I think they are very unlikely to appear in an exam but I have seen questions of similar difficulty. Challenge questions are usually extension material or potential curveballs that an exam board may throw at you.

Reply 9

Notnek

Original post by seals2001

I am really struggling with these 2 questions :

Screenshot 2020-10-31 at 20.31.18.png

Could these come up on an Edexcel year 13 pure Maths paper ?

Thanks.

Yes questions of this difficulty could definitely come up in the new style A Level exams. Many students were surprised how hard the questions were when the exam was changed last year. If you are aiming for a top grade then you should try all of the challenge questions.

Reply 10

Notnek

Original post by seals2001

I am really struggling with these 2 questions :

Screenshot 2020-10-31 at 20.31.18.png

Could these come up on an Edexcel year 13 pure Maths paper ?

Thanks.

If you need help with these questions please post what you've tried so far.

Reply 11

DFranklin

Original post by Sir Cumference

Are any papers available yet? (I'm very out of the loop about how the A-levels are run but curious to see what the new style exams look like).

Also, if a candidate were to simply write down the (correct) answers to those questions, would they get full marks or would some level of working be expected? (I was just thinking how the first one in particular is an example of "stay calm and methodical and you can just write down the answer", although you'd probably want to at least simplify afterwards).

Reply 12

seals2001

Original post by Sir Cumference

I have tried it, but I don't get what to do. Are you finding a double derivative ? Also if this came up then I bet the grade boundaries would be really low ?

Reply 13

DFranklin

Original post by seals2001

I have tried it, but I don't get what to do. Are you finding a double derivative ? Also if this came up then I bet the grade boundaries would be really low ?

You need to apply the chain rule twice.

Reply 14

Interea

These questions are just a lot of repeated chain rule application, there are far more interesting things they could ask you (so likely questions of this difficulty, but using multiple different differentiation techniques rather than just one repeatedly so they can test more of your knowledge).

Reply 15

CaptainDuckie

Study Forum Helper

Original post by seals2001

I have tried it, but I don't get what to do. Are you finding a double derivative ? Also if this came up then I bet the grade boundaries would be really low ?

Just make sure you’re 100% confident on the basics, I promise you, you’ll still get top marks, you can focus on these type of questions when you’re super confident, don’t listen to those advices

Reply 16

CaptainDuckie

Study Forum Helper

There’s no logic in doing challenge questions yet

Reply 17

seals2001

Original post by CaptainDuckie

There’s no logic in doing challenge questions yet

I mean there kind of is, if you can't do harder questions on the basics do you really understand the basics ?

Reply 18

CaptainDuckie

Study Forum Helper

Original post by seals2001

I mean there kind of is, if you can't do harder questions on the basics do you really understand the basics ?

So you’re telling me doing challenge questions will increase your grades?
Without mastering the basic E/P questions?

Reply 19

CaptainDuckie

Study Forum Helper

Original post by seals2001

I mean there kind of is, if you can't do harder questions on the basics do you really understand the basics ?

You’re doing more harm than good, if you want to do the challenge questions then go for it. Don’t be surprised if there comes a situation in the exam where you have to adapt, and the questions you’ve been doing are no where near the same difficulty of a harder question