Maths

[Tomaz]

only for da/dt = 0.

Changing acceleration? THIS IS MADNESS!

No, this is jerk.

Changing jerk? Even more madness!

No, jounce.

[ghqwerty]

Anyone else find that once you finish Core 1 and move onto the stage where you're doing everything on a calculator, your mental arithmetic starts to suck?

Nahh, i do nearly everything in exact values anyway. Then if they require it to something like 3sf use a calculator on my exact answer. Doing it this way i can answer questions in ~1/2 the time of my friends.

Core is pure maths, Decision is linear programming (supply chain) and algorithms, Stats is Distributions, Probability and Laceny, Mechanics is Physics.

I disagree M2 is easy because of Physics, Physics really only helps M1, and the easy half of M3 (actually it's really the other way round and maths helps the physics but meh).

Maths is far better than physics. Period. Doing maths will help your physics.

Also, once you understand the key concepts of mechanics, M1 and M2 are easy.

1. Draw a quality force diagram
2. Take moments once and resolve twice

M3 gets hard, like seriously hard - especially if you haven't already done M2 or C3 or C4 like me when i started (long story). Lots more calculus involved.
M4, from what i have read (i start it in jan/feb) is a lot to do with innertia/moments of innertia

[jimbojoy]

Anyone else find that once you finish Core 1 and move onto the stage where you're doing everything on a calculator, your mental arithmetic starts to suck?

Nahh, i do nearly everything in exact values anyway. Then if they require it to something like 3sf use a calculator on my exact answer. Doing it this way i can answer questions in ~1/2 the time of my friends.

Core is pure maths, Decision is linear programming (supply chain) and algorithms, Stats is Distributions, Probability and Laceny, Mechanics is Physics.

I disagree M2 is easy because of Physics, Physics really only helps M1, and the easy half of M3 (actually it's really the other way round and maths helps the physics but meh).

Maths is far better than physics. Period. Doing maths will help your physics.

Also, once you understand the key concepts of mechanics, M1 and M2 are easy.

1. Draw a quality force diagram
2. Take moments once and resolve twice

M3 gets hard, like seriously hard - especially if you haven't already done M2 or C3 or C4 like me when i started (long story). Lots more calculus involved.
M4, from what i have read (i start it in jan/feb) is a lot to do with innertia/moments of innertia

<3

[Chris Kettle]

I only got a C in my Maths GCSE. I am hoping to do maths A Levels next year but I need to brush up on it, I can barely remember pythagoras theorem and quadratic equations. :/

[Bob the terrorist]

If you got a C in maths GCSE, I wouldn't do maths A level.

[Chris Kettle]

If you got a C in maths GCSE, I wouldn't do maths A level.

I dont feel I reached my full potential in my GCSE's. I am going to do AS physics and the maths is pretty much a necessity, I just got to work my ass of getting my maths up to scratch before september.

[kcirp]

In most colleges they dont let you do maths unless you got a B at GCSE

[Hungry_Eyes]

Pythagoras is piss in comparison. If you got a C at GCSE you will find A level hard as feck. I wouldn't bother/get extra tuition (only if you're really serious)

EDIT: Also Physics is hard as feck

[Bob the terrorist]

Hah. Nah, AS physics is just an easier version of maths with some added splainin to do.

I dont feel I reached my full potential in my GCSE's. I am going to do AS physics and the maths is pretty much a necessity, I just got to work my ass of getting my maths up to scratch before september.

Unless you got put on one of those retarded foundation papers for no reason, still probably not a good idea. A level maths is not really something you want to do unless you found GCSE pretty easy. It's the kind of step up that makes you look at GCSE and wonder why they were bothering to give marks for the stuff on it.

[Tomaz]

You don't need maths for A-level physics. You can pick up everything in A-level physics as you go.

[Hungry_Eyes]

Yeah but its hard and it includes a lot of maths-type content, which uses the same skills, so a C isn't ideal

[ghqwerty]

Unless you got put on one of those retarded foundation papers for no reason, still probably not a good idea. A level maths is not really something you want to do unless you found GCSE pretty easy. It's the kind of step up that makes you look at GCSE and wonder why they were bothering to give marks for the stuff on it.

Agreed. It's when you look back at a gcse paper lieing about and can do a whole page with about 10 marks on in less than 30 seconds (the page i looked at was surds and powers), but in Alevel you are expected to know that stuff inside out - if you're lucky you might get a 1 marker for them.

I only got a C in my Maths GCSE. I am hoping to do maths A Levels next year but I need to brush up on it, I can barely remember pythagoras theorem and quadratic equations. :/

I don't mean to put you down, but you will struggle. Maths is one of those subjects where you either understand it or you don't, and if you understand it gcse maths is a piece of piss. I did no work for gcse's AT ALL and boy do i regret it (1A*, 2 A'2 7B's and a C, bearing in mind i was predicted straight A*'s) - but i still got an A* in maths.
Everybody in my maths set got either an A* or an A except one with a B. They struggled too much with it and dropped out within 2 months of starting.

So, i commend your attitude and if you pull it off, good on you. But be prepared for a big step up.

[Del Fuego]

I don't mean to put you down, but you will struggle. Maths is one of those subjects where you either understand it or you don't, and if you understand it gcse maths is a piece of piss. I did no work for gcse's AT ALL and boy do i regret it (1A*, 2 A'2 7B's and a C, bearing in mind i was predicted straight A*'s) - but i still got an A* in maths.
Everybody in my maths set got either an A* or an A except one with a B. They struggled too much with it and dropped out within 2 months of starting.

So, i commend your attitude and if you pull it off, good on you. But be prepared for a big step up.

I agree that Chris may struggle with the A-level course, but IIRC, you get a quick refresher in some of the stuff covered in GCSE (surds, quadratics etc.) anyway. To be completely honest, Core 1 - the first paper I took as part of AS maths - is basically just an extension of the topics from GCSE (for example, solving polynomials would probably replace quadratics, but the process is not too dissimilar).

In terms of the grades at GCSE, the grade boundaries are completely off what you'd expect from other subjects (as far as I know). IIRC, an A* for GCSE maths is about 60-70%, so you only need to get just over half of each paper correct to get into the top tier. I guess this has something to do with sixth forms/colleges only accepting students wanting further education to A-Level having at least a 'C' in GCSE maths and English.

To put your mind at ease Chris, some of the people I did maths with were around the B/C boundary at GCSE, and they didn't find AS too much of a chore. After doing a few mocks, you realise quite a lot of it is just repetition; so if you struggle, it may be worth trying to get the processes nailed so you can apply it again and again for a similar question with different values.

[Hungry_Eyes]

Idk what exam board you were doing, but A* was 80% for me at GCSE. I wouldn't use Core 1 as an example, because it is piss in comparison to the later modules (excluding Decision)

[Chris Kettle]

Thanks for your imput guys, I will just see how it goes.

[Lily Jayne Summers]

Economics at AS level is wayyyy more fun than Maths.

[Tomaz]

AS economics is damn retarded.

[Bob the terrorist]

^ this tbh. People who do economics tell me it's awful all the time.

[jimbojoy]

Never got round to doing it, I'd assumed it was just formulas/graphs?

[Tomaz]

Never got round to doing it, I'd assumed it was just formulas/graphs?

LOL no.

Actually I guess graphs yes, but not really mathematical graphs. Most of them won't even need values on the axes to answer any given question. There are also some "divide one number by another" formulas too. But it's mainly just reasoning and saying why things should happen, and the worst thing is that it's completely subjective and you can't really be wrong.