Guided solution to an exam question is in the post below this one
C4 Vectors exam questions give a lot of A Level students nightmares, often because they don't fully understand the underlying methods and also because textbooks/teachers don't always prepare students for the kinds of questions that you see in exams. I thought I'd write a solution to an exam question that shows in detail how to draw diagrams and explains all of the methods.
I wrote this solution a few months back but after noticing a lot of vectors queries this year on TSR, I decided today to LaTeX it up and upload it here. Of course an actual solution won't need to be this detailed. If you are a C4 student who hasn't done this question before then I highly recommend trying it yourself before going through my solution.
The question is Edexcel C4 January 2012 Question 7 but it will be useful for all exam boards. Also not all C4 questions are as long as this one, I chose it because it involves a lot of different techniques.
Please let me know if you have any questions or notice any mistakes!