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Archived Discussion => QCE Exam Discussion 2020 => Exam Discussions => New South Wales => Maths Exams => Topic started by: Joseph41 on October 27, 2020, 08:57:54 am

Title: Maths Methods External Exam - Discussion, Questions etc.
Post by: Joseph41 on October 27, 2020, 08:57:54 am: Good luck everybody. :)

When the exams have finished, use this thread to talk about all things re: the Maths Methods exams.
Title: Re: Maths Methods External Exam - Discussion, Questions etc.
Post by: Gold_Ken on October 27, 2020, 04:59:54 pm: It was horrible. A lot of the questions didn't make sense. :'(

I thought it was just me but then I heard other students at my school and people online saying the same thing. Something must have been seriously wrong with those exams.
Title: Re: Maths Methods External Exam - Discussion, Questions etc.
Post by: keltingmeith on October 27, 2020, 05:10:13 pm: Quote from: Gold_Ken on October 27, 2020, 04:59:54 pm
It was horrible. A lot of the questions didn't make sense. :'(

I thought I was just the only one who was dumb but then I heard other students at my school and online saying the same thing. Something was seriously wrong with those exams.

Aw man, now I wish I could see it
Title: Re: Maths Methods External Exam - Discussion, Questions etc.
Post by: Yanika on October 27, 2020, 05:27:33 pm: did you guys do the QCE methods exam today? how did you go? I did it as an SEE and paper 2 was so much easier than 1
Title: Re: Maths Methods External Exam - Discussion, Questions etc.
Post by: Crystalbrook on October 27, 2020, 08:08:30 pm: Hi, Thought the exams were really hard, even harder than the mock exams that we sat earlier. I did think exam 2 was easier than exam 1. Everyone in my class felt it was a lot harder than expected.
Title: Re: Maths Methods External Exam - Discussion, Questions etc.
Post by: JS2020 on October 27, 2020, 10:48:18 pm: Hi everyone - how was that methods exam eh? Just thought I'd ask but did anyone manage to solve the second last question on the TA paper (the question about the car travelling downhill and you're given the arc length formula) and if so, what answer did you guys get? Even if you don't think you got it - I'd love to hear your approach cause I'm not sure if I did it correctly. :)
Title: Re: Maths Methods External Exam - Discussion, Questions etc.
Post by: Cwhit642 on October 28, 2020, 10:42:18 am: Quote from: JS2020 on October 27, 2020, 10:48:18 pm
Hi everyone - how was that methods exam eh? Just thought I'd ask but did anyone manage to solve the second last question on the TA paper (the question about the car travelling downhill and you're given the arc length formula) and if so, what answer did you guys get? Even if you don't think you got it - I'd love to hear your approach cause I'm not sure if I did it correctly. :)

Didn't get time for that one, but I was going to approach that by finding the stationary points of the road (where derivative = 0) to find the downhill domains, then just using that curve formula. And of course converting the distance into time.
Title: Re: Maths Methods External Exam - Discussion, Questions etc.
Post by: JS2020 on October 28, 2020, 11:17:41 am: Yeah. I solved for the minimum value of D(x) (the function that gave the vertical height above sea level) and that ended up occurring at 1.5m. So I used his initial point (-10000 because it said D(x) was in metres) and 1.5 as the lower and upper bounds respectively and then differentiated D(x) to use in the arc length formula. I think you ended up getting a little over 10000 which I then divided by the speed (which I converted to m/s for consistency) to obtain time. I got around 15 minutes but I feel this is wrong because the answer otherwise seems very pointless. From the distance given (10km left) and the speed given (40km/h) even if you didn't apply this formula you would have got the same answer just by guessing. Anyhow, I'm super keen to see what the correct answer was because I'm sure there is more to it for the seven marks they were offering.