Is there any one else studying FP3?

Hi all,
As the title says, is anyone else studying FP3 (AQA)? The exam is in a months time and I just wanted to see how everyone else is finding it!

Hi all,
As the title says, is anyone else studying FP3 (AQA)? The exam is in a months time and I just wanted to see how everyone else is finding it!

I'm not doing AQA, however I am doing Edexcels FP2, which is similar to yours in a lot of ways. Tbh I found the differential equations and Maclaurin's and Taylor series to be easy and nice. While I didn't particularly like the polar coordinates stuff. Also we don't do improper integrals in edexcel at all, how are you finding those (and also the other chapters)?

Improper integrals are pretty much covered in FP1 for us. FP3 just extends it to more complicated integrals.
We don't do Taylor series though. I had to study them separately.
What about numerical methods?

Oh thank god we do a little bit in FP1 (if you're talking about things like the Newton-Raphson method and interpolation) and we never look back. They're more boring than linear algebra!
Also do you do anything with limits ?

Yeah I think we do Euler's method where dy/dx=f(x), linear interpolation, Newton-Raphson method, interval bisection in FP1. Then in FP3 we do Euler's method, improved Euler's method, midpoint rule. All of these are where dy/dx = f(x, y).
Linear algebra isn't boring! We have all of FP4 dedicated to it and it's actually quite interesting. I do find numerical methods extremely boring though.
Yes, we do limits. It's not too difficult, just remembering a few general rules and some special cases eg. $\displaystyle\lim_{x\rightarrow \infty}[x^ne^{-x}]=0$ They also come up a lot in STEP. So do 2nd order ODEs.

That's so unfair for edexcel students when it comes to STEP, they don't even mention the word limit in an exam! (I studied calculus on my own way before the A levels, and limits were the beginning to calculus; so I never knew calculus without limits before doing the A levels.)

Also, we do interpolation, newton-raphson and midpoint only in FP1, that's it.

Now tell me what is so interesting about matrices? I mean they're fun and all in the beginning but the lack of obvious applications and visuals just turns me off linear algebra. This is when talking about the A-levels, not the actual branch of maths.

Oh and do you do L'Hôpital's rule?

I think we were introduced to the idea of limits when we learned calculus. It was pretty basic though and it didn't come up in the exams, it was just an extra bit in the textbook.

Then in FP1 we have improper integrals, which require limits. These were very simple cases such as $\displaystyle\lim_{x\rightarrow \infty}[\dfrac{1}{x}] = 0$. In FP3, the limits involved in improper integrals are generally more complicated.

We also do differentiation from first principles (of polynomials) in FP1, which requires limits.

They do get interesting later. Matrices are maps from one vector to another and there are interesting links between vectors and matrices(and between matrices and transformations). And then there's a lot of n-dimensional geometrical stuff that you can do with vectors. Some of the later stuff(eigenvalues and eigenvectors) is also interesting, but some of it isn't really explained at A-level.

No I didn't know it but just looked it up. Is this covered in Edexcel?

Hi all,
As the title says, is anyone else studying FP3 (AQA)? The exam is in a months time and I just wanted to see how everyone else is finding it!

I've been self studying FP3 using the book on the AQA website. I don't like the book at all and as a consequence have not enjoyed FP3, so much so that I'm now looking at edexcel instead.

Which books did you use for FP3 or were you just taught by your school/college with handouts?

I just used the AQA book. My college don't teach FP3 or FP4 so I had to self-teach. Personally, I found the FP3 book ok(not as good as commercial books eg.FP1), but I found the FP4 book terrible.
There's lots of undergraduate lectures on youtube that cover differential equations and linear algebra, so those areas you can learn using content online. And you'll also fnd specific videos that cover certain areas of A-level content.

Thanks for your advice. I do know, though, that I learn best from the written word so I like a good book. Fp1 was good as were core 1-4, M1 etc but the font, style of presentation etc in FP3 was so dull but worst of all I found the content lacking. Perhaps it's me having reached my limit and being just not clever enough to get differential equations but I'll try again with the edexcel books unless someone else knows a good AQA book.

Thanks again

Omg you'll love differential equations once you start to get it, they're really nice and useful. Also this might be helpful: http://www.sosmath.com/diffeq/diffeq.html

Thank you so much for your help and for you MASSIVE ENTHUSIASM. I am currently on edexcel FP1 and its the FP2 book that has de's in it. I have made a note of the website which after a quick glance looks as if it covers everything. When I get round to FP2 I will be having a proper look.

TSR is fabulous.

lol are you doing FP2 this june?

Oh gosh no!!

I'm just doing maths for fun so there's no rush and in fact I've no need to do it at all.

What other modules are you doing?
I've done C1-4, M1, S1, D1-2, FP1 and am doing FP2-4, S2, M2 and am just studying M3-5.

That's so unfair for edexcel students when it comes to STEP, they don't even mention the word limit in an exam! (I studied calculus on my own way before the A levels, and limits were the beginning to calculus; so I never knew calculus without limits before doing the A levels.)

Also, we do interpolation, newton-raphson and midpoint only in FP1, that's it.

Now tell me what is so interesting about matrices? I mean they're fun and all in the beginning but the lack of obvious applications and visuals just turns me off linear algebra. This is when talking about the A-levels, not the actual branch of maths.

Oh and do you do L'Hôpital's rule?

Oh gosh no!!

I'm just doing maths for fun so there's no rush and in fact I've no need to do it at all.