Applied Maths

niamhallen

Okay, I've just attempted the 2010 paper and i could do 1a. Thats it. How officially screwed am i considering my mocks are in 4 weeks after we go back on the 10th?
Any tips on how to improve?
Neither of my teachers have been great and I've lost any gra for this subject. I was actually really good at it last year (A's in some tests and 78 in the summer) but this year I've failed every test. I think I may have lost all confidence.
Any help appreciated?


Happy Christmas

Cpt_Blackbeard

niamhallen wrote: »

Okay, I've just attempted the 2010 paper and i could do 1a. Thats it. How officially screwed am i considering my mocks are in 4 weeks after we go back on the 10th?
Any tips on how to improve?
Neither of my teachers have been great and I've lost any gra for this subject. I was actually really good at it last year (A's in some tests and 78 in the summer) but this year I've failed every test. I think I may have lost all confidence.
Any help appreciated?


Happy Christmas

They are only the Mocks, they don't matter. You should be close to finished the course and have months to do revision. Just keep doing exam papers, knowing the methods and subbing in numbers will get you a minimum of a pass.

**Timbuk2**

When I started 6th year, and we started looking at past papers, I found them very very difficult to start with - much harder than the questions we had been doing throughout 5th year and the start of 6th year.

However, keep doing past questions over and over, and they will become expotentially easier. You'll be surprised how much things are repeated in the Applied Maths papers. Your problem solving skills also adapt with each question you do!

I did the HL Applied Maths Paper in 2010.

ride-the-spiral

Question 1 tends to be the least straight forward question anyway.

TimeToShine

what the hell does expotentially mean??!!

Cpt_Blackbeard

TimeToShine wrote: »

what the hell does expotentially mean??!!

A really fast growing tent..?

Baruch

TimeToShine wrote: »

what the hell does expotentially mean??!!

Extremely potently.

**Timbuk2**

TimeToShine wrote: »

what the hell does expotentially mean??!!

Whoops

Yea Q1 can be very tricky sometimes. My favourite questions were Q10 (Differential Equations), Q5 (Collisions) and Q3 (Projectiles) and Q4 (Pulleys and Newton's Laws). My next favourites were Q7 (Statics) and Q6 (SHM And Circular Motion). Then I had Q1 (which was ok, but I tended to avoid it) and Q2 Relative Velocity (which I disliked for some reason).

EuropeanSon

No love for Q9 (AKA, the simplest question on the entire paper because nobody ever considers doing it) Tim?

That question requires little extra learning, and once you've done that learning, the hardest (b) parts are like a moderate (a) part in any other question.

To the OP, I'd say keep on doing questions, the more you do the easier it gets (surprise surprise, I know :P ). And like Tim says, Q1 is generally a pain in the ass, avoid relying on it.

**Timbuk2**

EuropeanSon wrote: »

No love for Q9 (AKA, the simplest question on the entire paper because nobody ever considers doing it) Tim?

Our teacher never did it with us, so I can't determine if I like it or not - from looking at it, it looks quite difficult - then again everything in Applied Maths does until you've studied it!

EuropeanSon

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Our teacher never did it with us, so I can't determine if I like it or not - from looking at it, it looks quite difficult - then again everything in Applied Maths does until you've studied it!

It flatters to deceive with regard to difficulty, though it was the cause of me losing 3 marks in my exam last June, spoiling my almost-perfect exam. Usually a doddle though.

**Timbuk2**

EuropeanSon wrote: »

It flatters to deceive with regard to difficulty, though it was the cause of me losing 3 marks in my exam last June, spoiling my almost-perfect exam. Usually a doddle though.

Wowzers! How come you viewed the script if you got an A1?

EuropeanSon

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Wowzers! How come you viewed the script if you got an A1?

Well, because I'm egoistic and needed to know exactly how amazing I was to sooth my ego, obviously.

Mainly because I had a sneaking feeling I'd gotten 100%, and was curious to find out if I had.

Slow Show

I don't want to start a new thread so I resurrected this one, apologies if that was a bad idea.

But yeah, I'm wondering about doing Applied Maths as an eighth subject in school. I think I'd like to give it a try, but I've heard a lot of stories about how hard it is and how you need to be an absolute mathematical genius to do well in it, so that's turning me off a bit. I'm quite good at maths, generally an A student, but I'm no genius and sometimes it takes a while for me to get certain things.

Also, is Physics important in doing it? I've heard that a bit too, and I'm probably not going to be doing Physics next year.

luciemc

Slow Show wrote: »

I don't want to start a new thread so I resurrected this one, apologies if that was a bad idea.

But yeah, I'm wondering about doing Applied Maths as an eighth subject in school. I think I'd like to give it a try, but I've heard a lot of stories about how hard it is and how you need to be an absolute mathematical genius to do well in it, so that's turning me off a bit. I'm quite good at maths, generally an A student, but I'm no genius and sometimes it takes a while for me to get certain things.

Also, is Physics important in doing it? I've heard that a bit too, and I'm probably not going to be doing Physics next year.

no, physics doesn't help at all.. a lot of my applied maths class don't do physics and they don't feel at any disadvantage. Applied maths makes the mechanics questions on the physics course incredibly simple, maybe that's what you heard but even at that.. no one has trouble doing them if they don't do applied maths.

They really are very different subjects..

EuropeanSon

Slow Show wrote: »

I don't want to start a new thread so I resurrected this one, apologies if that was a bad idea.

But yeah, I'm wondering about doing Applied Maths as an eighth subject in school. I think I'd like to give it a try, but I've heard a lot of stories about how hard it is and how you need to be an absolute mathematical genius to do well in it, so that's turning me off a bit. I'm quite good at maths, generally an A student, but I'm no genius and sometimes it takes a while for me to get certain things.

Also, is Physics important in doing it? I've heard that a bit too, and I'm probably not going to be doing Physics next year.

No, you don't have to be a mathematical genius, though obviously it helps. 4 people in my year got As, 3 of them A1s, from a class of 6 (the other 2 did OL, for reasons known only to them). I didn't do Physics, and got 98%. It requires practice, and quite a bit of it, but there are very few parts which are much more difficult than the old HL Maths course. If you are mathematically capable (ie. getting 80%+ in your normal HL Maths), a high B or even an A should be very achievable.

I'd say definitely do it if you are mathematically capable and are looking for a nailed on 80+ point subject. It's a very short course, and very doable.

iLikePiano99

I just saw this thread and was wondering if anyone could give me advice. I was thinking of taking Applied Maths outside of school for Leaving Cert. I am going into 5th year in September - is applied maths hard to teach yourself? Or would I need somebody to teach me? Any good places people could recommend. I got an A in higher level maths for the JC and I really like maths. I am also taking Physics for LC.

EuropeanSon

iLikePiano99 wrote: »

I just saw this thread and was wondering if anyone could give me advice. I was thinking of taking Applied Maths outside of school for Leaving Cert. I am going into 5th year in September - is applied maths hard to teach yourself? Or would I need somebody to teach me? Any good places people could recommend. I got an A in higher level maths for the JC and I really like maths. I am also taking Physics for LC.

I haven't taught it to myself, but I have taught it to others, and really it seems like with a bit of work and a good aptitude for maths it's very possible to teach yourself. The course is very short, and there are literally dozens of past papers available to practice on.

**Timbuk2**

I really liked Applied Maths, but teaching it to yourself would be difficult. There are some concepts that are difficult to understand.

And the book is simply awful (I'm assuming that that brown book by Oliver Murphy is what everyone used). We used the book, but the teacher showed us different (and better) ways of doing a lot of things. The questions in the book are good, but it's explanations and worked examples are pretty awful - if you were teaching yourself, you'd have to learn from the book. If you didn't understand something, there's not a lot you could do.

It doesn't matter if you don't do physics. I found that doing Applied Maths made physics slightly easier, but doing physics made no difference to Applied Maths. You get really good at logs and integration from doing Q10 Differential Equations, so it's good practice for the Maths course also (but again, there isn't that much overlap).

But as EuropeanSon said, it's a short course, and the course has changed in years so you can look at past papers back into the 80's if you want - you'd be surprised how often similar-type questions repeat themselves.

iLikePiano99

Thanks I appreciate the advice. Does anybody know of any good places that teach the leaving cert course maybe once a week?

Also, what good Applied Maths Leaving Cert books are there?

Cpt_Blackbeard

What I'll say is that Applied Maths is probably the hardest leaving cert subject you are going to do. You need to be comfortable with your maths, but it really helps with your maths too.

I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it without a teacher or at least a grinds teacher who will go through questions you have problems with.

There are 2 ways to do applied maths:
1. You give up when a question doesn't work out ie. the lazy way
2. You keep trying a question until you get it out ie. the drive-you-demented-way

Very satisfying subject though.

Slow Show

Bit of background info - I'll have a teacher, I'll have a few classes of week (how much I'm not sure, I think it's either two or three) and well, I'm quite good at maths. I'm doing the JC this year (skipping TY) and I was one percent off an A in the mocks, which might not scream genius, but I'm finding it all incredibly easy these days and nothing really catches me out anymore, hence my newfound confidence and desire to do Applied Maths. I just really enjoy doing maths, and when it all clicks it's wonderful. I'm almost certain that I'll give it a try anyway, especially after seeing the very high A rate, and if I need to I can always drop it if I'm just unable to keep up with it, but hopefully it won't come to that. Kind of looking forward to it now.

Cpt_Blackbeard

Slow Show wrote: »

Bit of background info - I'll have a teacher, I'll have a few classes of week (how much I'm not sure, I think it's either two or three) and well, I'm quite good at maths. I'm doing the JC this year (skipping TY) and I was one percent off an A in the mocks, which might not scream genius, but I'm finding it all incredibly easy these days and nothing really catches me out anymore, hence my newfound confidence and desire to do Applied Maths. I just really enjoy doing maths, and when it all clicks it's wonderful. I'm almost certain that I'll give it a try anyway, especially after seeing the very high A rate, and if I need to I can always drop it if I'm just unable to keep up with it, but hopefully it won't come to that. Kind of looking forward to it now.

Don't let the A rate fool you. It is so high because the people who get A's in maths generally do applied maths. In my year two of use go A1's in App. Maths and we were also the 2 to get A1's in maths in the year. I'd hazard a guess that EuropeanSon got the A1 in both too.

I don't want to be so negative because I liked the subject and I feel that it really helps your confidence with maths but, its not a subject to pick for the easy points.

Thats not totally directed at you though, I;m sure that if you like maths and are confident with it you'll do well.

EuropeanSon

For me, German was the hardest Leaving Cert subject.

Your point is valid, though. It's not easy points, unless you are pretty excellent at Maths in general.

Oh, and Tim, the brown book is grand IMO. I liked it, anyway. Those little pathetic attempts at humour (eg. problems involving sabretooth tigers etc.) were endearing.

**Timbuk2**

^ For me, French was my hardest subject

While Applied Maths isn't "easy points", I don't think it's any more difficult than other subjects. In fact, it accounted for much less of my workload than other subjects - Geography in particular, just seemed to be time consuming, covering lots of questions, and having to do that project in 6th year. Compared to large courses like Accounting (where there is a lot of material to cover), applied maths is quite short - we had the course completely finished by Christmas of 6th year (and we had only 2 one-hour classes a week).

I suppose the brown book was ok. It was a bit confusing when you were thought one way, to look back at worked examples which are done in a different method, but I suppose there's multiple ways of doing everything. In particular, Differential Equations have tonnes of ways they can be solved, equally as valid as each other.

The attempts at humour were great as well - funny pictures (I remember a man trying to lift himself up with his shoelaces) and random quotes at the beginning of each chapter.