Oh, uhm… maths

Maths paper 1 – So this is what a stroke feels like.

It wasn’t as bad as what I had thought it would be, but I wasn’t gloating when I left the room either. I kind of dreaded looking at the paper the second I got it, half expecting to see HIGHER LEVEL PAPER 2 written on it. Phew!

I had wanted to tick the “Answered through Irish” box on the paper, only because I could really have used the extra 60 or whatever percent they gave to those people. But other than “agus” or “crioch” that I see on road signs, I’m pretty much illiterate. So much for that.

*Algebra was ok. Nothing too complicated, although I did check my calculation of 5+6 in my calculator like 5 times just to be sure. In Philippines we were not at all allowed to use calculators so I was pretty good at calculations then… Thanks Irish education system

*Differentiation was not fun at all. My graph paper kept falling from my desk so I spent like half of the time bending over and picking them up. And I didn’t even use a single sheet. Oh, and did anybody else get a red string from the examiner. Or was mine totally recruiting me to Kaballah?

*Sequences and Series… my Achilles heel went something like this:

It was pretty hypnotic watching it tumbling and rolling like that. Though the examiner did pick it up and threw it out the window. Wet blanket much?

*Integration. The only thing worse than not knowing how to find the volume of a cone using integration or witchcraft, is reading how to do it five minutes before you get the paper, then not being able to recall it. Cue the massive stroke that left me drooling all over my answer booklet. Handing up a soaked exam booklet to the examiner was NOT my most graceful moment.

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Wait did I even answer six questions? Ah, water under the bridge.

15 thoughts on “Oh, uhm… maths”

  1. INTEGRATION IN Q3?!?!?!?!

    seriously, am I the only person in Ireland who planned not ot do Q8 so didn’t study integration and then almost died (and probably failed) when they saw it in q3!!

    why is no one else freaking out about the ridiculousness of that?

  2. Those treasury tag things are ridiculous. The examiner handed me one today….I was like…thanks?

    What a silly little invention.

  3. Integration is my baby, but my 3c was wasted cause I couldn’t do 3c(I)

    S&s c was pretty hideous too. Meh

  4. sequences and series was my bitch! was i the only one in the country that got c)iii) ?
    it was up in 2000 and the early 1990s, i literally opened my solutions book 5 mins before the exam, thought : this might actually come up! so i learnt it…
    same happened in english, read over an essay then one that fitted it PERFECTLY came up.
    people should listen to me in those 5 vital minutes before exams…. lol!

  5. I didn’t know the volume of a cone either!
    If a sphere had come up, I would have been all over it, but my book did not do out the proofy thing for that, just some question which involved the side of the cone having an equation with numbers…. We got no numbers, so I just drew the diagram and wrote the V= forumla thingy in the hope they’d feel bad and give me something! ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. I just avoided Sequences and Series. I glanced at it, and was like, meh. I did the other 7 questions. Was delighted that S&S didn’t venture into Question 5! Yum!

    My volume of a cone worked out ever so slightly wrong. It was like 1/3(pi)h^2r instead of 1/3(pi)hr^2.
    Groans.

  7. Volume of a cone ??

    I think I day dreamed my way through my whole paper and had to refrain from vomiting all over my examiner as I frantically scrambled towards the door at quarter to eleven . Oh jeez .

  8. Jennie, I remember for my mock I couldn’t quite get my cone formula right. So I went back up a few lines, slipped in a discreet “h” out of nowhere, and carried on down to the correct formula. Full marks ๐Ÿ˜€

  9. I’m pretty sure I just made a slip somewhare though, so I’m sure I’ll get.. Most.. of the marks? Jesus, I hope so.

  10. Grand enough paper to be honest… Weird as hell in places, but not terrible.

    They can ask any part of the paper anywhere, that’s why logs came up in the integration and algebra came up in question 5.

    Fucking hell question 3 was a blaspheming jew, but question 5 was so easy I cried that I didn’t learn the changing bases of logs.

    How did ye prove the Newton Raphson Method? Approximate to 2.5 then prove which is closest?

  11. (Grace) What in good god’s name is a treasury tag? Honestly if I get one of those distracting things again, I WILL hurl it back to the examiner.

    (Liam) Oh my god that’s exactly what I did in the test. I just conjured up an “h” from thin air and did the thing… sure it didn’t work out in the end, but whatever ; )

    (Jennnie) How are people able to choose questions in maths? I didn’t at all get a choice for any of the papers. Anyway, I wouldn’t want a choice anyway, it’ll just confuse me. I’m not very bright lol

    (John) How did I prove the newton raphson? I didn’t. =)

  12. I liked it, didnt get the A but the questions wernt as freaky as i expected, except for the diagrams of the roots! WTF?? i never thought i had to learn that!!
    differentiation was a bitch but complex numbers was MY bitch!
    wahay!
    Im a geek XD

  13. YOU DONT GET 60% EXTRA 4 IRISH
    YOU GET 5% OF YOUR OVERALL GRADE
    WHICH IS FRIG ALL REALLY
    AND WE NEED IT BECAUSE WE HAVE AWFUL ENGLISH ๐Ÿ™‚

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