Into the pressure cooker it is...

OP

wow you're definitely getting a head start! matrix transformations was the last AS further maths topic that we did! I'm glad that you're enjoying it :woo:

In what order did you do it properly? Because I just feel like matrices are super hard atm but other bits aren’t so difficult...

Also I have no clue what major/minors I’m doing yet so I don’t have any applied textbooks yet (apart from the Year 1 single maths, cos it comes with the pure book)

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 41

username4492254

OP

13

Original post by Toastiekid

ahh i liked trig until radians appeared and i kept accidentally using degrees on my calculator :biggrin:

yeah, dimensional analysis isn't essential (and sort of looks like what you've used) but is good for if you forget the non SI unit (as it's essentially a tool for finding the non SI unit from the SI unit) and is great for problem solving (it also appeared on my mechanics spec but might not be on yours :smile:

)

:O fair enough - radians are cool although in FM for arguments I have no clue what i’m doing. I’m really excited to go back to school and do all this properly, so I can’t stop myself from looking all through the textbooks!

Original post by zacn01

In what order did you do it properly? Because I just feel like matrices are super hard atm but other bits aren’t so difficult...

Also I have no clue what major/minors I’m doing yet so I don’t have any applied textbooks yet (apart from the Year 1 single maths, cos it comes with the pure book)

I do AQA, so it might be in a different order for you/do different topics!

Started with complex numbers, roots of polynomials, ellipses hyperbola and parabola, hyperbolic functions, rational functions, vectors, matrices, series, proof by induction, polar coordinates, further calculus, and lastly matrix transformations :biggrin:

I found matrices okay to learn, but the matrix transformations quite a bit harder - it takes time to get your head around what each of the transformations do etc.

Reply 43

Toastiekid

22

Original post by zacn01

:O fair enough - radians are cool although in FM for arguments I have no clue what i’m doing. I’m really excited to go back to school and do all this properly, so I can’t stop myself from looking all through the textbooks!

ah i try to think of them as you draw a line from your complex number to the origin of your argand diagram and the angle it makes with the real axis in an anti-clockwise direction as the argument (but it is confusing at first :smile:

it took me quite a while of tackling problems and pestering people for help before i really understood it).
aha my school 'banned' us from looking through the maths textbooks in advance (i still did flip through but oh my gosh some of the further maths stuff looks terrifying before you're properly taught it)

Reply 44

username4492254

OP

13

Original post by laurawatt

I do AQA, so it might be in a different order for you/do different topics!

Started with complex numbers, roots of polynomials, ellipses hyperbola and parabola, hyperbolic functions, rational functions, vectors, matrices, series, proof by induction, polar coordinates, further calculus, and lastly matrix transformations :biggrin:

I found matrices okay to learn, but the matrix transformations quite a bit harder - it takes time to get your head around what each of the transformations do etc.

I think all of that's in my textbook (MEI). I'll do a bit of "self teaching" over the summer based on that order. Self teaching in inverted commas as I'll probably be **** at everything but I guess it's good to have a first glance and attempt at everything :smile:

Original post by Toastiekid

ah i try to think of them as you draw a line from your complex number to the origin of your argand diagram and the angle it makes with the real axis in an anti-clockwise direction as the argument (but it is confusing at first :smile:

it took me quite a while of tackling problems and pestering people for help before i really understood it).
aha my school 'banned' us from looking through the maths textbooks in advance (i still did flip through but oh my gosh some of the further maths stuff looks terrifying before you're properly taught it)

Sounds strange, although I'll probably learn what the point of it is soon enough! Thank you though :smile:

and yeah that was a good move from the school, but they can't stop me when I'm at home :wink:

Reply 45

username4492254

OP

13

(Crossposted from my student blog: here)
I'm back! From a period of relative inactivity, my school paused online lessons for two days so we got up to a few projects... I wrote an essay on the theory of evolution and sent it off for the Robinson College Essay prize, I also made another subject decision which will come into effect from September. (Think I may have broken the record for how many subject changes you can make in a single month)

Maths

We did a bit of 3D trig with one teacher and some disgustingly complex indices, in preparation for a test on Monday, which involves all 11 of our Maths sets. My set is doing Further Maths so we're expected to get close to or exactly 100% in this test as it's testing our gaps in knowledge for A Level.... no pressure! I'll do some preparation over the weekend, but knowing that it's standardised, I'm not too bothered about how much I do, although I would like a high 90% score...

Physics
We started on Lasers, never knew they were an acronym! (That's a lie I listened to a podcast two days ago but I felt like I was really learning something new!) Also we learnt about how EMF waves work, how there's magnetic waves and electric(?) waves acting perpendicular to each other, and what in phase and out of phase means. Really beginning to enjoy the subject :smile:

English is being dropped for Chemistry for various reasons:

•

I don't feel like I'm "technically" good at English, I just waffle and use really big words and end up with 9s in mocks and assessments

•

Chemistry was the subject I put the most work in from September 2019, after I was struggling with mental health, it ended up being my first subject I got a 9 in an assessment in.

•

I'm good at Chemistry and have been since Year 6; I was a whiz in Year 9 until I got complacent, missing out on a 90% end of year because I thought you measure discrete volumes with a burette instead of a pipette. Hacks me off to this day, but if I had taken my time in that exam maybe my life would be very different.

•

Chemistry complements Physics a lot, and as I want to be sciencey I think I should broaden my horizons outside of Maths, Further Maths, and Applied Maths on Drugs (Physics).

Luckily I don't have to catch up much, as the classes did independent research, but I'm getting the AQA textbook by tomorrow hopefully. It's £50!! My dad will only shell out when it comes to education and I'll make it up to him by getting those A*s... :smile:

When it comes to summer I probably won't do daily updates, I'l maybe pop up with a few words on how I'm doing but mostly there'll be radio silence on my end.

Also I'll probably start a new thread when it comes to Y12 Proper? We're in unprecedented times so idrk how to go about this

Spoiler

(edited 3 years ago)

£50 for textbooks?! Were there no cheaper ones on amazon or anything? Also, does your school not provide you with textbooks for the duration of your course?

I’m glad that you’re happy with your subject change!

Yeah further maths is filled with topics that you’ll not have seen or heard of before, it’s normal not to fully grasp the topics straight away! :smile:

Reply 47

username4492254

OP

13

Original post by laurawatt

£50 for textbooks?! Were there no cheaper ones on amazon or anything? Also, does your school not provide you with textbooks for the duration of your course?

I’m glad that you’re happy with your subject change!

Yeah further maths is filled with topics that you’ll not have seen or heard of before, it’s normal not to fully grasp the topics straight away! :smile:

Well i exaggerate £43, but compared to £25 for the maths ones I’m a bit shocked...

I’m currently planning out my summer “school” so hopefully my textbook arrived by the 8th :smile:

most likely it will so :smile:

Original post by zacn01

Well i exaggerate £43, but compared to £25 for the maths ones I’m a bit shocked...

I’m currently planning out my summer “school” so hopefully my textbook arrived by the 8th :smile:

most likely it will so :smile:

Still surprised that your school won’t provide them for you... :beard:

Don’t work yourself too hard!

Reply 49

username4492254

OP

13

Original post by laurawatt

Still surprised that your school won’t provide them for you... :beard:

Don’t work yourself too hard!

It’s arrived!!

Thanks for the concern :smile:

I’m just planning to have a taste of the questions so that when we come to study it I kinda have notes already (for the earlier topics at least) so I can hit the ground running - I’m good at maintaining decent academic “form” but getting there in the first place takes a while

Original post by zacn01

It’s arrived!!

Thanks for the concern :smile:

I’m just planning to have a taste of the questions so that when we come to study it I kinda have notes already (for the earlier topics at least) so I can hit the ground running - I’m good at maintaining decent academic “form” but getting there in the first place takes a while

Reply 51

username4492254

OP

13

Last week of online school!

I had a free (absence of Chemistry/English), where I just watched Big Bang Theory on Netflix (lol I will pattern up my scholarliness in due time), and then the Bridging the Gap test for all Maths sets. I found it alright, hopefully I score in the 90s, as is expected for a L6 student taking Further Maths. Let's hope I don't flop.

I kinda went fast on it tbf but it wasn't too difficult; out of 50 I predict 47, 48. Then in my second maths lesson of the day we talked about ellipses and I kinda zoned out because this teacher was my teacher for GCSE and we did this in around November as my set was already comfortable with the GCSE spec.

Then,
in the third maths lesson (started at 2pm! I had spent 14 hours without anything interesting), we looked at radians! From my sneaky extra work behind the scenes, I've already dealt with radians and small angles, (in vague detail however, I expect to rigorously relearn when it comes to it, such is the plan with anything I look at in the summer - the ideal outcome is to feel familiar with it and so pick it up and master quickly, as my teachers are saying we're going through the AS Maths and FM course fast!!!), so my teacher was impressed that I already knew how to differentiate sin and cos, and I somehow guessed the derivative of tan, as I thought it would be one of sec/cosec/cot, it was just my luck I said sec(x) but he thought I looked it up. Fat rip but what can you do?

Physics
Another example of my pre-learning to come into play; we started looking at base units, and since I'm already comfortable I completed the distributed worksheet (online of course) in about 5 mins then spent the rest of the 40 min lesson on Isaac Physics (# Senior Physics Challenge 2021 watch out), although it's peak cos you have to be good at maths to do level 4,5,6... I'm on around 40 questions completed but I know successful people have done around 400!!! So when I get back to school I'm gonna churn them out, once my problem solving improves because atm it's non existent (Somebody please help; I might get a tutor lol)

Overall I'm pleased with today, clearly my being a sweat has worked because I'm not feeling out of my depth - hopefully I can keep on top of things for September and beyond! Also I'm going into my school on Thursday for a reunion thingy, to think that I haven't been in for 3 months and won't be in properly for 3 months more. Just want results day to come tbh. Also comment if you'd like to be tagged :smile:

Spoiler

Reply 52

username4492254

OP

13

Got my mark back, managed 48/50 (96%)!! The last 2 questions were ridiculously hard tho imo , does anyone know how to deal with nested surds?

Well done for the maths test!! Not sure what nested surds are, but if you have the question/something similar I’d be happy to give it a go :biggrin:

We only did the differentials of trig and small angles last week, so you’re learning them a whole year before I did :eek:

Sounds like you’re doing great! :h:

Reply 54

username4492254

OP

13

Original post by laurawatt

Well done for the maths test!! Not sure what nested surds are, but if you have the question/something similar I’d be happy to give it a go :biggrin:

We only did the differentials of trig and small angles last week, so you’re learning them a whole year before I did :eek:

Sounds like you’re doing great! :h:

Thank you! I’ll get it up later today, but we’re not officially learning yet - so I think we could easily go without having done any of this online school, so we’ll revisit it properly from September I assume, it was only like a passing explanation or like a preview.

In an assessment situation I would never be able to apply it if you get what I mean. Well not yet at least

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 55

username4492254

OP

13

@laurawatt

This was the annoying question...

Would you say you'd solve it by substituting a for root(1+x)? But then I wouldn't know how to square it, please don't make me feel dense :biggrin:

(edited 3 years ago)

Original post by zacn01

@laurawatt

This was the annoying question...

Would you say you'd solve it by substituting a for root(1+x)? But then I wouldn't know how to square it, please don't make me feel dense :biggrin:

Heyy