Edexcel A-level Pure Maths 1 - 5th June 2019 [Exam Discussion]

if we are revising from c4 papers, what questions can we miss out.. and what topics will not be on the c4 paper that is on the new edexcel spec?

Most the vectors ones you can't do. And volumes of revolution (anything that asks you to rotate a curve round an axis and find the volume). A lot of the second year topics are in the C3 papers too, plus some is in C1/2. Can't think off the top of my head which topics aren't in any...think parametric integration, Newton-Rapson, spiral and cobweb diagrams but there's definitely gonna be more than that!

parametric integration was in C4.

cobweb diagrams are new, but newton-raphson is from FP1.

proof/differentiation from first principles weren't in the old cores or fps either.

Thought I'd nab this front page spot to point out that differentiation of $\arcsin$, $\arccos$, $\arctan$ is no longer on the spec. This corresponds to parts of Exercise 9F

This has been replaced with parametric integration, the exercise for which can be found here.

There is an error in the answer for 3b, the answer should be 58.9.

@Lemur14 You might want to mention this in the OP. A lot of schools know but I wouldn't count on all schools being aware - my school isn't/wasn't.

Is hinges in the mechanics new spec?

how do you know 'differentiation of $\arcsin$, $\arccos$, $\arctan$ is no longer on the spec', wheres the evidence?

Is hinges in the mechanics new spec?

is it a waste of time doing the old spec papers. My teacher seems to think it is as he said the new papers have a very different style

I would say at this point unless it's to improve certain topics you're weak on it probably is. My teacher had us doing them from December-March but we moved on to new spec stuff after that because the old spec walks you through the questions whereas new spec is usually just like whole question, go! So it's worth it for building up the skills in a topic but not for general exam technique imo

There’s 4 good sets of papers for everyone to revise from
Last years papers (2018)
Sample assessment materials on their website
Officials edexcel mock papers set (locked on their website, ask your teacher)
A set of specimen papers (locked on their website)

I would say at this point unless it's to improve certain topics you're weak on it probably is. My teacher had us doing them from December-March but we moved on to new spec stuff after that because the old spec walks you through the questions whereas new spec is usually just like whole question, go! So it's worth it for building up the skills in a topic but not for general exam technique imo

I think C34 IAL papers are still useful and questions by topic for C3/4 papers are useful for practicing individual topics.

Personally I don’t think the jump in difficulty from old C3/4 to new A Level pure is as big as some people make out. Also I’m seeing question repetition in old and new spec Edexcel papers - you can tell that the exam writers are the same.

You get some long/modelling old spec OCR MEI pure questions which are worth having a look at. Of course I agree that new spec papers should be prioritised but many people have tried all of them already.

Far enough, we haven't done any C34 papers, just the Edexcel C3 and C4 papers which personally I haven't found especially useful but I can see how C34 papers would be more useful. I don't feel like there's a big jump maths wise, it's more the losing the step by step which does throw a lot of people if they've tried a lot more old spec than new spec stuff.
Interesting the exam writers seem the same to you, we've swapped from AQA at my college and my further maths teacher reckoned one of the AQA writers must have moved across since one of the questions on the AS further pure paper last year was pretty much identical to an AQA question from a few years previously
Yes MEI is a great resource for some of the harder modelling topics etc. Need to do some of those actually, have been putting off maths revision

When looking at old spec papers, what I do with students sometimes is hide the first few parts of a question and get them to try the final part only. Of course this won’t work for every question but it can be an effective way to change an old spec set of questions into a single new spec question.

I’m not sure how realistic this method is though for a student working alone without a teacher/tutor. Its very hard not to look at previous parts of a question!