Thoughts on 2010 Sample questions by VCAA

[Gordo]

It's alot harder than 2008 and 2009 paper 1 questions.

How did everybody else find it??

[yearningforsimplicity]

True, they're introducing sort of new content into exam 1, from what 2010 papers i've done this year, i've got this premonition that exam 1 might not be as straightforward as previous years... :S

[stonecold]

Isn't it all just matrices questions?

[Whatlol]

Two hard questions, rest were fairly standard.

[stonecold]

Two hard questions, rest were fairly standard.

What were they about?

[Whatlol]

It was
State the subset of R for which the graph of the function
f (x) = x^4 – x^2 is strictly decreasing.

this question, because of the whole definition of where the function is decreasing.

and i suppose also question 8 was a bit tricky ( at least for me). not going to copy it in because it wont come out right (=.

[stonecold]

It was
State the subset of R for which the graph of the function
f (x) = x^4 – x^2 is strictly decreasing.

this question, because of the whole definition of where the function is decreasing.

and i suppose also question 8 was a bit tricky ( at least for me). not going to copy it in because it wont come out right (=.

You'd just find the zero gradient points, draw the graph quickly, and find the domain for which the gradient is negative yeah?

[Martoman]

Do.Not.Base.Last.Years.Exam.As.Indicative. It was horrible. VCCA WILL pick up their act this year.

[Whatlol]

It was
State the subset of R for which the graph of the function
f (x) = x^4 – x^2 is strictly decreasing.

this question, because of the whole definition of where the function is decreasing.

and i suppose also question 8 was a bit tricky ( at least for me). not going to copy it in because it wont come out right (=.

You'd just find the zero gradient points, draw the graph quickly, and find the domain for which the gradient is negative yeah?

well yes... the issue was whether the interval includes the turning points, and it does.

[schnappy]

That's bullshit. From intuition a gradient of zero means it isn't doing anything at that point, so it isn't decreasing. It's like the set R+ doesn't include 0... even though it doesn't belong to R-.

I believe for ambiguous scenarios like that they should accept both. Why the VCAA get power hungry cunts to administer examinations is beyond me.

[Juddinator]

Okay so why are they all of a sudden making exam 1's harder in CAS than the last 4 years? Is it just purely due to the fact normal methods no longer exists?

[schnappy]

Yes, teachers (and myself) don't like CAS as a whole - so they're making non-CAS harder to try and keep non-CAS alive a bit.

I found some of these questions challenging, and I've virtually never done these 'values of m does this not exist' questions, it seams they're keen on it so  Ireally need to sort this shit out. On question 8 I've hit a brick wall, can't solve for h'(x)=o for x.

Does anyone have correct worked solutions for these? I can't find them on the VCAA site.

[Juddinator]

the solutions are on this website here:
www.itute.com/download-free-vce-maths-resources/free-maths-exams/

However if you like I can put up MY workings out to getting Question 8

[schnappy]

Nah that's ok, I see what they did. I doubt there'd be many people pick up on that factorisation to get the solution... so many pronumerals makes my head explode.

[sajib_mostofa]

Now I'm really fearful about that exam 1...