said that, if you're really great at Maths and you've got the willpower to get through it, I'm sure you could do it. But it is really hard.

(this is for Edexcel, by the way)
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by jwall
I am on the edge of self teaching and just wanted to ask a few questions. How hard did you find it compared to other pure modules in maths and further maths? How long did it take you to learn?


Which board? I did AQA FP3.
Reply 3
Original post by morgan8002
Which board? I did AQA FP3.


Edexcel forgot to mention that. I'd still like to hear your thoughts on it, I'm sure there's a bit of crossover.
Original post by jwall
Edexcel forgot to mention that. I'd still like to hear your thoughts on it, I'm sure there's a bit of crossover.


I'm reasonably sure that FP3 Edexcel is roughly equivalent to FP2 AQA. Our FP2 is complex numbers, inverse trig, hyperbolic trig, induction, differences, arc length and surface of revolution. Our FP3 is Maclaurin's series, limits, improper integrals and 1st and 2nd order ODEs. FP4 is linear algebra.
I found the pure modules like this: C1-2<FP1<C3-4<FP2<FP3<FP4.

I was taught FP2 though so found it easier compared with the later ones. We started in September and finished in December, 3 hours per week with some revision included.
Reply 5
Original post by jwall
I am on the edge of self teaching and just wanted to ask a few questions. How hard did you find it compared to other pure modules in maths and further maths? How long did it take you to learn?


Hardest 'pure' module. Basically c4 on steroids.

Did each chapter (6 in total) in about a week (integration took me a little longer, matrices took me a little less) but spread this over 4 months
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 6
it is a must if you are planning to read Maths, engineering or Physics
I'm self teaching it at the moment and it's definitely the hardest for me out of all of the pure modules, especially some of the questions that come up for conics can be especially horrific or random (JUNE 2014 Q6) or super easy (JUNE 2013 Q1). Other chapters such as hyperbolic trig and differentiation or really quite easy and there's not much that they can throw at you in the exam that would throw you off for these topics unless you really just don't understand them.
Reply 8
Original post by jwall
I am on the edge of self teaching and just wanted to ask a few questions. How hard did you find it compared to other pure modules in maths and further maths? How long did it take you to learn?


I self-taught it as well. It wasn't anything different from the other modules; just more content - the questions are still routine A-Level question (I may be a tad biased here, given I sat STEP early and intense preparation for that makes any A-Levels maths question seem tame in comparison, so make of this what you will) and nothing particularly hard is thrown your way.

The module took me about a week to self-teach after that it's mainly been a a few past papers every now and then. It can be fun at times, and some of the content is pretty interesting (eigenvectors and eigenvalues are also really important in the field of maths) - so I think you should go for it, it's not as big a plunge as it might seem!
Reply 9
Original post by Zacken
I self-taught it as well. It wasn't anything different from the other modules; just more content - the questions are still routine A-Level question (I may be a tad biased here, given I sat STEP early and intense preparation for that makes any A-Levels maths question seem tame in comparison, so make of this what you will) and nothing particularly hard is thrown your way.

The module took me about a week to self-teach after that it's mainly been a a few past papers every now and then. It can be fun at times, and some of the content is pretty interesting (eigenvectors and eigenvalues are also really important in the field of maths) - so I think you should go for it, it's not as big a plunge as it might seem!


How did you go about self teaching it within a week if I might ask? I'm really interested because I'm worried about how long it'll take me.
Reply 10
Original post by jwall
How did you go about self teaching it within a week if I might ask? I'm really interested because I'm worried about how long it'll take me.


Mainly examsolutions.net - then complemented the missing sections with some free PDF's given out by AQA and basically just practising past papers, the random googling came into useful every now and then!
Original post by jwall
I am on the edge of self teaching and just wanted to ask a few questions. How hard did you find it compared to other pure modules in maths and further maths? How long did it take you to learn?


I found it the hardest module in terms of exam questions, except perhaps for M5. I'd suggest practicing the integration, vectors, and ellipse/hyperbola stuff a lot.
Original post by jwall
I am on the edge of self teaching and just wanted to ask a few questions. How hard did you find it compared to other pure modules in maths and further maths? How long did it take you to learn?


It is the ugliest module of the "pure" ones. Absolutely horrible. I self-taught it, very improperly, but did go to the exam very optimistic, ended up with a B. Made me so angry. I got all A's when I did the past papers, I honestly don't know why they do this. I guess what got me the most were matrices, they take waaaaay too long to do.

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