Maths Paper 2

Did anyone note answers for Questions 6 and 7?

Here are some of mine:

Q6 a) i) 20 ii) 6
b) (i) l=-5, m=3
c) i) 121/360 ii) 1/12 iii) 11/12 iv) ?

Q7 a) i) 120 ii) 288
b) i) 35 ii) 35 iii)/iv)?
c) ii) (a-b)/2

It was mostly easy... Mostly.

Probability took about a minute to do!
Question 1 took quite a while though. They trick you into thinking it's easy, but it always takes ages.
Time was the biggest problem. Could have gotten everything with a little more time. Anyone else run out of time?

There were serious complaints about it on Radio 1 just now.

Things along the lines of "the only noise to be heard in exam halls was the sobbing of higher level maths students". :rolleyes:

I didn't think it was as bad as they made it sound, but the c part of Q4 was hard alright.

Q8c was very much like Applied Maths

Maths P1 and 2, Irish ordinary, Geography....ok one everyday at least. But geography had some doozies

In my house at my computer.

Tbh it fits me like a well tailored suit.

....'Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?'










South Dublin.

from the irish times. keep on moaning! That exam went arse ways. Q1 was crap. Q2, Q5, Q6 were al right. Q4 p(c) was gay and Q8 part c was gay

There goes my B

Maths exam confused pupils, claim teachers
Kathryn Holmquist, Education Correspondent



The State Examinations Commission has defended itself against claims that yesterday's Higher Maths Paper II was unfair, as maths teachers reported widespread distress among students who sat the exam.

Teachers have alleged that Question 1 was unnecessarily difficult and confusing, getting students off to "an unfortunate start" and that many students were "agitated" leaving exam halls.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that superintendents were supposed to read out a correction to Question 1 at the beginning of the exam.

The Irish Times has received a report that at one school the superintendent did not read out the correction until 35 minutes into the exam.

There were reports that many students in various schools spent so much time trying to figure out Question 1 that they could not properly complete the rest of the exam.

Question 8 (c), meanwhile, was actually a highly theoretical Applied Maths question that did not belong on a general Higher Maths paper, teachers alleged.

Mr Jim Healy, a teacher at Terenure College in Dublin, said: "This question was not on the course and not in the maths books for those who did not study Applied Maths, and that would be the vast majority." Higher Level Maths is taken by nearly 10,000 students, 17 per cent of the total who sit maths exams. About 1,300 students - just 2 per cent of the total - study Applied Maths.

Dr Aidan Seery, of the Institute of Education, predicted that Question 8 (c) could lead to a higher failure rate this year.

"It depends on how they tweak (the marking)," he said. Students would have been "thrown off" by Question 1, he added.

The chief examiner, who cannot be identified for security reasons, said last night that any student, teacher or parent with a complaint should make it to the commission in writing.

There were reports last night that even students who had done well in their mocks feared they had failed the exam and ruined their chances of university places. The commission moved to offer reassurance, stating: "No students will be disadvantaged by any aspect of the examinations process which is outside of his or her control."

The difficulty of the exam, will not help the reputation of maths, which is becoming so unpopular that less than one in five students take the higher-level exam.

Meanwhile, the commission - which is running the examinations for the first time - confessed last night to an error concerning the Applied Leaving Cert.

Yesterday, the commission prematurely delivered copies of today's Leaving Cert Applied (Office Administration and Customer Care) to eight schools, as well as to The Irish Times.

Students who were meant to be doing Applied Engineering received the Office Administration paper instead.

When the mistake was discovered, the commission faxed copies of the Applied Engineering exam to schools.

Today an alternative version of the Office Administration and Customer Care subject will be taken by 460 students in 36 centres.

did ne1 get an answer of 8 minutes for question 8[c]? thats what i got, a confirmation of this answer would put my mind a lot more at ease............it was a bit different from all the other minimum turning point questions i did but i think i might have done it the right way, expressing the distance using pythagoras, ie distance = square root of (4km-(x/10)km)squared + (x/5km)squared..................then differentiate ur distance and let it equal 0

phb u saying that honours maths students arent expected to know how to change hours to minutes?????? I dont really think that knowing an hour contains sixty minutes is something you can only learn from an applied maths book!

Em, I dunno, I thought question 8 (c) was routine, whether youre doing applied maths or not. It was just like the rest of them.. find a link, get the entire equation in terms of 'x', then dy/dx it.

The answer was 8 minutes. Coverting hours to minutes? Dunno how you can really consider that a trick.

Although I would agree with PHB, that Jim Healy is indeed probably the best teacher I've ever had.