Methods Exams 2014: Predictions

[prishabal]

Anybody have predictions for main focuses on the methods exam 1?

[Valyria]

I personally reckon it'll be quite accessible, easing into an exam 2 on par with the difficulty of the '13 exam 2 paper.

Predictions; excluding the normal jazz of a few calculus questions, pr distribution table, I reckon the hardest question will be related to the use of similar triangles that is needed to find the maximum surface area of a cone/cylinder (something similar to the last question from '10).

[BLACKCATT]

i died on that question 'cone of death' question when i first saw it. Found the 2013 exam 1 to be way easier,

[prishabal]

I'm hoping that cos last years exam 2 was a killer, that this year's will be mediocre hahaha

[keltingmeith]

Last year's exams were VERY tough - I reckon VCAA will try to calm it down a bit, but no promises since (like English) we're reaching the end of the study design, and most of you know what VCAA did this year for English.

Going through last year's report, I reckon you guys need to watch out for:

• Transformations - second year in a row they commented on how people neglected to rename the transformed function.
• Integration and applications - so poorly done overall on last year's exam, something will come back.

[GeniDoi]

I'm calling it - Find the gradient equation and hence the gradient at some point using first principles , on the CAS free.

You can thank me later when you get full 3 (or 4) marks for that question because you decided to revise first principles and took note of the fact that you need to put lim h->0 for every line of working



Otherwise, 5 questions on CAS active should be interesting, expect shorter questions with less depth (which is good for people who make silly carrying errors between parts of questions). Also great for people who easily get distracted from the annoyance that is page flicking, which will be lowered because of the shorter questions.

A full 3 or 4 mark matrix transformations question hasn't come up in years and is almost certainty on the horizon.

[prishabal]

Thanks guys!!! I'm going to go look over some first principles and transformations now

[keltingmeith]

You can thank me later when you get full 3 (or 4) marks for that question because you decided to revise first principles and took note of the fact that you need to put lim h->0 for every line of working

Actually, if you're clever about how you answer the question, you can get away with not writing the limit for every line.

[BLACKCATT]

oh shit this is on the course? We didn't touch anything on first principles the whole year o_o

[GeniDoi]

Actually, if you're clever about how you answer the question, you can get away with not writing the limit for every line.

Do share

[GeniDoi]

oh shit this is on the course? We didn't touch anything on first principles the whole year o_o

Its assumed knowledge from 1/2 and is in the same category of "examinable" as something like mutual exclusivity.

[keltingmeith]

Sorry BlackCatt - it's on the exam EVERY year. Normally it's on multi-choice, though, if you want to risk it - but you still got plenty of time until exam 1, so.

Let's say they have "find the derivative of f(x)=x^2 + 2x - 3 using first principles", here's what you do:

Write the initial statement,


Then, draw a line to the right, and then write:



Then, you evaluate this. After this is evaluated, then you write:

[BLACKCATT]

Really? i haven't come across any first principles questions on the exams i've done.

[keltingmeith]

Really? i haven't come across any first principles questions on the exams i've done.

They don't explicitly say it's first principles, generally they just set up the limit for you and just ask you to evaluate.

[GeniDoi]

They don't explicitly say it's first principles, generally they just set up the limit for you and just ask you to evaluate.

None thus far (even before 2006) have had any first principles questions. Its not really possible to examine it in MC since all the marks stem from doing the algebra by hand.

Since its in the same level as 1/2 probability, there is no reason why they can't pull it out now.