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He makes a fair point that it does not encourage students to do the harder high school maths courses. I'm not too sure I would call the paper cruel either although it was a difficult paper in terms of time (but the 3U paper has always been a speed exam against the clock). Best Regards OldMathsGuy

I sat down and did the paper and would rate it as a comparatively hard 3U paper. If you view 60% of past papers as standard, with 20% being hard and 20% being easier, then it comfortably fits in the hard category. I think the majority of students would have struggled for time on this paper...

Assume an intensity of "c". Then use an intensity of "2c" and compare the two. My latex skills are non-existent but with god use of log rules, you are left with a difference of 10 x ln(2) = 6.93. I think the reason why this was a q10 question is because you had to algebraically show this worked...

I think you'll find that the paper will have a similar average and standard deviation to the last few years. Most of the paper was pretty standard with a handful of questions to sort out the better students. The paper really seemed to want to sort out how well the candidature could handle...

I don't know. I remember following the situation at the time though - it caused quite a bit of drama. It was not the highest mark that was the issue though, it was the raw average which was significantly lower than other years that caused the issues behind the scenes. There were so many really...

There was a meltdown over the difficulty/length of the 2006 ext 1 paper (the most difficult in the history of the 3U exam). As such, they most likely overcompensated with the 2007 paper; which was certainly one of the more straight forward 3U papers I have seen. So yes, the paper was easier than...

What I suggest is: do ALL your homework and have a "revision" book. The homework one is obvious. However, what is sometimes not obvious is when you have a "finish the exercise off" type of teacher (or even worse one that doesn't give homework). Practicing a range of questions is crucial...

A fair point if unkindly expressed. What I've found is that students with a pedestal view of the 4U course find little else but a whole heap of work that they neither fully understand nor enjoy. Extension 2 is not a prerequisite for any Uni course (extension 1 is the only prerequisite; even for...

If they offer a 4U class and there is room, they cannot force you out of it if such is your wish - considering you have successfully complete Y11 Extension 1. However, the thing I would be concerned about is that you are doing too many units overall. If you are coping with 2U but not excelling...

There are 16 different ways how this competition could progress across the four matches with the winners of each match as follows: A C B A A C B B A C C A A C C C A D B A A D B B A D D A A D D D B C A B B C A A B C C B B C C C B D A B B D A A B D D B B D D D 1) Your solutions are correct. 2)...

Ouch. You're definitely doing a course then with a high level maths component. The typical 1st year maths course assumes Extension 1 and covers and then extends on most of the Ext 2 course. What this means is you are going to have to work your butt off. Again I really suggest you talk to your...

Damn my eyes are going. I am getting old! So yeah... crafting equations from the roots and simultaneously solving them is the way to go. Best Regards OldMathsGuy

Patel like Coroneos before it is a solid 4U book with the revised edition providing proper coverage of the Ext 2 course. There is a good range of questions that provide a good foundation and treatment of the course. It's not going to give you much different from some of the others - a...

Some like to say equal roots rather than saying there is a single root. In other words for equal roots or a single root, the discriminant = 0. Does that help you work it out? Best Regards OldMathsGuy

Hint: Differentiate the expression with respect to x (remember that you treat the other pronumerals as constants). This gives you a quadratic gradient function. From here you need to use your knowledge of roots and the discriminant to determine when there will be two solutions (rather than one...

The time remains the same for all exams but as well as the 10 marks of multiple choice, the rest of the exams have been compressed in terms of marks: Mathematics 120 marks to 100 Extension 1 84 marks to 70 Extension 2 120 marks to 100. This tells me that since the time remains the same, there...

You may have difficulties because you won't have Extension 1 Maths on your Y11 Record of Achievement. You will have to talk to your teacher/school about what options you have. Mention that a course you are looking at has Extension 1 as a prerequisite and see what they can do (what actually is...

The truth of the matter is that you cannot predict a thing. While a trend can be observed in hindsight who knows what the examiners are going to do from year to year. Back in the early 90's, they had too many people attempting 4unit maths who were not suitable candidates and so the remedy at...

The question is confusing unless you think about it as: Imagine you fire the ball at a set velocity and angle so it just clears the fence but not when it is at the apex of its path. Using this same velocity, you could choose an alternative angle so that it easily clears the fence. And so when it...

I think what this question highlights is the uncertainty (pardon the pun) that students have in knowing how to approach these sorts of questions. Next year when they go to multiple choice style questions for the first part, I think this type of question could seriously confuse over half the...