Questions about Math paper 3?

[marcelkittel]

I'm in year one in IB. I'm currently learning the calculus option. I have heard that lots of people don't do well in paper 3, is this true? Do people generally do better in paper one and two than in paper 3?

[flinquinnster]

Well, first of all, it's quite hard to determine if people do 'well' relative to other papers in the first place. If you want to look at it in terms of grade boundaries for a 7, a 'typical' boundary for a 7 in Paper 1/2 is around 90-100/120 (45-50/60) whereas in some years and for some options it's possible to get a 7 with scores closer to and even below 40/60 - albeit I think in recent years that P3 boundaries have gone up. However, using grade boundaries to compare how well people do in different papers is a pretty flawed methodology, and especially so with the 7 boundary fluctuating since 2006 anywhere I think from 37 to 54 out of 60.

I would agree though that a lot of students find Paper 3 more challenging than Paper 1 and 2, simply because it is quite different in format and style of questioning. More of the questions are long-response style (and often require a GDC, though there is skill required in determining what needs it/doesn't need it), and moreover, they focus in great depth on a specific topic rather than a lot of topics broadly synthesised together as in Section B of P1/2. If you've forgotten how to apply a particular technique or concept in P3, often you can lose 12/60 marks in one fell swoop.

Further, I think that a lot of students may not have been well-prepared for Paper 3 by their classes and teachers simply because option topics are typically done after all of core content has been taught. And often time is running out to simply cover the core, let alone explore the option fully in depth. As the option topics are also hidden at the back of the syllabus and also appear deceptively narrow in scope, I suspect that there may be teachers and students alike who underestimate the time required to revise for it. This is probably encouraged by the IB exam schedule as P3 is placed after the P1/2 bloc - it encourages cramming the night before (but luckily I got a weekend to cram my content!).

As to the calculus option, it is the option which has been changed the most for the new 2014 syllabus (recently tested for the first time this month). I don't know all that much about the new syllabus, but I don't think that there's necessarily an easier/harder option for Maths HL. It really depends on how well your teacher is capable of teaching each option, and how you personally connect with different types of maths.

In the end, each person has their own experience of whether they find P1/2 or P3 harder, and their own opinion in the end might not even be backed up by the marks they ultimately obtain. It's probably better to err on the side of taking P3 seriously and studying hard for it (like ideally you should be for everything!) given how easy it is to dismiss the option paper as a small endnote to Maths HL. I personally always reminded myself that whilst 1 mark in P1/2 was worth 1/4 of 1% of my final mark, that 1 mark in P3 was actually more valuable relatively - 1/3 of 1% of the final mark.

[yii yann]

I'm in year one in IB. I'm currently learning the calculus option. I have heard that lots of people don't do well in paper 3, is this true? Do people generally do better in paper one and two than in paper 3?

Hi there,

I took HL Math (previous syllabus, May 2013) and did the Statistics option. I feel that paper three is a double edged sword.

Firstly, the boundaries for a 7 in the core papers usually hovered around the high 80s to high 90s. You get a pretty big cushion in terms of losing marks. For paper 3, its about 45/60.

The trouble with this is that a mistake on paper 3 often tends to be BIG. You get loads of marks for small things, but they can often be tricky. Hence, if you know your stuff very well, you can easily score full marks. If you don't know your topic in and out though, there's a chance you could screw up one part of a question, and lose like 14 marks. The danger is that even if you are a good student, the smallest mistake can be catastrophic. In the core papers, a mistake usually doesn't cost you more than a few marks, unless you screw up on the Part B questions. Even then, you have a large margin for error (~25 to 30 marks).

The level of difficulty can also be a big factor - paper 3 is notorious for asking at least one question on the nature of the topic you are doing (usually the last few parts of the last question). These tend to go a little bit beyond your syllabus, and require you to think critically about the topic. They are there to find out if you have understood the concepts and can make further links with them, as opposed to simply learning how to solve problems. This type of question usually isn't worth too many marks, but can be devastating if you've already made a mistake somewhere else on the paper.

You will get hard questions, but that's not much different from the first two papers anyway.

The final point is that people tend to rush through paper 3. It comes right after core topics, and right before revision, so teachers tend to go through it superficially, teach you how to solve a bunch of common problems and that's it.

On the flip side though, if you know your stuff and have done lots of practice, paper 3 will be the easiest of the 3 papers. Questions tend to repeat themselves a lot, and even the "hard" questions require just a little step further. The required knowledge is also limited, so revision can be much more effective and easier.