Arsey's solutions

I've been tutoring in Maths since around 2009 and I have found Arsey's model answers quite the most useful resource anywhere on the net. I give them to AQA and OCR tutees as well: here is how to set out an answer in Maths. I would hope that the answers can still be put up 12 months later. The examiners' answers are for the examiners, not for students, unlike Arsey's. (Self-aggrandisement! What a ridiculous comment.)

I have also taught myself S2 almost entirely via Arsey's answers: more succinct than the books.

Many thanks indeed to Arsey for his efforts.

Nice one - how did you first get into tutoring, if I may ask?

Can we still access Arsey's answers for previous years?

I am not going to spare your blushes. TeeEm's papers on Madas Maths of increasing difficulty from paper A to paper Z are a great resource and freely available for students to access and use for study and revision.

Someone suggested teachers not be lazy and write their own mock exams. Seems attractive. Ever tried this? Do you know how quickly you can make a "doable" into into an "undoable" question if the numbers are inconsistent? The problems can be subtle. I remember an M2 question with an inclined plane that could be done using energy (the intended way) or a convoluted force argument. The force argument (although valid) ended up with a meaningless solution for reasons I can't quite remember. This is one reason questions look very similar year on year. "Debugging" a new question takes time and effort. Several times I have had a "bright idea" on how to "improve" a question which went down dark corners (typically complex numbers) to solve efficiently.

Nice one - how did you first get into tutoring, if I may ask?

Yep I live in the Middle East and we use the UK papers currently.

Actually as of next year, we are switching to IAL but the current Y13s are sitting the UK A level

do exams in the the middle east take place at the same time as UK

I agree with Arsey that petitions are a waste of time. HOWEVER it is not clear to me why a different approach could not be taken. Teachers and Educators must surely recognise the benefits of this sort of website which encourages and promotes learning and education throughout the student body. Examination boards need to recognise that they too are part of the education process and should be encouraged to contribute with mark schemes, papers etc. I can see no reason why OFSTED either wouldn't (or couldn't) promote this message. Exam boards come across as being largely obstructive in this process, and surely more progressive thinking is called for

I agree with Arsey that petitions are a waste of time. HOWEVER it is not clear to me why a different approach could not be taken. Teachers and Educators must surely recognise the benefits of this sort of website which encourages and promotes learning and education throughout the student body. Examination boards need to recognise that they too are part of the education process and should be encouraged to contribute with mark schemes, papers etc. I can see no reason why OFSTED either wouldn't (or couldn't) promote this message. Exam boards come across as being largely obstructive in this process, and surely more progressive thinking is called for

It's probably due to grade inflation they're making these measures. I think it's an attempt to reduce the number of A's and A*'s given out without making their exams any harder because they're currently the easiest and that's why they're so popular.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Not sure

I would assume they coincide at some point during the exam to stop cheating

What time do you take the exam local time?


Posted from TSR Mobile

Diff start times

For example AM papers could be 9, 10:45, 11, 11:15

Yeh impossible to cheat, well we could if you sent answers to us but you won't be able to get answers from UK students anyway.

That's reassuring

LOL. Haha reassuring for us. All the internationals are too clever as it is.


Posted from TSR Mobile

I don't understand where either of you are coming from?

(i) The exam board in question do provide Past Papers and mark schemes: [url="http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/exams/past-papers.html?Qualification-Family=A-Level&Qualification-Subject=Mathematics%20(2008)&Status=Pearson-UK:Status%2FLive&Specification-Code=Pearson-UK[excludedFace]s-smilie[/excludedFace]pecification-Code%2F9371#step3"]http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/exams/past-papers.html?Qualification-Family=A-Level&Qualification-Subject=Mathematics%20(2008)&Status=Pearson-UKtatus%2FLive&Specification-Code=Pearson-UKpecification-Code%2F9371#step3

heres an example - a week before the add maths ocr exam the 2015 is not available to a regular person. seems unnecessary to be so unhelpful to me