Suggested Answers and Discussion - 2016 VCE Methods Exam 1

[purplegiraffe]

holy crap i think i might have gotten 5 marks at best.

[The Usual Student]

guys I did not write B= C= for the puit into 1/B form questions
I got the answer but it didn't ask for us to state what B was so I didn't list what B was...

[Biology24123]

guys I did not write B= C= for the puit into 1/B form questions
I got the answer but it didn't ask for us to state what B was so I didn't list what B was...

I don't think you had to

[decentxion]

guys I did not write B= C= for the puit into 1/B form questions
I got the answer but it didn't ask for us to state what B was so I didn't list what B was...

It's not a necessary thing on the exam, but it just makes things clearer for the examiner. Rest assured, you won't lose a mark for not writing b= and c= as long as you've got the right values.

[mandermin]

Argh, I drew the hyperbola of the right hand side (positive x axis) randomly without consulting any points on it. Am I going to lose a mark because of it?

[decentxion]

Argh, I drew the hyperbola of the right hand side (positive x axis) randomly without consulting any points on it. Am I going to lose a mark because of it?

Hmm.. that's an issue since they've clearly given you a grid to plot your graph! I don't want to raise your hopes up, but there's a chance the examiner might overlook it. Did you label any of the points on the right-hand part of your graph?

[TheCat]

Hi all,
My SAC grades are on average in mid A's and the exam 1 marks 35/40. How much should I be scoring in exam 2 to get 41+.
Thank youuu

[mandermin]

  No I haven't..... I overlooked it, because I done never done a question like this on a grid before. I think I got everything else right though, is there still a chance to get high study score?

[khanih]

I just wanted to check, I made a mistake with the arithmetic in the integration on 8b which resulted in an incorrect answer which was higher than the actual answer, would I still gain the 2 marks for 8c due to the justification being as shown for it? I'd rather not drop 3 marks on a simple mistake and was just wondering if I got any cumulative marks on that one

[decentxion]

Hi all,
My SAC grades are on average in mid A's and the exam 1 marks 35/40. How much should I be scoring in exam 2 to get 41+.
Thank youuu

Getting a 40+ SS requires 3 low A+'s in your SACs and both exams. So in order to get a 41+ you'd ideally want to get a 73-74/80 in Exam 2. If your school is good, then there's a chance your SACs will scale up, meaning your Exam 2 score wouldn't matter as much as it would if your school isn't particularly good at Maths.

[YellowBoy]

Maths Methods
Sacs 90% ranked high tier
exam:1 34/40
what would I need on exam 2 for a 38 and above study score
Thanks

[decentxion]

No I haven't..... I overlooked it, because I done never done a question like this on a grid before. I think I got everything else right though, is there still a chance to get high study score?

Fair enough... VCAA is the only exam where they'd provide a grid. I'm sure you'd only lose 1 mark for not drawing your graph to scale! What scores do you have currently, SACs and Exam 1, and what are you aiming for in Exam 2?

[xu0040]

Would I be wrong if I wrote -pi/6 in anticlockwise direction for the angle question? Since arctan has a range of (-pi/2,pi/2)

[decentxion]

I just wanted to check, I made a mistake with the arithmetic in the integration on 8b which resulted in an incorrect answer which was higher than the actual answer, would I still gain the 2 marks for 8c due to the justification being as shown for it? I'd rather not drop 3 marks on a simple mistake and was just wondering if I got any cumulative marks on that one

The way consequential marking works at VCAA, is that you'll only get 1 mark, despite 8c actually being worth 2 marks. So you'd be losing 2 marks out of those 4, assuming you've got your integral correct in part b.

[decentxion]

Would I be wrong if I wrote -pi/6 in anticlockwise direction for the angle question? Since arctan has a range of (-pi/2,pi/2)

-pi/6 in the anticlockwise direction is basically calculating the 4th quadrant angle. You're correct in saying arctan has a range of (-pi/2, pi/2), however the question doesn't ask you to evaluate arctan, meaning you can bypass that range. It just asks for the angle that the tangent cuts the graph at. So starting from the x-axis, going anti-clockwise, you will hit the tangent to the original function at 5pi/6. I don't think -pi/6 will be accepted, as it requires 1 more step to get the answer.