Yacoubb's Further 3+4 Questions

[Yacoubb]

Hi guys I have a few questions as to how much I should probably study a day to get a 50 for Further. I'm a pretty capable Maths student + I'm doing it with Bio 3+4 also. Advice would be appreciated. Thank you

[Quantum.Mechanic]

It kind of just depends on the student you are.

Whether you have easily understand the mathematics or not, and whether you can eliminate the chance of making easy mistakes...

For me, I barely studied for Further Mathematics at school, I just kind of studied the day before sacs and did a whole load of practise exams at the end of the year. I don't advocate it doing this, it would probably be doing the maths to the extent that you know it back to front,  kind of like I did since as I kind of completed the course during the summer holidays.

I suggest completing the course on the Summer Holidays, it only takes a few days, since some chapters take less than 10-15 minutes... And then spend the whole year, just practising, and finding out alternative methods of doing questions as to check your solutions on the exam, which is what I did. =).

The alternative methods bit, not the whole year practising.

[Yacoubb]

@Never.land
I'm planning on finishing the whole Core by the end of the summer holidays before I go to school, and then working ahead during class time + practicing at home as revision. I'm doing Bio as well and I acknowledge that Bio will probably require more time than Further.. but I don't exactly know?

[Robert123]

You can't guarantee yourselves that you will get a 50. The best way to have a decent shot of achieving it is by training your self in problem solving with the few tricky questions they throw at you on the exam. The mathematic it self isn't too difficult, just avoiding silly errors that can easily be made. For further, for each question you get wrong, you can expect to go down by 1 position approximately.

[Yacoubb]

You can't guarantee yourselves that you will get a 50. The best way to have a decent shot of achieving it is by training your self in problem solving with the few tricky questions they throw at you on the exam. The mathematic it self isn't too difficult, just avoiding silly errors that can easily be made. For further, for each question you get wrong, you can expect to go down by 1 position approximately.

Of course I cannot guarantee myself a 50. However, as Never.land was saying, do you think if I finish the core + all modules over the holidays + just studied all these little knots + crannies throughout the year I'd be in that path, sort of? And I am aware of that. My cousin got 1 mark off in exam 2 and got a 48. Ouch!

[REBORN]

I got 1 mark off and got 50: goes to show the importance of your ranking in SACs. So be aware!

In my opinion, finishing the course off is unnecessary because there's ample time. However, no harm can be done by finishing it!

[Quantum.Mechanic]

Snake is right. The course is quite easy to finish. Can take 2-3 days if you are dedicated enough.

The problem is being Rank 1, being Rank 1 in most years has guaranteed you a 50, if you drop 1 mark maximum. It has been the case for the last 2 years, I dropped 1 mark, still got a 50. Whereas Rank 2 at my school dropped 2 marks, got a 47.

In addition, this is why you have to be the best at Sac marks, you have to either ace them 100%, or be the top at your school.

Just spend the whole year trying to eliminate the common mistakes you make, and find alternative methods to complete your questions, to ensure that once you have an answer, you can arrive at it another way, so you have the technical method, i.e Calculator, and then the regular working out method, as well as a third testing method...

I think I will be writing a book about this, we'll it is something that I am currently working on, as to ensure that once a student arrives at a answer in a module, they can use another method apart from the calculator, to check it. There are many ways that I have found out this year, I was thinking about writing a book so as the Further Students of future years can use it as a theory book. Its sort of advantageous to me that I did all the modules, because I was bored, and I regularly helped other Further kids from other schools, so I have more than enough short cuts in all modules, except for Networks which is difficult to exactly check.

[Planck's constant]

Do two modules in the summer, but do them in depth (ie every problem in your textbook, and possibly a past VCAA exam or two).
One module must be Core.
Some schools start of the year, with a module other than core, eg matrices. This must be the other module you should complete in the summer.
When school starts, you revise by doing all the problems in the textbook again, plus past years' SACs (FROM YOUR OWN SCHOOL!, other school SACs are as good as useless) and past VCAA exams and trial exams of the relevant modules.

Do the remaining modules in the term breaks prior to doing them at school and repeat the process.

That should get you a 50.
If you are also doing Methods, you will get 51.

[Kuchiki]

I guess it depends on your learning style, but I just worked through the course consistently over the year.

During the summer, I did the holiday homework that was set (i.e. the first few exercises in the textbook), and that was it. During the year, I listened to my teacher in class, did every question in the textbook, and only ever went ahead a few exercises if I had spare time in class or my free periods. Nearing a SAC or exam, I did as many practice papers as I could find; on the day, I tried very hard not to make any mistakes and checked over my work again and again until time was up.

If, as you say, you're a capable maths student, then you should do fine as long as you do the work and be very careful in your SACs/exams.

[Yacoubb]

Hi I need help with Number Patterns.

For general first-order difference equations, how do I solve that really long equation that is given? Every time I attempt to solve it I just fail to. Please advise/guide me?!

[betruetoyou22]

Of course I cannot guarantee myself a 50. However, as Never.land was saying, do you think if I finish the core + all modules over the holidays + just studied all these little knots + crannies throughout the year I'd be in that path, sort of? And I am aware of that. My cousin got 1 mark off in exam 2 and got a 48. Ouch!

Hey,
I did further mathematics and scored a 50 (i only got 2 marks of the 1st exam and the second full marks)
A lot of hours of studying does not necessarily equate to a study score of 50. Its the quality of the work you do. I reccomend start practise exams at around June and aim to do like 35 exam 1's and 35 exam 2's.
The more, the better.
Also use your teacher as much as possible. Ask them as many questions as you possibly can. Make them work for their money.
Be passionate about maths and try to enjoy it as much as possible because you tend to do well in the things you enjoy.
I only did all of the core in the Summer and that was it. If you cram too much in the Summer period it will be useless because firstly, you'll forget it all when you get to exam time and secondly, it won't be of good quality - it'll kind of be rushed.
I absolutely love maths and if you ever need a tutor let me know. I do the first lesson free :}
All the best!

[Yacoubb]

Hey,
I did further mathematics and scored a 50 (i only got 2 marks of the 1st exam and the second full marks)
A lot of hours of studying does not necessarily equate to a study score of 50. Its the quality of the work you do. I reccomend start practise exams at around June and aim to do like 35 exam 1's and 35 exam 2's.
The more, the better.
Also use your teacher as much as possible. Ask them as many questions as you possibly can. Make them work for their money.
Be passionate about maths and try to enjoy it as much as possible because you tend to do well in the things you enjoy.
I only did all of the core in the Summer and that was it. If you cram too much in the Summer period it will be useless because firstly, you'll forget it all when you get to exam time and secondly, it won't be of good quality - it'll kind of be rushed.
I absolutely love maths and if you ever need a tutor let me know. I do the first lesson free :}
All the best!

Thanks so much for the tip i think that I'll study the core from now until school starts and that should be fine. I think. My quality of work may increase if I dedicate an appropriate amount of time for the core + three modules. What modules did you do? I'm doing Number Patterns, Graphs and Relations & Matrices.

[Yacoubb]

Ooh and by the way, should I finish the core and start doing practice exams for that particular section?!

[Planck's constant]

Ooh and by the way, should I finish the core and start doing practice exams for that particular section?!

Definitely

[Stick]

Hmm... I don't agree with a lot of the advice here, since I achieved my 50 very differently. Just be aware that this is not the only way to succeed in this subject.