FSMQ (Additional Maths)

This is not about AQA gcse additional maths, but about the OCR FSMQ(Free Standing Mathematics Qualification).

The Additional Maths FSMQ Thread :biggrin:

Feel free to use this thread for any discussion about FSMQ (Additional Maths) :smile:

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Reply 1

secretmessages

I've done it :smile:

Two years ago now!

Everyone in my maths class thought it was going to be terrible, but most people did really well. Saying that though, some people got As and a couple got Es, and two people thought it was going to be so much of a disaster, they didn't even turn up to the exam! :p:

Reply 2

uthred50

aha that's pretty much how i think our set will turn out to be honest, i just hope it's not me with the E grade :s-smilie:

Reply 3

uthred50

Yes, 6th Jun. True I suppose, it's fairly straightforward stuff. And your GCSE predicteds and A level choices look dangerously close to mine, had i not changed some of my options last minute... :biggrin:

Aye, good luck to you too =] (though you dont sound like you really need it Xd)
Uth

Reply 4

uthred50

Well we have far fewer taking it - around 50 i think, but there again the yeargroup is only about 100 strong. Again lots of A's predicted but who know's how it will turn out..

=]

Reply 5

purple-girl

I did it last year as I was in the top set for maths. I found it alright, and it really helped with this year's AS course. I think everyone in the class got an A, but I'm not sure.

Reply 6

rachxl

I've got this year, on top of GCSE maths, and GCSE statistics... feeling ok about it , I've basically self taught it over two months as the lessons I had been going t had been useless. I think the content's OK, there are few tricky things, but I think once you've got the hang of them it will be fine... hopefully!!

Reply 7

Chriz M

I wouldn't worry, but the grade boundrys are tight, about 8-12 per grade. This is about a question between them. So if you practise hard on the parts you don't understand. I could raise you grade.

Also many of the questions have easy parts, so you can do those rather than ignoring the question completely.

Reply 8

uthred50

(-reply to Ghosh 5)
Well they dont teach the classics any more at my school, despite being a language college. I was going to to maths, further maths, physics, german and literature. Then i thought: wait a minute do i really want to be doing maths anymore?
So now i'm doing Literature, Geog, History (Early modern) and physics. I might change the physics over to German, but i'm not sure yet.

Regards, Uth

Reply 9

David183

This is probably going to be my hardest GCSE, consdering we've only been taught the course for about 20 hours overall, and haven't even touched calculus. :eek:

I'm going to try and teach it myself over this half term holiday, but when we did practise papers things like Calculus and its application to Kinematics really confuses me. I just don't know how to form the integration, and then what to do with it!

I'll probably either get an A or a U, depending on how much work I put in.

Reply 10

uthred50

Sound advice there ghosh (y)

I'd also say make sure you understand which sides you need to use in 3D trig. Loads of people loose easy marks with that because they aren't thinking. :smile:

uth =]

Reply 11

chemcat

I'm doing it and my maths teacher is like the best maths teacher at teaching ever. He slipped it all in during the igcse course then basically said at the end try this, who wants to do it then. We were just like ok then...

Reply 12

David183

Heh, *hardest exam I'm taking during the GCSE period* - happy now? :p:

.

I find things like co-ordinate geometry and 3D trigonometry quite easy, because it's just slightly more advanced than regular GCSE mathematics. Like I said though, the problem is lack of teaching time. I've got a few practise papers so I'll swat up on my calculus then have a go :biggrin:

Reply 13

uthred50

Dont worry about calculus at all; it's a really really easy concept disguised under a fancy sounding name :biggrin:

Concentrate on the harder stuff (y)
I've only managed to get hold of one past paper with markscheme, all the others on the OCR site have no markscheme.

Does anyone know where there are some available?
I know of the mei site that has them, but you need an access password and i don't have it :s-smilie:

uthred =]

Reply 14

David183

uthred50

Dont worry about calculus at all; it's a really really easy concept disguised under a fancy sounding name :biggrin:

uthred =]

3 of the past papers (2005, 2006, and 2007) can be found HERE, along with reports from the Chief Examiner (detailing each question and what most candidates did, etc.) and there are also mark schemes for all of them :smile:

thanks david :smile:

We have 29 people doing it. 31 of us did GCSE last year and we got 29 A* or A grades (I got an A* :biggrin:

) so we've been doing it for a year. Our teacher is excellent and we've gone over everything like three times. We've had all the past papers from 2003 as well :biggrin:

Reply 17

uthred50

Ziffachan

We have 29 people doing it. 31 of us did GCSE last year and we got 29 A* or A grades (I got an A* :biggrin:

) so we've been doing it for a year. Our teacher is excellent and we've gone over everything like three times. We've had all the past papers from 2003 as well :biggrin:

Well done!
You're lucky to have a good teacher.. Mine is moody :biggrin:

uth =]

Reply 18

angelmxxx

Sorry this isn't strictly answering the question but did you do the gcse at the end of year 10, or are you doing it this year? I was meant to do the FSMQ last year but we only had the Spring term and 4 weeks of the summer term (ie. after christmas in year 11) to learn the material and revise and do past papers (I think we were given 1 past paper and no mock!) so only half my class took the exam in the end! I'm just interested to know if most people taking it did their gcse in year 10 or did it in year 11 with all their others like I did?

Reply 19

angelmxxx

uthred50

Well done!
You're lucky to have a good teacher.. Mine is moody :biggrin:

uth =]

my year 11 maths teacher didn't even teach us... he wrote a few things on the OHP then presumed that we all understood perfectly because the top 2 students in the class got it! Thank god for the cgp gcse maths revision guide! :p: