I have just finished year 10 and got a very unhappy mark for my methods exam (D+). I feel like it is due to me switching from general midway through the year and not being able to keep up with the pace. I want to get ahead on the topics for year 11 so that I am very confident in what I do. However I do not understand what I need to specifically revise on as the unit outlines only consist of hard to understand learning goals.
Does anyone know what specific topics and subtopics I have to revise for unit 1 at least? (I have attached the unit outlines given by my school)
Happy Holidays!
Hey,
Welcome to the forums!
Great to see that you're taking a proactive approach to tackling this.
This is actually a pretty detailed lesson outline, I think it might just be unfamiliarity with the technical maths language that's making it a bit confusing.
For example, when it says "recognise and determine features of the graphs of 𝑦=𝑥2, 𝑦=𝑎𝑥2+𝑏𝑥+𝑐, 𝑦=𝑎(𝑥−𝑏)2+𝑐, and 𝑦=𝑎(𝑥−𝑏)(𝑥−𝑐), including their parabolic nature, turning points, axes of symmetry and intercepts"
You should be able to: take something that looks like \( ax^{2} + bx + c \) where a, b and c can be any numbers (but a won't be 0 otherwise it's linear rather than a quadratic) and know that this has a parabolic shape (go
here and play around with different values of a, b & c to get a feel for the shape); it can have 0,1, or 2 x-intercepts and 1 y-intercept; and be able to find the turning point. As with other graph forms, if you want to find the y intercept you set x equal to zero & if you want to find the x intercept you set y equal to zero. Finding x-intercepts can be a bit trickier with quadratics than it is for linear equations so you need to learn how to factorise the equation in different ways and use that to help you + the quadratic equation .
I recommend that you do the quadratic section first (you're given textbook chapter numbers and there are heaps of online resources that teach people about quadratics) and make sure you have solid understanding before moving on because it's going to be very hard to understand other polynomials well if you don't get quadratics.
To go super-specific (skip the ones you already know well):
- look at binomial expansion e.g. (3 + a) (2+ b) or ( x - 5) (x+4)
- look at the reverse, doing basic factorising and rules for this (e.g. difference of two squares, perfect squares)
- be able to factorise things like \( x^{2} + 5x + 6 \)
- use the null factor law to see what the x intercepts are
- be able to deal with having a coefficient of \(x^{2}\) that isn't 1. e.g. multiply the whole above example by 2 or 3 or 5
- be able to use completing the square for factorisation
- be able to use completing the square for factorisation with a coefficient of \(x^{2}\) that isn't 1
- be able to use the null factor law on the above
- be able to read from, and make quadratics into turning point form
- be able to use the quadratic equation
- be able to plot quadratics using the above techniques (could have this dot point earlier) & find the equation if given a graph
- be able to use and find the discriminant
^^ All of the above are covered in year 10 maths lectures I gave earlier this year so they might be a good place to look, the slides are available in the free notes section
I hope this helps!