NOV11 Maths HL Paper 1

[Jennifer]

Did anyone else do it? If so, how did you find it?

[wikiwaaa]

UBER HARD

[Jennifer]

I felt the same! It was so much harder than most of the past papers that I'd done. I hope the grade boundaries are lower this year...

[tenaciousdan]

That was difficult. Especially compared to the next paper which was straightforward as anything.. I definitely screwed up that complex numbers question (along with many others). A bit of a disheartening start to exams haha.

[Lance H]

It was hard - yes, yes it was hard, impossible definitely not! I found that I knew what I was meant to do for most questions but struggled with time constraints. I was quite surprised that certain questions did not come up - even though for the last 5 November exams they have always been there. For example finding expected value of continuous, finding values for which a complex number is real (two that almost always come up). However, we will see when the results come out.

-L

PS: @tenaciousdan: Remember that we are not allowed to talk about Paper 2 until tomorrow, so to be safe don't mention anything about it

[MP9]

This was simply a HORRIBLE paper. I wonder why Nov exams are so much more harder than May exams, the May 2010 Paper 1 seems SL compared to this one. I hope that Paper 2 will be at least a bit more easy to understand..

Edited November 5, 2010 by MP9

[larry]

It's not enough dissecting it with just our own classmates, gotta do it with the rest of the world lol.

Generally not too bad, except for the modulus of vectors question... and the 2nd part of the last question...

[famvu91]

the second part of the last question was designed to kill everyone .

[iPhone4]

It was extremely hard, walking out of the examination room I felt relieved that the manslaughter had ended, as someone above me pointed out, I sincerely hope they adjust the grading boundaries to make up for such a tough (and well-executed) examination.

[faith]

I think I actually did better in this better than I did in my mock (May 2010), mainly because I did A LOT of studying between this time.

I did leave parts of two questions blank though- the vector modulus question and the sum (something about 7^n+a^n) question. I got a little upset at myself because I realized not long after the exam was over that I can actually do those questions. For the vector question I somehow missed the word "unit vector" altogether... and the sum question can actually be solved quite easily... Oh well.=(

[tenaciousdan]

PS: @tenaciousdan: Remember that we are not allowed to talk about Paper 2 until tomorrow, so to be safe don't mention anything about it

Yeah haha I thought a vague personal opinion couldn't hurt anyone

I hate walking out of an exam then quickly realising how to do the questions you blanked on in the test. I guess a lot of it was nerves for me, since it was my first exam.

[genepeer]

I was in full creative mode on this paper. These math papers have turned into puzzles, lol. You find the trick and the rest of the question just follows through. I found it easier than May 10 TZ1 (is this paper made hard for the asians on purpose?).

The part I completely blanked out on was the last part of the last question. I found an expression for A but wasn't able to show that A<1, maybe my expression was wrong... whatever. The questions I liked were

The first one, solving the inequalities of absolute values. I'd forgotten the arithmetic process but luckily I remembered how to sketch absolute functions. After drawing the sketch, finding the points of intersection was quick.

The magnitude of vectors. Every time I go blank on a vectors question I just sketch arbitrary vectors. I immediately saw I had to use cosine rule.

Now I gotta study for physics, since I'm sure Phy HL P1 will rape me

[tenaciousdan]

The part I completely blanked out on was the last part of the last question. I found an expression for A but wasn't able to show that A<1, maybe my expression was wrong... whatever.

IIRC it had something to do with the fact that a and b were positive numbers, which they gave you in the question.

[genepeer]

The part I completely blanked out on was the last part of the last question. I found an expression for A but wasn't able to show that A<1, maybe my expression was wrong... whatever.

IIRC it had something to do with the fact that a and b were positive numbers, which they gave you in the question.

I think you're talking about Paper 2, the question question I'm talking about has no a or b (but in Paper 2 it did). The paper 1 question was:

y=xe^x, y=kx

0<k<1

If A is the area enclosed by the two curves, show that A<1. That's how I remember the question but I must have missed something. Anyway, this is what I did.

when I use the calc, that expression is less than 1 for 0<k<1, but how was I supposed to show it?

[genepeer]

is this ok?

I don't know why, but that doesn't seem right. Did anyone do this number?

Edited November 6, 2010 by Gene-Peer

[The 45]

It's not enough dissecting it with just our own classmates, gotta do it with the rest of the world lol.

Well seeing as i am the only one in my HL class discussing it with the rest of the world is the only option. hah

But I did find it do-able but paper 2 was easier.

[rFumachi]

I wish I could have done it better, vectors were my nightmare, and I know I did most of section B wrong. I got an average of 4-5 in my mocks, so I guess I will get a 4-5 as always u.u

[zx898]

paper 1 was a breeze to me...

it didn't have many questions that's undoable, but just require some creative thinkings.

But that being said...I messed up my last question in Section B,

where I used substitution, but forgot to actually solve for the intergral (u)...

so....I've lost some of my procedure marks probrably...