GCSE Maths

[vernon]

i sat with my youngest last night looking at AS level geometry ????

m=(y2-y1)/(x2-x1) which gives the slope of the gradient from two co-ordinate points !!!!

my head still hurts!

well done compo - but stop after you get that GCSE ;-)

That's just a variation of m=∆y/∆x

 

[Cycling Dan]

School: 1+1=?
Homework: Sally has 5 apples and gives James 2. How many apples does sally have?
Exam: Joe has 3 bikes in his shed. Calculate the mass of the sun.

 

[vernon]

Exam: Joe has 3 bikes in his shed. Calculate the mass of the sun.

This one is 36 lbs. Other models vary.

 

[Kies]

Answer: happy=sun x (N+1)

 

[Salad Dodger]

Best wishes Compo.

 

[Over The Hill]

I sat (or actually re-sat) English after a break of about 26 years. D first time A* second time. Still cannot spell though but helped second time by not being put in detention for it.

 

[slowmotion]

That's a brilliant idea compo. I've often wonderered what it would be like to study a subject that I wanted to, rather than needed to. I never did get the hang of integration or differentiation, and have an exam result that reflects my stupidity.

 

[ColinJ]

I never did get the hang of integration or differentiation, and have an exam result that reflects my stupidity.

Calculus is pretty straightforward - if it is taught properly. I would blame your teachers rather than yourself! Perhaps you just needed a teacher like Jaime Escalante ...

 

[slowmotion]

Calculus is pretty straightforward - if it is taught properly. I would blame your teachers rather than yourself! Perhaps you just needed a teacher like Jaime Escalante ...

Colin, even Sr. Escalante would have had his work cut out with this student.

 

[Sandra6]

Slightly off topic, but I think I want that bike!

 

[Hill Wimp]

Well done compo, O level maths still gives me nightmares .

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Well done for having a go at this. I flunked all my exams at school because I used to enjoy myself too much at school and never attended half my exams and never did any revision. I decided to do a couple of GCSE's 2 years ago. I did science and maths higher. The science was piss easy and interesting, I got an A and really should of got an A* if I had of put a bit more work in.

The maths on the other hand done my head right in and I really struggled. I have never liked maths and trying to do it 25 years on was a nightmare. Nearly all the students on the night class were mature and within the first term the class had more than halved in size with people dropping out. I put loads of work in revising all the stuff that I hated like algebra, quadratic equations (and graphs), simultaneous equations, vectors, probability, trigonometry. When it came to the non-calculator paper it had loads of basic stuff that I never bothered revising like long multiplication, division, percentages, ratio's etc. It took me a while to get my head around it as I was panicking at first as I knew I had done the revision wrong. The non-calculator paper is by far the worst in the higher exam. I got a B which I was really pleased with as I found it really hard going. I was so pleased to put my scientific calculator in a place that I will never need to use it again once it was over.

I need to do English next, maybe next year. Not a subject I find that interesting but I would guess it is way easier than maths, which is a really dry subject if you are not into it.

Good luck :-)

 

[thom]

Bearing in mind that I am 66 years old and that my academic education ended when I was about 13 years old. I decided, just for the hell of it, to see about getting a GCSE in Maths and attended my local college last week for what they call a diagnostic test which was a couple of maths papers. After seeing them, and researching the syllabus of a couple of examination boards I realised I would have no chance of keeping up with a class so decided to aim for the foundation course. I had a phone call from the college today offering me a place on the GCSE course based on the result of the tests I did. They said I was in the top 10 percent of those taking the tests. Seeing there were two papers and I completed most of paper one but only a couple of questions on paper two, if I was well scored it doesn't say a lot for those below me. Anyway, rightly or wrongly, I have turned down the GCSE course and am going to aim for the Foundation course. I would still like to do the full exam but I think I will build up to it gently rather than going straight in and finding it too much and dropping out.

Go for it - I hope you get a lot of satisfaction from it and you should also know that it will help other people in your class to see you care about this.
Math/arithmetic should be fun and interesting - I hope you enjoy it.