Worst module for Edexcel specification

Considering I go to a comprehensive, I'm surprised you'd think that...

Then again...our maths dept. is the best in terms of teaching...

Ah so FP3 isn't everyone's cup of tea, how'd you find FP2 (if you did it)?

Yeah S1 is boring but I got a B in my test last week (last term I got a D) so I'm happy.

I'm doing loci atm, I think I might need to watch some youtube videos, reading these notes isn't making it too clear tbh

To be honest my experience/perception is tainted a bit by the sheer difficulty of the exam this year; in general it was one of my favourite modules. I found FP2 difficult conceptually, but very rewarding and quite easy after a while (had 100 UMS which required full raw marks I think).
The main difficulty of S1 is motivating yourself to learn any of it. To be fair I quite liked probability stuff, Venn diagrams and discrete distributions and even some of the normal distribution questions. Regression lines, box plots, stem and leaf diagrams, histograms on the other hand..

Unforgiving for mistakes.


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Yeah same. I finished M3 today but not done any past papers

I'm doing loci atm, I think I might need to watch some youtube videos, reading these notes isn't making it too clear tbh

I'd imagine this would go for M2, S2, S3 and FP2 as well given the insanely high boundaries. The curse of Further Maths *sigh*



When are you going to start? I'm currently working through TeeEm's booklets and finishing them. Planning to start Solomons after I'm done. I'm going to start chapter 3 tomorrow most probably. Still have FP3 vectors and matrices to learn fml



The concepts are easy to learn. It's the questions that catch me out. If you have the regular textbook try mixed exercise 2G - some pretty difficult stuff.

Well the thing is I've got USA applications to finish and also I've gotta prepare for the January Unit 4 Physics paper so I'll likely start full on practice papers in the Easter holiday haha.. Also I need to learn FP2 chapters so I can start M4 and M5

I see examsolutions has got round to a couple on them (incomplete though); he's always good for understanding. In general loci questions seem to require more intuition/smart work than rote memorisation; the notes may tell you to learn all these different expressions for tangents and stuff but most of it is in the formulae booklet anyway.

Yeah, I have my scholarship essays left too. Need to get my transcripts for most schools sorted out and sent.

I myself have M2 in January - going well but I need 95-100 UMS in it so it'd put the pressure off of other modules. I know I can manage 90+ in S2. I hate the electromagnetism in U4 and find U5 easier in comparison - so bland. Are you doing IAL Physics but A level Maths and Further Maths? IAL M4 and M5 don't exist yet (I take it you really hate stats...)

The concepts are easy to learn. It's the questions that catch me out. If you have the regular textbook try mixed exercise 2G - some pretty difficult stuff.

Ooooh where in the USA are you applying?

Fair enough - good luck! Yeah I do IAL physics and normal AL Maths.. Tbh I find S2 alright. It was just bs topics in S1 that were like GCSE level that i hated xD

Generally I do every other question from the exercises leading up to the mixed exercise(unless a concept is hard for me to grasp, then ill do the whole exercise) and then the whole mixed exercise as it contains the past paper stuff.

Also do the show that examples in the chapter get asked often, or are they just for understanding of how eccentricity works? It seems unlikely they could be asked as they are just learning something off and rewriting.

Do edexcel have a syllabus?

I'm not applying to the States, I'm hoping to go a little North of that, Canada :P
I'm hoping to go to McGill, UBC or UofT. They've got some amazing applied science programmes and research facilities.



Skimming through a few past papers (haven't actually done the questions yet) the questions seem to vary in difficulty, but if it's a last question except some tricky "show that" questions with a lot of algebraic manipulation. The parts I hate about FP2 and FP3 - the heavy algebra when locis on the complex plane and in conics are being used. Make one error and game over. If you're talking about the examples in the book itself the formulas are mostly in the sheet and those aren't asked directly. In fact, you can quote them without proof I believe.

I'm not applying to the States, I'm hoping to go a little North of that, Canada :P
I'm hoping to go to McGill, UBC or UofT. They've got some amazing applied science programmes and research facilities.



Skimming through a few past papers (haven't actually done the questions yet) the questions seem to vary in difficulty, but if it's a last question except some tricky "show that" questions with a lot of algebraic manipulation. The parts I hate about FP2 and FP3 - the heavy algebra when locis on the complex plane and in conics are being used. Make one error and game over. If you're talking about the examples in the book itself the formulas are mostly in the sheet and those aren't asked directly. In fact, you can quote them without proof I believe.

Quite a few people in my class get completely lost when my teacher starts resolving forces for the particles on a slope questions. Maybe your school breeds better mathematicians

Planning to start Solomons after I'm done.

I'm not at all convinced that Solomon papers are all that great for M3 (and the man who wrote them would probably agree).

There are over 30 actual Edexcel M3 papers, since the specification for Mechanics hasn't changed since 2000, so that ought to be enough practice.

Maybe their teacher is better at explaining Mechanics!

Maybe their teacher is better at explaining Mechanics!