OCR further maths AS mech paper error ?? (20 May 2025)

4

I am a private tutor so I did not see the paper, but my tutee tells me that there was a question on the OCR AS Further Maths Mech (Tuesday, 20 May, 2025) involving coefficient of friction. This topic is definitely not on the spec .. neither AS maths nor AS F.Maths, nor covered in the various "assumed knowledge" disclaimers in either spec, so this is a serious mistake by the exam board.
If you'd been taught the topic then it would probably go unnoticed, but my pupil has been taught (by his school) strictly following the specs so he has never met the concept of coefficient of friction, which threw him into a spin.
Anyone have any info on this?

Reply 1

leisurely-expert

15

Hey. I do Edexcel A Level maths. We only saw the concept of coefficient of friction in year 2 mechanics. We had never even heard of this when we were doing AS.

I don't really have any other info regarding this but maybe you could write to the exam board and clarify what was going on (this happened with one of my GCSE exams and OCR did respond back with some sort of message saying that the students will get the marks they deserve.)

Hopefully that helped. All the best for your tutee and anyone who wrote that exam

Reply 2

NettlesAndThorns

3

Hi! I'm an AS Further student who just took that exact paper. You're completely right about the error - I reckon it's because some schools teach further in year 13 only. They cover the whole regular Maths course in Year 12 and then do the whole Further course in Year 13, so Further students know A2 regular Maths, which is when the coefficient of friction is taught. My school does the two courses in parallel - AS Maths and Further in Y12, then A Level Maths and A Level Further in Y13, so none of my classmates who took the mechanics exam knew what the coefficient of friction was. We talked to our Further teacher and he confirmed it was an error by OCR. I think the teachers of the students who've taken the exam have written to OCR - so nobody should be at a disadvantage once they correct it. :smile:

Reply 3

oldteacher

OP

4

Original post

by NettlesAndThorns

Hi! I'm an AS Further student who just took that exact paper. You're completely right about the error - I reckon it's because some schools teach further in year 13 only. They cover the whole regular Maths course in Year 12 and then do the whole Further course in Year 13, so Further students know A2 regular Maths, which is when the coefficient of friction is taught. My school does the two courses in parallel - AS Maths and Further in Y12, then A Level Maths and A Level Further in Y13, so none of my classmates who took the mechanics exam knew what the coefficient of friction was. We talked to our Further teacher and he confirmed it was an error by OCR. I think the teachers of the students who've taken the exam have written to OCR - so nobody should be at a disadvantage once they correct it. :smile:

That's great to hear. Glad your school are taking action.. The exam board won't listen to me!! Thank you for this reply and good luck on your future exams.. Let's hope they stick to the spec 🙄

OCR further maths AS mech paper error ?? (20 May 2025)

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