MAY11 Math HL P1

[Slovakov]

Me too. There were also some trigonometry tasks (with circles and triangles), one with sequences and serieses, in section B there was a big task about complex numvers... there were also some matrices... and that's what I remember.

[chaosier]

There was one question asking you to prove sin(x)<x<tan(x)...squeeze theorem

[lexie]

so that's how you were supposed to do that question. i remember laughing about the squeeze theorem cause of the tiny probability that it would come up, then not bothering to learn it.

there were so many triangles was there really complex numbers? i don't remember any. must be because it all went so badly.

[chaosier]

But squeeze theorem isn't supposed to be on the syllabus...it's only in the series and differential equations option. Hypergeometric distribution is also not in the syllabus, but in retrospect the question was actually pretty straight forward given the combinatorial approach.For the last question I made a terrible silly mistake...for the substitution of x=4sin^2(theta) I put dx/d(theta)=8sin(theta)cos(theta) instead... so I couldn't finish the integration. This year's paper 1 was harder than May 2009's so I suppose that the boundaries will be similar to the one back then, perhaps a few marks lower. So a 6 would be between 75-88?

[Slovakov]

I've never heard about squeeze theorem, I think that should be done using the previous working (point a)), and the expression for an area of section, to obtain theta, sin(theta) and tan(theta).

As for the hypergeometric distribution, we had it in our Core coursebooks, and despite I've never seen it on a paper, I think it appears in the syllabus. I didn't make it anyway - it would have taken too much time to count that all.

[darthtire]

Anyone write TZ1?

what do you guys think of it?

[afros]

How did the Math HL Paper 1 TZ2 go for you guys? (It's been 24 hours). I thought it was really hard, and I'm scared I'm actually going to get a 3 or 2 in mathematics. Doesn't that mean I failed? What are the requirements for failing the IB and passing the IB? I heard that if you get a 3 in a HL class, you fail. However, I've also heard that even if you get a 1 in a HL class, as long as you get a 12 for your HL Total you will pass the IB.

For you TZ1 peeps, how was it?

You're only allowed to have one 3 at HL and the sum of your 3 HL subjects must equal to or above 12. If you have more than 12 but still have a 1 or a 2 at HL you will not receive the diploma. Don't worry though, just prepare your option over the weekend and in combination with your IA you should be able to get a 4, or 3 at least.

[Son Young Kim]

Alright, so all of you bravehearts- how was it? I solved all IB Math HL past papers for the new syllabus (from May 2008), and I found this years paper 1 to be the toughest of the lot! (TZ 2 here)... What are your thoughts? Expecting a sub 85 grade boundary for a 7 in paper 1?

Your so right there! I prepared for the exam by solving the questions in the book and the past exam papers from 2000 to 2010 timezone 2. The level of difficulty of the question was not that difficult, but the ting is IB twisted the all of the questions!!! I was not able to finish the exam If I am lucky, I think I will get a 5 perhaps? But Paper 2 was better than paper 1.

[suggaplum]

I didn't really understand complex numbers cus we just went through it in class like 2 days before the exam. I was praying there will be no complex number questions but dear me, two?!

The section B questions were horrible for me, I didn't have any time to even think about how to do it and after the exam, I actually totaled up the marks I left blank. 68 marks. Im screwed, probably need to retake IB just cus of maths

ibfml.

[Son Young Kim]

Over all, by reading all of the comments, I personally think that this years Math HL exam was extremely hard....

And I so agree on that...

[Nishad Potdar]

Well, the grade boundary is definitely going to be lower than 80/120 for a 7. May 2010 TZ1 was 78-120 for a 7, and that paper was much more doable than this one.

[Peter B]

Does anyone know how we were to do the "Graph xf(x)"?

Stumped there, and the last one with the cosine function was pretty bad. (5/25 if generous )

However, I think I managed the complex numbers one fairly well, but I can't remember the first section B question.

Oh, and section A: The one with the triangles and circles? The arithmetic sequence one (who knew they could actually make THAT hard).

I don't know, they somehow managed to pull questions out of thin air.

[Candybar]

I found may 2010 TZ1 alright, not very hard.. no harder than TZ2 this time...

[JayC]

TBH guys, I don't think TZ2 P1 this year was really THAT hard. There are a few questions which I haven't seen before, the xf(x) one... (shocking...) and complex numbers were hard for me. But if most of us don't know the same few questions, then I guess it's really the same for everyone. Compared with the Nov10 paper, I definitely prefer this one. But this one was lengthy and everyone ran out of time.

Now after reading everyone's comments, I have a bad feeling that if I felt this wasn't as hard, I got everything wrong.......

Edited May 6, 2011 by JayC

[AvifromtheOC]

This year's paper 1 was definitely one of the most difficult of all time. I am hoping the grade boundaries for a 7 will be around 80-120 or something like that.

[heavyrockerbass]

I agree with everyone who found this hard, the questions with the triangles and tangents I was like... huh? I desperately need a 6 in HL Maths, so I'm banking on me getting less than 50% in Paper 1, and hopefully my IA marks with Paper 2 and 3 will pull me up! :/ Oh and I've done literally every past paper tht exists, and none of them had anything on wednesday's exam!

Edited May 6, 2011 by heavyrockerbass

[Slovakov]

I agree with everyone who found this hard, the questions with the triangles and tangents I was like... huh? I desperately need a 6 in HL Maths, so I'm banking on me getting less than 50% in Paper 1, and hopefully my IA marks with Paper 2 and 3 will pull me up! :/ Oh and I've done literally every past paper tht exists, and none of them had anything on wednesday's exam!

I'm in right the same situation as you. After analisyng all the previous papers from the last 10 years, I thought that nothing is going to shock me... ohhh how terrible it was to find that I was wrong.

Does anybody know what perctentage of the final score is covered by each of the papers?

[Convergence]

Found it absolutely horrid - much worse than previous years' paper 1s. I thought section A was much harder than it usually has been, whereas section B was actually fairly doable - the two sin graphs was easy trig, the complex numbers weren't too hard using cis notation, but the matrix sort of stumped me. The integral with the substitution of 4sin^2 theta was in a previous paper which I did just the day prev, so that was easy marks

The trig in section A was especially ridiculous I thought, and they even managed to make the sequence question hard

Probably gonna end up with a 5 or 6, based on everyone's assumptions of grade boundaries.

[Candybar]

p1 final score x 0.25, 30% out of 100%

p2 final score x 0.25, 30% out of 100%

p3 final score x 0.333, 20% out of 100%

portfolio final score x 0.5, 20% out of 100%

[Dwight Schrute]

When it comes to the boundaries supposedly theyre going to make it even lower than last year, like around 60% a 7. My physics teacher, also ib coordinator, told me this and that even though we all thought we messed it up and **** we should still come out with decent grades. im praying like mad that this will happen cause that was indeed the hardest papers ive ever seen and i did all of the past papers since 2007.