4U Maths Question Thread

[RuiAce]

Is it ok if someone could tell me how to recognise  and also memorise the difference of integration in 'Volumes' between finding the volume respecting to dy  and finding the volume respecting to dx. Like the height and the radius, because i get coinfuse when it gets to dy, Thank you

What do you mean?

In 4U, because you have to go through the more rigorous definition of washers/shells you always need to draw a diagram and set everything up. The only things that can be arbitrarily said are.

Washers are used when you rotate perpendicular across an axis, whereas shells are used when you rotate parallel to it.

(Also, take care that IF you use washers, and you use dy to do the question, you have to use dx for shells with that same question. And vice versa.)

[MarkThor]

Hi Jake,
I couldn't find a general Math Extension 2 forum, so I hope it's fine to post more general questions about the course here.
I was wondering if you could give me some tips on how to study for Extension 2 in the lead up to trials. Are Past Papers the best thing to be focusing on? Or is there something else that I should be focusing on like specifically just the harder areas of the course?

[RuiAce]

Hi Jake,
I couldn't find a general Math Extension 2 forum, so I hope it's fine to post more general questions about the course here.
I was wondering if you could give me some tips on how to study for Extension 2 in the lead up to trials. Are Past Papers the best thing to be focusing on? Or is there something else that I should be focusing on like specifically just the harder areas of the course?

Yes. You cannot EVER have a resource better than past papers. And you can never do enough of them either.

There are most certainly harder areas of the course. Take the entire harder 3U topic as a basic example. But even if you want to shift your focus to doing, say, lots of textbook revision on it, you still cannot get better than a student who does heaps of papers.

Reason being? Only through past papers, can you be trained into the correct ways of thought required for the exam.
_____________________

That being said, however, for every individual and every subject the best studying methods and techniques will vary. One way is to reconsolidate everything - go through your textbook (unfortunately I am still in the midst of composing the Ext 2 notes to advertise them), and do some review questions whilst you're at it. Then, you can just work through past papers as though you were doing homework, OR you can try doing one open book when you're ready. The further you go, the more confident you should be and not require your book. Towards the end, try to replicate full exam conditions.

And never be scared to use the solutions if you're stuck. if you don't work through the solutions (copy them out for practice), how can you learn?

[jakesilove]

Hi Jake,
I couldn't find a general Math Extension 2 forum, so I hope it's fine to post more general questions about the course here.
I was wondering if you could give me some tips on how to study for Extension 2 in the lead up to trials. Are Past Papers the best thing to be focusing on? Or is there something else that I should be focusing on like specifically just the harder areas of the course?

Hey Mark,

Definitely post any questions you want here! Specific, course related stuff, or general, study related stuff.
I would just be doing past papers, as many as you can get your hands on. Do them over and over, the tough stuff and the stuff you're comfortable with. If you find yourself really failing to understand a specific section, definitely go ahead and try to learn it again, but generally just do past papers.

In Ext 2, I also wrote a list of stupid mistakes I often made, or things that I needed to make sure to remember to do. I would have a list of questions I couldn't figure out, and felt that I should, and every day go through them again until I was totally confident with them. Basically, as I was doing past papers, I identified weaknesses and tried as best I could to fix them.

At the end of the day, past papers are your best friend. Don't focus on the harder areas specifically, because there are the same number of marks allocated to the whole course. Spending 10 hours on harder three unit might get you an additional one mark, but spending 10 hours on complex numbers might give you full marks in that section. Just do past papers, over and over.

Also, post questions that you have here! Get your class into the forums, so you can all help each other out, and learn through teaching (would seriously recommend this).

Catch you around the forums

Jake

[jakesilove]

Yes. You cannot EVER have a resource better than past papers. And you can never do enough of them either.

There are most certainly harder areas of the course. Take the entire harder 3U topic as a basic example. But even if you want to shift your focus to doing, say, lots of textbook revision on it, you still cannot get better than a student who does heaps of papers.

Reason being? Only through past papers, can you be trained into the correct ways of thought required for the exam.
_____________________

That being said, however, for every individual and every subject the best studying methods and techniques will vary. One way is to reconsolidate everything - go through your textbook (unfortunately I am still in the midst of composing the Ext 2 notes to advertise them), and do some review questions whilst you're at it. Then, you can just work through past papers as though you were doing homework, OR you can try doing one open book when you're ready. The further you go, the more confident you should be and not require your book. Towards the end, try to replicate full exam conditions.

And never be scared to use the solutions if you're stuck. if you don't work through the solutions (copy them out for practice), how can you learn?

Standard Rui, sneaking in right before me

[RuiAce]

Hey Mark,

Definitely post any questions you want here! Specific, course related stuff, or general, study related stuff.
I would just be doing past papers, as many as you can get your hands on. Do them over and over, the tough stuff and the stuff you're comfortable with. If you find yourself really failing to understand a specific section, definitely go ahead and try to learn it again, but generally just do past papers.

In Ext 2, I also wrote a list of stupid mistakes I often made, or things that I needed to make sure to remember to do. I would have a list of questions I couldn't figure out, and felt that I should, and every day go through them again until I was totally confident with them. Basically, as I was doing past papers, I identified weaknesses and tried as best I could to fix them.

At the end of the day, past papers are your best friend. Don't focus on the harder areas specifically, because there are the same number of marks allocated to the whole course. Spending 10 hours on harder three unit might get you an additional one mark, but spending 10 hours on complex numbers might give you full marks in that section. Just do past papers, over and over.

Also, post questions that you have here! Get your class into the forums, so you can all help each other out, and learn through teaching (would seriously recommend this).

Catch you around the forums

Jake

Correction: You wrote a list of fucking do this shit 

[jakesilove]

Correction: You wrote a list of fucking do this shit

Look, fair call. If you want to see an example of the list I wrote, you can find it on our Facebook page here!

[MarkThor]

Hahahah thanks Rui and Jake, loving the banter btw

[jakesilove]

Hahahah thanks Rui and Jake, loving the banter btw

Feel free to join the banter, good fun on a Monday night

[MarkThor]

Too true. And out of curiosity what school did you go to? Like was it one that normally achieves quite high?

[jakesilove]

Too true. And out of curiosity what school did you go to? Like was it one that normally achieves quite high?

I went to Emanuel, a tiny little school in Randwick. It was a good school, that often did achieve highly, but not like top 10 or anything like that!

[MarkThor]

Ah ok cool to know, thanks

[amandali]

is there always linear relationship for triangles/trapezium only
ie x=mh+c   or is using similar triangles better way to find x   

[DUX99.95StateRanker]

How much time should one ideally spend studying 4u maths per week/day?
Just a rough idea

Im in yr 11 currently and doing great in ext 1 maths. Im considering doing ext 2.

[RuiAce]

How much time should one ideally spend studying 4u maths per week/day?
Just a rough idea

Im in yr 11 currently and doing great in ext 1 maths. Im considering doing ext 2.

Varies for person to person.

I did most of my 4u work during my free periods at school so I can't speak soundly enough from experience. I just did everything that was for homework (until exam time). Jake might have pointers here.