The Morning Of Mathematics (and Extension 2)

[jamonwindeyer]

Rise and shine! It’s a beautiful Friday morning in October; except for the fact that about 50,000 of us are about to sit our Mathematics exams (kind of puts a damper on things huh?). This is the first of the really popular HSC subjects (top 10) to have an exam in the afternoon; so we thought that today, we’d try something a little different! So right now, let’s deconstruct the morning of Mathematics: What should you be doing? Where do we invest these last few hours?

General Mathematics students, while slightly less useful for you, read on for some last minute pointers this morning! Best of luck!

1.   Get a Good Breakfast

If you are reading this now, then you are out of bed, so telling you to get a good night’s sleep is a bit pointless. What I will say though is that getting some fuel in the tank is super important on the morning of Mathematics. Would you run a marathon without a drink? Of course not! Be sure that the favourite part of your body is given what it needs to perform at its best. Bacon is optional.

2.   Build The Momentum

Now this isn’t so useful for the General Students; you guys need to be focusing on keeping relaxed, reading over your formulas, and just getting yourself in the zone. Keep your morning nice and easy!

For 2U and 4U students, you guys have the benefit of a little extra time. So should you be smashing out practice papers today? Definitely not, at least not in the same style.

For me, the morning of an exam is all about momentum.

You need to walk into your exam this afternoon feeling confident! Stress, anxiety, pressure; none of that is good stuff in a mentally demanding situation. You need to tailor your work today around building that confidence, not taking it away. Practice exams might be okay here, but normally they can be a little stressful and a little knock to the confidence if you get a tough one.

So, make a few adjustments to your practice. Do everything with your notes open so you can keep a nice and natural flow. Work with some mates to keep things relaxed. Hell, I’d personally even make a habit of skipping your super hard Q16’s and replacing them with the quicker Question 13 and 14 parts.

This has several logistical benefits; ensuring every topic gets some attention is one of those. However, this is just about keeping you in a positive mind set. This translates into physical and mental confidence on the morning of Mathematics, which is a massive win for you.

Assuming you start at 9am, do some practice until 12pm; that’s one last 3hour study block to make sure you are super prepared.

3.   Consolidate

It’s like a cruel twist of fate. You are studying on the morning of Mathematics and you think, “I won’t study that, it probably won’t be in there.”

You, dear sir or madam, are inviting the wrath of the Math Gods.

Be sure you have addressed all your topic areas at least briefly!

Use summary notes (if you have them, and indeed General students, this is all you need to be doing now!) to brush up on key ideas, key question types and key processes. All your work up to now has hopefully given you a little bit of depth, now is the time for breadth.

4.   Check your Calculators

Every year there is someone who walks into an exam and has a heart attack when they get into the exam and realise their calculator doesn’t work. Don’t be that person, check it now and make a backup plan if it doesn’t!

2U and 4U have something else they can do to right now as well; swap your calculator to Radians.  That’s the default; make sure it is there by default.

5.   Get your Questions Answered

It is not too late to ask last minute questions; jump on our Question Threads for Mathematics and Mathematics Extension 2! There is nothing worse than not knowing something on the morning of Mathematics, let us help you get set!

GOOD LUCK!

[Blissfulmelodii]

Thanks Jamon for the great advice. I definitely plan on spending the next 2 hours with my 4U teacher going over some confusing content.

There are some topic that I really have no clue on, would you recommend I try to learn them or would that just be a waste of time?

[Saf_0ne]

Hey. How do u do superannuation start of the year, compared to if it is at the end of the year?

[RuiAce]

Hey. How do u do superannuation start of the year, compared to if it is at the end of the year?

If the annuity is deposited at the beginning of each year, then A₁=500000(1.05), say.

If not then A₁=500000

i.e. if it's deposited at the start of the year it will gain interest. If not then it won't.

[RuiAce]

Thanks Jamon for the great advice. I definitely plan on spending the next 2 hours with my 4U teacher going over some confusing content.

There are some topic that I really have no clue on, would you recommend I try to learn them or would that just be a waste of time?

Like which topics

[Blissfulmelodii]

Like which topics

Like mainly the rectangular hyperbola in conics, volumes of solids with parallel cross-sections of similar shapes in volume and motion around a circular bank in mechanics

[rosa.lysiak]

Do you know what formulas we might need that aren't on the formula sheet?

[RuiAce]

Like mainly the rectangular hyperbola in conics, volumes of solids with parallel cross-sections of similar shapes in volume and motion around a circular bank in mechanics

What was confusing about them? Volumes was essentially rote learning the same thing over and over again.

For circular motion though - one important thing is to never get lost in the FORCES. Look at how the force resolutions work.
Then also remember some dummy restrictions e.g omega is positive, angle between 0 and 90 degrees etc.

Conics is just messy algebra. Is there anything in particular troubling you about messy algebra?

[RuiAce]

Do you know what formulas we might need that aren't on the formula sheet?

For what course are we talking about here

[Valentina_eliana]

I'm a little confused with 4U curve sketching, as I always mess up whether I use the x-values to draw y=1/f(x) for example or the y-values

[RuiAce]

I'm a little confused with 4U curve sketching, as I always mess up whether I use the x-values to draw y=1/f(x) for example or the y-values

Can you be a bit more specific with x and y values? Provide an example.

y=1/f(x) is just the y-coordinate of y=f(x) flipped.

[jamonwindeyer]

I'm a little confused with 4U curve sketching, as I always mess up whether I use the x-values to draw y=1/f(x) for example or the y-values

And further, here to get some help!! You can pop your curve sketching questions there

[Rd2487]

Hey Jamon
Im just wondering what should i do if i get a little stuck in any of the questions from 11-14 (if it turns out to  be a little tricky). i would want to spend 2 hours on the last two. So  if i feel like im taking too much time, so should i just move on and come back to it or do all of it.
Thanks timing wise i still sometimes struggle

[RuiAce]

Hey Jamon
Im just wondering what should i do if i get a little stuck in any of the questions from 11-14 (if it turns out to  be a little tricky). i would want to spend 2 hours on the last two. So  if i feel like im taking too much time, so should i just move on and come back to it or do all of it.
Thanks timing wise i still sometimes struggle

Yes - Always skip a question if you've spent too much time on it. There may be free marks in Q15-16 that are easier to grab than some in Q11-14.

Always do what you can before you turn back to what you couldn't. That's a part of mark maximisation strategy.

[pinktyper]

Hi,
How would you approach a primitive and derivative graphing question?
I always seem to get the increasing and decreasing curve confused.