Methods Exam 1: Discussion!

[SeanC]

I had another solution for the infamous 5c. I took the integral of the function-4 and flipped the terminals to get a positive area.

[GeniDoi]

What............................

You lose marks for not turning 8/32 into 1/4

You don't lose marks if you leave 3x(x+2) as your answer, as opposed to having left it as 3x^2 + 6x

[yoyoball]

What............................

My teacher marked exam one last yr and saud that they only penalised one question for lack of simplification. Tbh probably the probability qs.

[Orb]

For the sake of hypotheticals, is it still theoretically possible to get a 45+ raw with an A for the exam 1? (I think I got somewhere in the range of 36-38 which is an A in some years)

[S61778]

They like you to simplify fractions, surds and logs but not to factorise expressions or rationalise surds. So like 1/sqrt(2) is acceptable, 2/4 is not, sqrt(12) is not, x^2+x^3 is acceptable, -ln(1/2) is not, etc.

So if I did ln(32) instead of 5ln(2) would that be okay?

[chuck981996]

REALLY? friends keep telling me it's not symmetrical so I've been stressing over it. I'm glad it's correct, and yeah I did state that it was symmetrical on the paper.

No don't worry about them! It's totally symmetrical about (1,2) - you just can't see it on my hideous graph It's actually a really beautiful way of doing it - VCAA may have even intended it to be done that way. I highly applaud you, and kick myself for not seeing it

[faredcarsking123]

If the correct answer was

Antiderivative (4-(3x^2-x^3)dx.....=27/4

And I did (2-(3x^2-x^3)dx.....=3/4     (I accidentally put 2 instead of 4)

On a 3 mark question, how many will i lose?

[Orb]

If the correct answer was

Antiderivative (4-(3x^2-x^3)dx.....=27/4

And I did (2-(3x^2-x^3)dx.....=3/4     (I accidentally put 2 instead of 4)

On a 3 mark question, how many will i lose?

2.

[faredcarsking123]

2.

1 for wrong answer and 1 for wrong equation yeah?

[chuck981996]

So if I did ln(32) instead of 5ln(2) would that be okay?

Generally, no. However, they make exceptions depending on how many other students didn't simplify. Basically, the examiners all have a meeting where they mark a few papers together to get a feel for how students went and the different methods they used. If a sufficient number of people wrote ln(32) they will accept it for the sake of the grade distribution. However, I feel that it is unlikely in this case because it's not especially complex and given that the 2 was there originally - you needed to raise 2^5 to get the 32 in the first place (i.e. you overcomplicated, rather than neglecting to simplify). In the exam last year on Question 10 they accepted all variations of the solution, but that was a long expression with hideous fractions and logs - so it's a different scenario.

[T-Infinite]

Nah fuq da h8ers. It's totally symmetrical about (1,2) - you just can't see it on my hideous graph It's actually a really beautiful way of doing it - VCAA may have even intended it to be done that way. I highly applaud you, and kick myself for not seeing it

Haha, when I saw all these complex workings that everyones been posting I was so scared. But yeah, lucky it's right... I'm still sad for getting a few other questions wrong due to silly mistakes though, there goes my chance for a 40. Hopefully, I can do better on exam 2 tmr.

[Orb]

1 for wrong answer and 1 for wrong equation yeah?

Yes

[someone011]

Did anyone else get the correct answer for 10bi using Pythagorus rather than similar triangles?

[BLACKCATT]

They like you to simplify fractions, surds and logs but not to factorise expressions or rationalise surds. So like 1/sqrt(2) is acceptable, 2/4 is not, sqrt(12) is not, x^2+x^3 is acceptable, -ln(1/2) is not, etc.

Does this apply to exam 2 as well?

[liamh96]

Hey all,

regarding Question 1.b), I forgot to sub in 1 all together. It was a 3 mark question. How many marks will I lose if I differentiated correctly?