avident Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 I've applied to study business management in the UK and the only thing standing between me and a great university right now is my SL math grade. I've got mostly 4s and a few 5s from my previous exams, and now the university asks for a 6. I've heard that a 6 should be manageable even if you're not a very mathematical person, so I'd love to hear some tips on how to do it. I have 2 months before the final exams and I need to pull this off. It kills me that I have a predicted 40 and they only ask for 36 points AND that bloody 6 in math.My problems right now:- I become extremely frustrated everytime I do an exercise and it's wrong (which happens a lot)- I don't really find math interesting- The examples in the book don't really help in solving the harder exercisesMy IA results are 12 and 15 points, so I guess a 5?MATHS SL INTERNAL ASSESSMENT, Overall Grade Boundaries * 1: 1-7 * 2: 8-13 * 3: 14-19 * 4: 20-23 * 5: 24-28 * 6: 29-33 * 7: 34-40 So they should be a 5 even if I get moderated down.Can I do it? Does anyone have any suggestions on books I should get? We have the Oxford one as our textbook. Thanks! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
__inthemaking Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 Yes you can definitely do it.The key is to practice. Get your hands on all the past papers you have and do ALL of them. When I was studying for my maths SL exam, I did every single paper from 1998-2006, May AND November sessions (I wrote the May 2007 math SL exam). You'll see that there's a trend to the questions they ask you and lots of them are similar/repeated because there's so much from the syllabus that they can ask.Familiarize yourself with the syllabus and make sure you know and understand everything on it, if you don't, get a tutor/ask your teacher/ask a friend. I had the IB course syllabus as my maths textbook but get the study guide or course companion, those are usually helpful. If you need an another "textbook" type book, then get the course companion. If you need just something that will summarize all the important key concepts, then get the study guide. 4 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 Yes you can definitely do it.The key is to practice. Get your hands on all the past papers you have and do ALL of them. YES yes yes! Past papers!I pulled my grade from a predicted 4/5 to a 6 via this insanity. It's horrifically boring and mentally draining, but even I got the hang of it eventually and I'm very unmathematical. The exam will have repeats of similar sorts of questions. Once you've done these for long enough (especially things like LONG vectors questions etc.) you're sorted. You start seeing patterns in the questions. Sad but true! And if you're not talented enough to make it up as you go along, it's also kinda the only way to get good 2 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
master135 Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 Especially consider looking at the specimen paper along with May/Nov 08 and May/Nov 09 papers since they follow the new exam paper format. Also try looking at some HL questions to see some harder questions on the topics you do. And yes the syllabus is an excellent tool - the amount of marks devoted to a particular topic on exams should be reflected by the number of hours allocated to it on the syllabus (ie. there will always be a stats/calculus question). 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBFearless Posted March 13, 2010 Report Share Posted March 13, 2010 Yes, I definitely think this is manageable! I'm hoping to get a 6 in HL Maths, and am currently on a Mid-High 5.The best thing to do is to practice different types of questions.http://www.freeexampapers.com/ is one site where you can download papers from, and there are many more out there. You might be able to ask your IB Co-ordinator for some as well.one of your problems is panicking while doing a question. To try and get over this, slowly re-read the question, making sure that you understand what the question is asking. I sometimes find it helpful to literally read one line at a time, and to understand each line before moving on to the next one. If it's a question about diagrams, or with a lot of information, it's also helpful to draw your own diagrams (small one's so they don't interfere with your working), to help you understand the question better. Once you understand it, you should find it easy to solve.Most people don't find maths interesting, but think of it this way: If you manage to finish math's with a good grade, you might not have to take it ever again!The way IB has designed it's math course is not to show you how to solve questions, but to give you the tools you need to solve it, and expect you to solve the questions yourself. What this means is it'll teach you the different theories, laws, equations etc. but you have to learn how to apply them yourself. They are like puzzles, where you have to use different techniques (pieces) to solve the puzzle.Good Luck in your exam! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bLub Posted March 13, 2010 Report Share Posted March 13, 2010 Well, if you really want to do it then you should be able to! When you "want" to practise and your "bad inner voice" says things like that: "nooo, don't wanna do maths, hate it, booooring, ...", then challenge it with your "good voice" that represents your wish to go to that uni: "but I wanna go to that uni!! so I wanna get a 6!! so I need to revise!!" - and once you get started it's actually not thaaat bad. usually the hard bit is just the first bit: to actually get yourself sit down and take your maths stuff in front of you good luck! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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