SL Math - Past Exams

[candy6]

How far should I go in studying the past math exams? 'Cause I'm doing them from newest to oldest, but I've heard that there have also been curriculum changes too. Right now I was thinking of just going up until the 2006 exams, what do you guys think?

Edited April 29, 2013 by ibstruggle

[Yahooo!]

Do as many as you can. The syllabus won't have changed too much, the maths would still be the same. Just do the topics you have done even in the old papers.

Edited April 29, 2013 by Yahooo!

[flinquinnster]

Syllabus changes occurred in 2006, and 2008, and there is a new syllabus for 2014.

I'm not particularly sure about SL maths, but I know that HL maths saw a change in between 2006-2007 and 2008-2013 in regards to the Paper 1 and Paper 2 format. Essentially, Paper 1 for Maths HL used to be all short-response, and Paper 2 was all long-response, but post-2008 that got integrated throughout each paper. However, I'm fairly sure that my extensive knowledge of Maths HL papers is not applicable to SL, because the papers are shorter and probably of a different format!

I'm fairly sure that after 2006 Paper 1 got changed to non-calculator and Paper 2 calculator, so just keep in mind that pre-2006 Paper 1 might be a calculator paper.

Aside from that, I'm fairly sure that curriculum changes between 2006 and 2008 are minimal, so you can go straight to 2006 and probably beyond that. As mentioned above, maths doesn't change too much, particularly the SL core. If you can't do a question, try and find a copy of the answers/mark-scheme, and if you don't recognise the technique, then you don't need to know it for the exam.

Just keep in mind though that if you start from newest to oldest, you are losing your 'best'/closest-to-your-actual-exam past papers. That might limit how effective your practice of past papers under timed, exam-like conditions are closer to your actual exams (I'm presuming that you are indeed May 2014, as suggested by your profile). You might run out of 'good' past papers to practice, and then be left with your May 1995 papers or something by the time you study for your final exams.

But that's unlikely. Excessive practice is usually good.

[candy6]

Syllabus changes occurred in 2006, and 2008, and there is a new syllabus for 2014.

I'm not particularly sure about SL maths, but I know that HL maths saw a change in between 2006-2007 and 2008-2013 in regards to the Paper 1 and Paper 2 format. Essentially, Paper 1 for Maths HL used to be all short-response, and Paper 2 was all long-response, but post-2008 that got integrated throughout each paper. However, I'm fairly sure that my extensive knowledge of Maths HL papers is not applicable to SL, because the papers are shorter and probably of a different format!

I'm fairly sure that after 2006 Paper 1 got changed to non-calculator and Paper 2 calculator, so just keep in mind that pre-2006 Paper 1 might be a calculator paper.

Aside from that, I'm fairly sure that curriculum changes between 2006 and 2008 are minimal, so you can go straight to 2006 and probably beyond that. As mentioned above, maths doesn't change too much, particularly the SL core. If you can't do a question, try and find a copy of the answers/mark-scheme, and if you don't recognise the technique, then you don't need to know it for the exam.

Just keep in mind though that if you start from newest to oldest, you are losing your 'best'/closest-to-your-actual-exam past papers. That might limit how effective your practice of past papers under timed, exam-like conditions are closer to your actual exams (I'm presuming that you are indeed May 2014, as suggested by your profile). You might run out of 'good' past papers to practice, and then be left with your May 1995 papers or something by the time you study for your final exams.

But that's unlikely. Excessive practice is usually good.

Thanks flinquinnster, and I'll be taking my sl math exams in a week from now

(2013- math and french and then 2014- chem, bio, english, business)