End of an era

I have finally done it! I have finished the Higher Mathematics course! It has taken me 16 months, actually shorter than I thought it would (but I did 3 whole chapters in the summer holiday). Today is also the first anniversary since I completed chapter 4, and that doesn't feel like long ago, but I have now done all 16 topics! What an achievement. I still have so much more to learn though - especially on early unit 3, as I have kind of abandoned those topics as they haven't been in any of the tests I have done. I plan to do as much revision as I can this month, before I start past papers in mid January, then eventually the Advanced course in February.

Perfect

I feel so good right now! I found out my score on the maths test I sat last week... 95/95! I am very happy, though I know I worked hard for it (there's always a little luck involved however). Here's a little summary of what I have done so far:

June test: 71/74 (96%)
November test: 115/120 (96%)
December test: 95/95 (100%)

I finally got my 100%, after 6 months of waiting! I can settle for a little while, until I have the prelim in February (so long away!). Meanwhile, I'm about to finish off the Higher course, as I am on the final section, and I only have about 4 more exercises to do, so I will definitely complete before Christmas! Then I only have to revise what I have already done for months, although I might start Advanced maths if necessary (I don't want to get bored).

Test take 2

I had another maths test today, I think it went pretty well. This time, the timing was much fairer: 50 minutes for six questions, although they weren't that hard so I ended up finishing in the first half an hour (though I checked over many times). I am doing another the second part of this test (non calculator) tomorrow, then I will get my marks some time next week. More updates then!

Challenge result!

I'm feeling very good right now! I got my Senior Maths Challenge result this afternoon, I got exactly the score I suspected, 73. This means:

A silver certificate...

Best in S5...

And Best In School!!!!

Three certificates for a 90 minute challenge! Not bad, considering it went badly and I didn't dream I'd get best in year, let alone best in school. Then again, I got it by one mark, as there was a guy who got 72 in my year too. But I'm still so happy! And I always have next year to try for gold!

Maths test results!

I take what I said about the test back, I actually did pretty well on it! I knew that I'd definitely lost at least some marks, as I found that I ended up with a ridiculous fraction for what was meant to be a fairly straightforward question about intersection of lines. I then got stuck on a question which required the equation of circle to be found from three points on its circumference. I tried to find two perpendicular bisectors and then find their point of intersection, but it was made harder by the said mistake earlier in the question, and I ran out of time after only a little progress (only getting 1 mark out of 4 in the end). Another 15 minutes-ish could have got me the full 4 though!

That brings me to today, when I got my paper back. I was so nervous about it, as I knew I had taken quite a few guesses along the way, but, as it so turned out, I got full marks in paper 1 (non calculator). I had a little celebration on the spot, although I had to wait in anticipation for paper 2, which was more difficult, and the one with the above straight line problems. As it so turned out, there was only one more mistake, when I was calculating the volume of a prism when I had found the area of its cross section using integration correctly, and I didn't realise I had only found the area of half of the shape (so needed to double it), meaning I had half the volume. Although had originally panicked this test might finish off my achievement in maths, it so turned out I got 115/120 - 96%! Immediately afterwards, I would have been thrilled to know that, but now, I have more mixed emotions (though still a lot of joy), as were it not for a few silly mistakes, I would have got  98%, and although I wouldn't have got the short way to the circle question as it's not covered in the textbook, I could have had the perpendicular bisector method all complete if I'd had just a little more time (which the teacher admitted would have been fair). Although 100% is still just a percentage!

Next week, I have another similar test, but with more time, as it's on two days rather than one. I will be aiming to get in the nineties again, I'm not especially trying for 100% because I was so fortunate to get what I got last week, and 100% is a near impossible target, and the chances of me reaching it are so small!

Struggle

I did so badly on the maths test I sat today. Seriously. I left one part blank, because I ran out of time totally. I had 50 minutes to do what was more like two hours' worth of questions, I'm not kidding! I'm not looking forward to receiving my mark, however, I know I'll be ok, because often my great successes are preceded by struggles. I'm kind of annoyed though, as I've spent the last 2 weeks revising, and delayed finishing the course to try and get a good mark on the test, and now it's not happening. Oh well, I managed full marks on my NAB, which I also sat this month, so I've had one good thing! I also have another test in two weeks, giving me a chance to redeem myself!

Maths challenges

I was so nervous to look at the UKMT website today, because I had a feeling they would post the SMC certificate thresholds... and they did. I'm pretty sure I've got... silver. Exactly as I thought. I was a whole 4 marks off a gold, so it's kind of annoying as one more correct question would have got me it, or if I hadn't got any wrong, as I made exactly four mistakes. But I know there's nothing I can do now, and a silver is more than most people get! I guess there's also next year, though that's so long away. I'll have to be sure to get a gold though!

Meanwhile, I'm participating in the Four Nations Maths Challenge right now. I was hoping to get 15,000 points on the curriculum yesterday, but then I forgot all about it until 7pm, so I only managed 7000. I'm doing the Live section right now, so I will post my score here when I finish.

Senior Maths Challenge

I didn't think the senior maths challenge went well at all. I tried the last 3 years' papers over the weekend, and got 85, 93 and 71, a wide range I know. The first 2 got me excited and I was hoping to get in the top 80s, securing a gold. However, I was so nervous beforehand and struggled to sleep, and I don't know if it was because of this, but I found it very hard. I answered about 14 in the first hour and a quarter, but I knew that wasn't enough to do well, so I had another look through, and took a total guess at some of them, but I found one that, though it looked impossible at first, actually had a nice little trick to it. I realised that when you have a number whose sum of digits is massive, the smallest number it can be is one which ends in as many 9s as possible. I managed to put down answers for 17 in total, and I wasn't sure if many were right at all. I saw the marking scheme today (it's already on the UKMT site), and I think I got 73 out of 125, which will be a silver if last year's boundaries hold true, though I won't know until the end of November!

Senior Maths challenge participation confirmed

I've known for ages that the Senior Maths Challenge would be held on November 6th (next Tuesday), but I didn't think I would be doing it, as it hadn't been mentioned to me, and I pretty much gave up yesterday. Then, just as luck would have it, towards the end of my double period of maths today, my teacher announced: "Did I mention there's a senior maths challenge?" She revealed that she had chosen twelve students from my class to take part, in addition to the advanced pupils. Anyway, the 12 she chose were those who get the best marks on the test we did before the summer holidays, back in June. As I got the highest mark on that test, I knew I'd be on the list, and sure enough she called my name. I was so excited that I couldn't concentrate on the integration revision I was doing, although there were nerves too, as I know it is very difficult, but I so want to do well. It doesn't matter, however, because if I don't get a certificate, then I am still very lucky to take part!

Progress

I started chapter 14 of the Higher Maths course today, I had to show that the derivatives of sin x and cos x are cos x and - sin x respectively, by using the graphs. Then I answered some questions on that, making sure I was taking in what I had just learnt, rather than immediately forgetting it! The next thing I will do is to integrate trig functions, before I start really abstract things like the chain rule.

I have come a long way with Mathletics, especially with things to do with calculus, and have 23 more activities to do before I finish the course. I am not sure what I will do after that, as I have done nearly every concept on there now at some point!

Live Mathletics makeover

I see Live Mathletics has had a complete makeover, I like it! I've actually been hoping for ages that they would have 10 levels instead of 5, and now it's happened! The only thing I don't like is that they've made the existing levels much harder, so now I'm only a human calculator on the first 3 levels instead of 5. Oh well, I guess I will improve as time goes by!

In 'real' life, I have now finished vectors, and will be starting further calculus next week, the first of only 3 more topics I have to do. I'm pretty sure I will be complete by Christmas, meaning I have a whole 4 months to revise, and do every paper from the last 20 years or so, leaving me with a great chance of finishing the course with a high mark. I'll always be aiming for 100%, though I know that's extremely unlikely.

Vectors and Mathletics

I am getting on well at the moment, I am not far off finishing vectors now! That is the biggest topic in the Higher course, and while it's mostly been quite simple, it's getting harder now. I think I will finish next week, the last week before I go on holiday! Then I will finally have some time off from maths. After that, I only have another 3 topics, so I may well be finished by Christmas. Then I have a whole 4 months to revise, I could do every past paper from the last 20 years!

I have been doing a lot less Mathletics, although I make sure I get my certificate every week, and I completed the functions and series unit this week, and did the "area by integration 1" task today, it took 4 attempts as I didn't consider that areas below the x-axis will (by calculation) be negative. It's also getting harder, as most of the things on the course are concepts I have never met before. It will probably take me months to finish, although it doesn't matter much, as I am on the hardest course anyway!

Life is good

It's such a long time since I posted!

Maths has been going very well, although I have started unit 3 now and vectors are pretty tricky. I was always dreading doing them, since I discovered them when I was 12. I did them in physics about a month ago, but that is really the tip of the iceberg, it's about the biggest Higher Maths topic there is!

I haven't actually sat the unit 2 NAB; I wanted to do so next week, but I'm not allowed to until the rest of the class does (which will be around December), by which time I might even be close to finishing unit 3!

My other subjects have also been going well for the time being, especially English which is normally a nightmare! My personal essay that I wrote couple of weeks back received the feedback "I wouldn't change a word" from the teacher, and the critical analysis I wrote this week got full marks! I don't know what I've been doing differently to before, but it's clearly working!

Points of inflexion

I learnt something new today! I always believed that equating the first derivative and zero would find you all the stationary points, including points of inflexion, however, today I found out it is the solution of the second derivative that will find you the points of inflexion on a curve. This might be useful in the Higher Maths course. I would never learn so much if it weren't for Mathletics!

Tomorrow I return to school for another year of unknowns, although I know one thing: I will be starting topic 11 in Higher Maths! I am now two thirds of the way through unit 2. Topic 11 is more trigonometry, identities like in Int 2 (though much harder), and equations like in unit 1.

I may be doing the Senior Maths Challenge this November, although I don't know yet, I will post back if I find out.

3 d trig

I finished 3 d trigonometry today, I'm so pleased! It is still pretty difficult, as I haven't become accustomed to it yet. But I've done it, and I can progress now, so that's what matters. I can start the next topic, addition formulae, but first, I will revise topic 5, so I don't have too much work to do at prelim time (January), as I also have another 4 subjects!

I haven't done too much on Mathletics this week, as I've been to busy with the textbook work, but I did manage the co ordinate geometry test. I plan to do a little more work on the differentiation unit next week, and also integration if I have time. I will then get my gold certificate the week after that, and I'll be near the end of my course!

Trigonometry

This update is about my progress on the higher maths course:

I have managed to complete (or rather struggle through) one more exercise on 3 d trigonometry, which was very difficult. Instead of finishing that unit, I decided to revise topic 4 today instead. That was fairly easy, apart from 2 questions, one of which was crazily hard and made no sense to me, and one of which was just very difficult. Now that is done, I only have 2 more topics from unit 1 to revise. And once I finally finish 3 d trig, I'll be two thirds of the way through unit 2! I'm still hoping to sit the NAB sometime in October, after the holiday. I then only have a little bit of work to do before I'm ready for the prelim!

Normals

I have just got 100% on my equations of normals activity, I'm pleased about that! I knew what a normal is from Standard Grade Physics, but I never knew how to find the equation of one, until yesterday. It's similar to finding the equation of a tangent: you differentiate the given curve's equation, then substitute in the associated x value to find the gradient of the tangent, then take the negative reciprocal, to find the normal's gradient (it is perpendicular to the tangent). You then substitute the x value into the original equation to find a y value, then use y-b=m(x-a) and rearrange for the equation of the normal. It sounds complicated, but it's multiple choice, and on at least 4 questions out of 10 today, Mathletics didn't find the perpendicular gradient and used the tangent's gradient in the equation instead. So that's that finished, and I only need to do the co ordinate geometry test now!

Problems!

Sorry for the lack of updates to this blog, but I had some major problems last week! On August 1st, Mathletics reset all school accounts, in preparation for the new school year, but it also deleted all my work, on my personal account! I was quite upset about this, as I was faced with having to redo about a year's worth of work all over again. I struggled to regain as many gold bars as I could, when, after I'd reached 50, all of them were reinstated, but I also got to keep all the points and credits I earned the second time round, meaning I have over 50,000 credits. I have now been buying a lot for my Mathlete! I am presently at 140 gold bars and am working on the co ordinate geometry unit. I have the equations of normals topic to do (complicated), and then the test, before I finish. I will then work on the calculus activities.

I have also looked at the 3 D trigonometry in my Higher maths textbook, as I finally finished Integration on July 31st, but I haven't made any progress on it as I found it overwhelmingly difficult. I will have another look at it tomorrow to see if I can do it, although it is very abstract so I may need to wait until I go back to school and ask the teacher about it, as I just can't visualise the three dimensional objects necessary to understand it. But I will have to do something with the rest of this summer, even if it's just more revision.

Mistake

I made an error in my last post, I admit it! The 2 activities I had to do were area of minor and major segment, rather than sector. I had never done that before, however in these last 2 days, I have achieved my 100% on the minor segment one, and I am working my way through the one with the major segment. The way to calculate each one is rather similar; you use the formula:

0.5r^2(X-sinX) (where X is in radians) to calculate the area of the minor segment, and for the major segment, you subtract this value from the area of the whole circle. Thank goodness for the help section on Mathletics!

Mathletics and Integration

I've got so far with my Mathletics course! I now have 130 gold bars, on only my 3rd week on this course. Ok, yes I had many gold bars when I first started, and a lot of the topics are things I have done (sometimes to death) before, such as probability and trigonometry. I have 8 complete units (after struggling with the equations and inequalities test), and I just might finish a ninth, measurement and geometry, this week or early next week. I only have to do the area of major/minor sector tasks, plus the test. The sector stuff is unit 1 Int 2 work, so it's preety easy considering I am on unit 2 Higher now. That reminds me, I am still on Integration, but I am hoping to finish soon, so I can progress further before I go back to school in 3 weeks.

Mixed achievements

I've done a lot on my first 11 days on my new Mathletics course, I have quite afew units complete (5 I think). I did the Trigonometry unit, and tried the Trigonometry Problems, however I made 2 little mistakes so I didn't quite manage my 100%. I hope to achieve it soon! I also have 2 more units where I just have to do the test: quadratics and algebra.

I'm two thirds of the way through Integration in my textbook, I should finish it in the next couple of weeks. I then have to revise before I start unit 10. I will get through the second unit pretty quickly this rate, I just might achieve my NAB in October!

Grade 12

I have finally started the grade 12 course, it looks so difficult! At the moment I'm just concentrating on the something easiers, there are only 5 of them and I have done 3. I now have 115 gold bars (out of 187). I started off with 112! There are some things I have done many, many times, such as probability, and some things I have never done on Mathletics before (integration). I am looking forward to learning about new maths concepts, although I know I will struggle a lot and will have to try very hard. I will do as much as I can in the next 6 weeks I'm off, then we will just see.

Finished!

I have now completed my Mathletics course, I am so pleased! I've done the money test 4 times today, twice in the last half an hour. It was very hard at first, as I'd completely forgotten how to do some of the concepts: compound interest caused me problems, as did the future value of investments. I made some silly attempts the second time I did it today, and then when I did it a third time, I got full marks, but the computer recorded it as 96%. I was so annoyed, as it has happened to me many times. I was going to just leave it and wait until tomorrow to complete my course, however, I decided to try one last time: and twenty minutes later I had my final 100%! I always have to get 100% on every activity on my course before I start a new one, I'm such a perfectionist! I am looking forward to starting grade 12 tomorrow!

End is near

I have made good maths progress today, more than I thought I would anyway! I finished off the quadratics unit in my textbook, and I now only have 2 more gold bars to go on Mathletics! I did the "future value of investments 1" activity today, and I finally got shares perfect yesterday on my 5th attempt (after much frustration). To say it's my summer holiday I've been doing lots of maths, not that I mind!

Tomorrow, I will be revising unit 7 in "real life", and I will also try to finish my Mathletics course this week, I only have the money test and one more activity to do. More updates soon!

Human Calculator

I beat my records for levels 2, 3 and 5 on Live mathletics today: my current records are 76, 82, 72, 71 and 63 for each level respectively. I am currently a human calculator on level 5, though this is not always the case, depending on if my last game was mixed or one of the others (mixed is by far my strongest!) I have tried the "shares" activity twice, and got 90% each time; I'm hoping to complete it soon! Then I will only have 3 more to do until I finish my course, and start the most difficult one on Mathletics!

Quadratics

Today has been pretty eventful (for me), I did 3 textbook exercises! They were all concerned in some way with the discriminant of a quadratic equation: calculating it, finding the nature of roots using it, or using it to solve problems. I found the last exercise very difficult, it's what I'm expecting the maths course difficulty to be at the moment, as I am now roughly halfway through. I have 2 more exercises before I finish the eighth topic in the higher course, and the next one is integration. That looks impossible because there are very scary symbols I have never seen before, however I am looking forward to trying it! I will do so once I have finished quadratics, and also revised polynomials. I will be revising one or two topics after I complete each new one from now on, then it will be less difficult when exam time comes (although that's not 'til January).

Kangaroo and Senior Challenge

I just realised: I never posted my Kangaroo score, although I found it out weeks ago! I got 63 out of 135, not much worse than the first challenge (88). I also got best in school, beating the other boy that entered it by 8 points! I have 2 keyfobs and the IMOK question booklet in recognition for participating, and will get my certificate in September, when I'm back at school. I also got exactly the mean mark, so, to say it's aimed at the top 1% in the age group I'm very happy!

I've also read the UKMT newsletter, and there will be certificates given out to the top 60% in the senior challenge this year, so I'm hoping to participate and maybe even try for an award (particulary the "best in year")!

Mathletics and Quadratics

I now only have 4 more Mathletics activities to go! Then I can start the grade 12 course. The remaining gold bars are all on the money topic, the one I always leave till last as it is usually the hardest. I'm looking forward to finish, although I will have to learn a lot to do the next course up.

I am doing work out of my Higher textbook in my free time, I am on the 8th topic of 16 (quadratics), and am nearly halfway through. I'm revising how to solve quadratics using factorising and completing the square at the moment, and will be doing quadratics inequalities soon (probably tomorrow). I hope to start integration before the end of the holidays!

Maths news!

Many good things have happened since I last posted! Firstly, I have nearly finished my mathletics course: I have 202 gold bars, and only 7 more to go (all on the money topic). I finally understand all the calculus topics (sort of). I hope I finish soon, maybe this week (it's the first week of my summer holiday).

I also took part in the On Your Marks Maths Challenge last week, I ended up in the top 100 students, and I was the fifth secondary student in England! I was quite amazed about it. It took about 12 hours' play over the two days, my eyes and hands were so sore at the end, although it's totally worth it!

I also sat my maths test at school on Monday and Tuesday this week, I was the only person in my class to get over 90% (I got 96%). I would have liked to have got 100%, obviously, but I made some very silly mistakes: I stated that the gradients of perpendicular lines multiply to make -1, and then accidently used -1 as the gradient of the required line rather than -2. This made a follow through question about the intersecton of two lines rather difficult, however I managed not to miss any more marks on that paper (I got 43/44 on the non calculator). On Tuesday, I sat the calculator paper, I forgot to write "stationary points occur when f'(x) = 0" on an optimisation question, and I also had a question about numbers excluded from a domain when a quadratic expression was on the bottom of a fraction, and I factorised incorrectly and lost another mark. So all very silly marks, leaving me with 71/74, but you can't always get full marks!

Keep checking back for more updates!

Exam

I have a maths exam tomorrow! Then another on Thursday. I am back at school on my new timetable, and have finally had formal maths lessons. Although, I have just been doing my own unit 1 revision. I will be starting the next topic, quadratics (unit 2, topic 2) on Thursday or Friday!

I now have 199 gold bars on Mathletics, but I can't be on here for too long, as I have English homewrok to do!

Progress on grade 11

I've come a long way on the Grade 11 course! I've completed 7 units out of 14, and I only have the test to do on many of the others to finish. In fact, I've done the graphing test twice, although I got 86% the first time and 96% the second time. I hope I get that one right today!

My exams are finished, so now I'm revising maths from my new textbook, as I have an internal exam sometime in June (when I go back to school).

I also enquired about the Kangaroo: although I don't know my score, I know that I didn't manage a merit certificate; as the teacher put it: "you did ok, but not earth-shatteringly brilliantly". But I don't mind, as I did pretty well to qualify for it!

Mathletics status:
194 gold bars
2789 points

Mathletics, and textbook, and a memory

I currently have 9999 points on Mathletics, isn't that strange! It is possible to go over that, although personally that doesn't happen often to me.

I bought a Higher Maths revision book today, I was in two minds about it, but I know ultimately I will need it. I plan to finish off learning topic 7 from the normal textbook next week, then start revising the older units with my new book the week after that, as it is a holiday for me because I don't have any exams.

It's also a year since I sat Intermediate 2 maths, I was so nervous because I put a lot of pressure on myself to get 100%. As it turned out, I missed one mark on each paper, and got 29 out of 30 on the non-calc and 49 out of 50 on the calc. I felt a mixture between disappointment and joy, but now I feel proud that I managed it (I was only 14!).

Mathletics status:
179 gold bars
9999 points

Grade 11

I've got far with my new course, I have 168 gold bars and only another 41 to go! I'm revisiting topics I haven't seen since I did the Year 11 Advanced course (which I finished in January). I thought it would be good to recap on the calculus topics, but the gold bars I had have stayed, so I don't need to do them again (although I can do so). Some of the topics are fairly easy, such as the statistics graphs and number ones, however, calculus and quadratics are very complicated! So I guess I will just take it as it comes and see what I will do.

Mathletics and Kangaroo

I completed my Mathletics course a few days ago, now it's time to start the Grade 11 course! I will do so tomorrow afternoon, after I get home from sitting my Chemistry exam tomorrow. I hope it will go well; I've done a few papers, and of the Credit ones I've got 90% and 97% so far.

The Kangaroo results will also arrive at school on Friday, I will receive them on either a week on Wednesday, or two days after that on Friday (they are the next times I will be in school after tomorrow).

1 more

I now have 12 complete units, just one more (consumer arithmetic) to go! It's, in my opinion, the most difficult one. I just tried the calculating income tax activity, but I made a very silly mistake so I only got 90%. I will have to try again tomorrow!

The European Maths Challenge is on, but British users can't participate, too bad. Although I found something out: World Maths Day 2013 will be 6 March! Just 10 more months to go (WMD 2012 was 2 months ago today).

Status:
133 gold bars
497 points

Mathletics, Physics, Kangaroo

I've done all 4 of my "something easier" activities, meaning I have none more, and I've also done the data unit test - leaving me with only 2 more units! I should manage those over the next two weeks, then that's my 8th course finished!

I have a lot of time to play Mathletics now, as I'm on study leave for 5 or 6 weeks! I did physics yesterday, and I found it fairly difficult, although I'm not sure it's the most difficult for 11 years, as some have said. There were many basic calculations, along with some very complex questions, and one question my physics teacher said hadn't come up in the last 5 years and probably never would - it would just be our look that it did come up! It's lucky I remembered the answer she told us (6 months ago).

Meanwhile, I still don't have the Kangaroo result - they haven't even been posted! I won't be in school until a week on Friday, so I'll ask then if they have it.

Mathletics

I was hoping I'd make loads more Mathletics progress today; I didn't, as, when I logged in, I found that lots more activities had been added to my course: "something easiers and harders", which meant that, on some units, there was a new "are you ready?". I've completed these now, as well as "interpreting standard deviation", which means that this week I only need to do the data test to finish another unit! Then I'm really not far from being finished.

Status:
127 gold bars
1700 points

"Further Trignometry"

I now have 10 complete units! I did the test of the unit that's at the bottom of my Mathletics screen: it's called "Further Trignometry", which made me laugh when I first started this course. Although the "Trigonometry" unit above it is spelt correctly, it seems no one noticed that mistake. Like on the GCSE course, there is a unit called "Using Algebriac Symbols". Seriously, Mathletics is an amazing site, but they need to sort their spelling out!

I now only 3 units remaining: a financial one, data, and surface area and volume. I hope I'll get them all done next week, as I've been on study leave since yesterday. Which reminds me, my physics exam is on Monday. I've done all the general papers, and I just have the 2011 Credit to go, then I've done all the 10 from the last 5 years. I usually get somewhere between 80 and 90 percent on them, so I hope I'll be able to get a grade 1 on Monday (not that I'll know 'til August).

More updates then!

UKMT Junior, and Mathletics

I've done a little more on Mathletics; I've completed the 'probability without replacement' task, and got full marks on it, which only leaves 14 gold bars, and I only need to do the test on the probability unit to finish it and so have nine complete modules!

The UKMT Junior Maths Challenge was held today. Obviously, I'm too old to participate this year, but I did participate in 2009, back when I was in year 7. I tried really hard at it, and then totally forgot about it, until a few weeks later at assembly, when a teacher announced some of us had certificates to collect. I was literally praying, until he announced the first name, and I knew I was going to get one because I was as good as the boy whose name was called first. There was a long list, but eventually it was confirmed: I had a silver certificate (no one got a gold in my year group). I was thrilled in a way I'd never been before. It's so weird to think about now. I think if I'd got silver in the Intermediate this year, I'd have been a little disappointed.

I wanted to participate in 2010, but I went away on a Residential, so I wasn't able to. I'd already signed up for it long before I knew about the challenge; if I had known about it, I wouldn't have gone. I sometimes think that would be a massive blessing, for reasons unrelated to my maths career, but mathematically, all that would have happened is I would've got a gold - I might have qualified for the Olympiad, but I wouldn't have got anywhere with that, because I still can't answer the questions now - 2 years later!

Small update

I've made so much progress on my new course! I've managed to complete 8 units (out of 13), so I don't have that much more to do. I am trying, but it's fairly difficult as I have exams coming up (including physics in 6 days, arggh!). I seem to find that I've done every activity on this course at some point beforehand, sometimes a year ago on the year 10 (UK) course.

Status: 114 gold bars
2679 points

New course!

I've just started my new course - USA Mathletics Grade 10 to be exact. I was going to go for grade 11, but this will make my Mathletics time last just a little bit longer, and it's some revision for me to do while I'm studying for my other subjects (it's now 11 days till my physics exam, and I'm not exactly confident about it).

Meanwhile, I am doing synthetic division at the moment in my 'real' maths lessons - it doesn't seem difficult, but it's so easy to make a mistake, that I only managed two questions in a hour last Wednesday; I just kept making so many errors. Despite the title of this blog, I only learnt to solve cubic equations this week! I have another maths lesson tomorrow, so I hope I'll make a little more progress!

Year 12 over!

I just completed my Mathletics course! That makes it up to 7 courses now. I wasn't sure if I'd manage it today, but Future value of an annuity is not a very difficult activity, so I managed it in one try. I now have 100% on all of the 78 tasks! And it's barely been 4 weeks since I finished the GCSE course. Now I have to start a new course, maybe tomorrow. I think I will move on to the American curriculum and do the grade 11 course first of all, then the grade 12 course, then (in about a year) move back to the British and do year 12 advanced (the most difficult course there is from what I can grasp).

Meanwhile, I go back to school tomorrow, for two weeks before I go off on study leave. In that time, I hope to finish the polynomials topic in maths, then do quadratics in the fortnight before the summer holidays, meaning I then only have 4 topics in unit 2 to complete. Ideally, I'd like the second NAB done before Christmas, so then I get lots of time to do unit 3 and then revise!

Mathletics

I just surpassed 40,000 correct answers on level 1. What an achievement! It's taken me 2 years, which is right as I worked out that if I played one game each day, it would take me 5 years to get 100,000 correct - a goal I now don't think I'll make! I'm already 15, so I'm not sure I'll still be on a kids' maths website in 3 years' time.

I also managed to get full marks on the financial maths test today (first attempt) even though I haven't completed all the activities yet! I'm planning to do those in the next couple of days, so then that will be my 7th Mathletics course complete. I'm going through all this so quickly!

Going for gold!

I got my 5th gold certificate today!!!!!!!! I'm so proud! It's also my 100th Mathletics certificate. It equates to 100 weeks of work, 4 weeks short of 2 years, which makes sense as I joined on May 9, 2010. I've only ever missed 2 weeks, and that was near Christmas '10, as I wasn't in the house for most of the time (I was too busy out and about visiting people). But this is a great achievement and I'm very happy.

Meanwhile I just got 100% on effective interest rate; it's a pretty difficult task, and took me three attempts. I've done a few questions from the test; it's easier to do the questions on one topic as you finish the relevant activity, while it's still fresh in your mind. Now I just need to do 3 more tasks, plus the remaining test questions (I've done them before, on the Year 11 General course, but I don't remember a lot about them).

I also found out from the UKMT website (link in side bar) that the Kangaroo results will be posted in early May (long time if you ask me), which means I've waited ages for them, but there's a bigger problem: I'm not going to school for the whole of May. I break up for study leave on April 27th, which means that I might not get the result until mid-June. I don't think I did very well, so it's not exactly a problem, but of course I would like to know how I did (and get my certificate and key fob)!

1 to go!

I got 100% on my data analysis test this morning! It was my third attempt. It seems as though on Mathletics, the first time you do a test it always records your score as 0%. How annoying. I got 92% on my second go (I made a silly mistake with the z scores). Then I got full marks, so I went over to the financial maths unit, tried very hard with the straight line depreciation (very difficult) and got full marks on my second go. I've only got 5 more activities to do now!

I've also been doing things other than Mathletics today; my physics exam is coming scarily close (25 days away) so I did the 2007 General paper today and I got 92% (I'm not sure how). My physics teacher was annoyed that I didn't do much revision at all for the mock exam and she told me I should be trying to get one of the best scores in the country in the real exam. I don't think that will happen, but you can always dream!

Mathletics status:
73 gold bars
6068 points

Success!

I've finally got 100% on the calculating dividends activity! It was my 8th attempt, and I was fully expecting it to record it as 90% or something like that. But no, it did it right for once. I'm so pleased about that, I believe I now have 100% on all the something easiers!

I also did the equivalent z scores task, I got 80% (correctly) the first time, then 100% the second time. I plan to do the test tomorrow, then that's the data unit finished!

Status:
70 gold bars
2896 points

Moaning

I'm not happy. I did the 'Calculating Dividends' task on Mathletics, and I got full marks, but it recorded it as 70%. I was annoyed, but I retried it. Once again I made no mistakes, but it recorded it as 90%. That's my 3rd attempt at it, too! I've had full marks every time, but Mathletics just won't accept it! Grrrr.

Rant over, I've also done two more data activities: calculating z scores and comparing z scores. I have done them before, although under different names: 'standard deviation' instead of 'z score'. I have two more activities to do, then the test, and then that's the data analysis unit complete!

I got my 99th certificate today, obviously it's bronze, but it will be a gold week next week!

New month's news

I got my Lindt bunny! I got full marks on the Maths NAB. I've just been doing Live Mathletics online; I don't want to do any more curriculum, in order to leave something to do next week (which in this case, is to complete the data analysis unit). The week after that (my gold certificate week) I will work on the financial maths unit, then I should be finished! I will have to renew my subscription, and start the Year 12 Advanced course.

Meanwhile, I've broken some records! I got 74 on level 1 live, and 78 on level 2. I'm close to getting 80, I will be so happy when I do!

Int 2

Posting about the Higher maths NAB made me think about how I did in Int. 2 last year. I got full marks in the first and third NABs and missed two marks on the second (much to my annoyance). I then got 100% on the first mock exam and 98% on the second, and then 98 again on the real thing. In the exam I lost one mark on a question in which you had to make a statement about statistics, and I'm still not sure where I lost the other mark. All in all, I lost 6 marks on the whole course!

Full marks all round

After 3 attempts, I got 100% on my spherical geometry test! That makes my 5th complete unit. I will need to do either data analysis or applications of area and volume tomorrow, I'm not sure which (although I will be leaving Financial Maths till last).

I beat my record for level 3, it's now 67!

In real life, I spoke to my maths teacher and I've passed the NAB - she also thinks I may have got 100% so if she's right, I will be getting what she described as a "gold bunny" tomorrow!

Mathletics status:
61 gold bars
4577 points

What are the chances?

I've finally finished the probability unit today! I put a lot of effort in, I needed to! I had to do the financial expectation task 4 times (as there are some problems with the actual website) and the test 3 times, so I'm pretty exhausted now! I also managed to do the are you ready on the financial maths during my lunchtime today, so that's one less to do.

I sat the Higher maths NAB on Tuesday, but I did a Sudoku competition when I was supposed to be in maths today, so I didn't get my result, and I don't have maths tomorrow, so maybe I should go see the teacher anyway, so just in case I've failed it, I can arrange to resit it. She said that she'll give everyone who gets full marks some chocolate, and rumour has it that applies to nine people, and there are 28 in my maths class, so that means each of us has a roughly 32% of getting it (although I know some of the people who have got 100%, and some who failed, as I seem to be the only one who doesn't know about myself). She asked us afterwards who thought they'd got 100%, and one person put his hand up, who turned out to have missed two marks.

I guess I'll know about myself tomorrow!

Mathletics status:
58 gold bars
2979 points

Units

Right now, I have 2 complete units and I only need to do the simplifying, substituting, solving test to finish another! I will also do the area and volume unit next week, that leaves four out of eight. I don't need to do a load of work for the probability unit, and hopefully the data analysis unit isn't too bad either, but the others look extremely difficult. This course may take me longer than I anticipated!

Status:
49 gold bars
6668 points

Success!

I've completed the applications of trigonometry unit now! I opened my brand new pink Casio calculator and used it on the are you ready, area rule 1 and test activities. I had a problem at first with the are you ready one, but I have 100% on it now. I also tried the equations and modelling test; I got full marks, but the computer recorded it as 0%, how annoying. I tried it again but I only got 95%, how bad is that. I must have another go at it tomorrow. Check back then.

Further progress

I've completed two more activities. I did the Counting techniques 1 activity without too much bother (actually, I made a very silly mistake first time round - I rectified it soon afterwards). The Parabolas and Marbles activity seemed awful at first, so complicated, then I realised all I had to do was read the appropriate value off the parabola they'd drawn. In the meantime, I'm wondering why the Kangaroo solutions aren't on the Internet yet - it's been 6 days now! I'm hoping to find out when they are released that I did well. I also looked at the Olympiad paper - I'm so glad I didn't qualify for that - I wouldn't have known where to begin!

Current Mathletics status:
2782 points
37 gold bars

Pure maths

I did two more of the 'are you readys' today; I got 100% on both the data analysis and probability ones. That scratches two more off the list! I now have 43 gold bars to go.

Meanwhile, in my maths lesson today, everone else did a Practice NAB, but the teacher told me to do slightly more challenging out of the textbook, which I love doing, so that was cool by me. She also told me to start unit 2 on Tuesday, as soon as I've sat the unit 1 NAB, while everyone else will be revising until the holidays. She wants me to gain the lead on the first 2 topics, polynomials and quadratics. Sounds great to me.

Starting year 12

I began the year 12 general course today! Quite scary considering I am in year 10.  I thought that maybe I will be faced with a load of empty bars, as I always have been when starting a new course. Not the case with this one! I started off with 29 gold bars out of 78, and I've since done 2, leaving 47. I think this will be a fairly quick and easy one, with only 8 'are you readys' and tests to do.

In real life, I have my first Higher Maths NAB on Monday. I'm currently doing textbook revision exercises in class, and the printed Specimen NABs at home. For anyone who doesn't know what a NAB is: it's a little test on a unit that must be sat to achieve the qualification. You get one (I think) resit if you fail first time round. More about that when I do it!

Complete

I've just completed the course fully - I now have 100% on all the something easiers and harders too. I actually got one wrong on the 'median from frequency' task, but the computer recorded it as 100% - and I'm not arguing with them! I'm doing Live Mathletics just now and I will start the Year 12 General course tomorrow. After that I only have Year 12 Advanced to go!

Kangaroo

I've taken the Pink Kangaroo paper!

I got off to an awful start. I solved the first question, then tried to check it, and found it was the wrong answer. I then tried every other of the four options. All seemed incorrect. Then, guess what my luck had. The answer I thought first of all turned out right. What a waste of 15 minutes checking. After that mishap I rushed  a little to get through as many questions as possible. I worked out solutions for 15, left about 3 blank accidently, and guessed the rest. So basically I've not performed as I could, but it doesn't really matter. One other person from my school sat it, and he appeared to race through the questions. He moved onto the last page while I was still on question 7. Well, he did manage to beat me to 'best of school'.

I've got the question paper, although I haven't been able to work out any more since! They're too hard (well, what can you expect, I got into the competition by 1 mark in the IMC).

Pi Day

Happy 3/14 everyone!

I celebrated by completing my Mathletics course, getting 100% on my one outstanding task (length of an arc). I'm now working on the something harders on the same course, but I'll start Year 12 General next week!

I'm also doing the Kangaroo tomorrow, I'm so nervous I could cry. I just tried the 2011 paper and got 67 out of 135 (bad I know). I got 2 wrong, but I didn't have a clue where to start with most of them.

I will post here tomorrow night when I've sat it!

Nearly there

One more gold bar to go! I wasn't planning on going so far today. I completed the surface area of a cone task, as I planned, but then I started the areas and volumes test and ended up finishing it. Yes, all 30 questions. Tomorrow, I plan to do the arc length activity, then I've done the AQA GCSE Higher course forever!

I've done so much so fast it's unreal!

Mathletics, Kangaroo, World Maths Day

I'm going to finish this course soon! I have made some progress this week and I only have 3 more gold bars to go: surface areas of cones, length of sectors, and the test for the area and volume unit. Next week I should be moving on to the year 12 general course!

I also have the Pink Kangaroo competition on Thursday, I did one of the old papers the other day and was shocked by how sharply the difficulty of the questions increased as the questions went on. I still have 4 more papers I'm supposed to do (so no maths free time this week then, which is fine by me).

I also completed world maths day, I scored about 1600 points ( I will post the exact number some time), so I got the certificate for that, whichever one it is. I didn't get anywhere near the hall of fame, but maybe I will next year, who knows? I think not, but it is possible!

A maths memory from 3 years ago

Today is the third anniversary of the Maths Pop Quiz I participated in.

I remember my maths teacher telling six of us wait behind at the end of the lesson. We were surprised, and although there was some excitement, it was mostly hope and worry mixed inside us.

As soon as I found out, I knew I wanted to do it - well, enough to accidentally leave the consent form by the till in the school cafeteria as I bought my lunch!

Less than a fortnight later the big day arrived. It went by very quickly, a mixture of unbelievably easy and impossibly hard questions. The thing I really remember is Maria, one of the team members, counting up the total score.

"Fourteen out of twenty," she said.

We hadn't won. We knew it.

What inspires me is how little it meant to me. I had a carefree, 12 year old attitude I wish I had now. Life would be so much rosier!

I try to take from this challenge that position is irrelevant; what is really important is enjoying yourself and discovering new things you'd never thought of before.

I'm so grateful for that opportunity all that time ago!

Happy World Maths Day

That title pretty much sums up the maths I've been doing today! I'm not so happy about the maximum number of games being 50 instead of 100 like it was last year, but it's less work for me.

I was hoping for a good score this year; then on my first game on level 3, I got 4, then on my second, I got 10. There goes the high score board. Oh well, there's always 2013 (and 2014, and 15).

I've done 26 of my games, and will do my other 24 tomorrow! Check back for more then!

More progress

I've managed to get a little more Mathletics done, despite the masses of homework I've had today. I've done volume of a cuboid, and volume and surface area of a cylinder (I wanted to get the one with the most horrible formula over first of all). I've done a few games of Live Mathletics, too, so I'm only 272 points away from my next certificate!

I also got a stack of past years' Pink kangaroo papers from my teacher at school today; I know I need to start preparing for that soon.

Current status: 197 gold bars
728 points

PS. Sorry for the simplicity of this post. I don't have a lot of time.

Mathletics Progress

I've completed yet another unit! I did about 3 activities on the Measure and Construction unit yesterday, and another 3, plus the test, today. I had no problems with any of them, except I got the rounding wrong a couple of times on the 'scale measurement' one. Then, when I did the test, I got all the questions right, but the summary showed my score as 92 per cent. How odd. Luckily, it only has 14 questions, so it wasn't a massive ordeal to complete it again. I now only have one unit - and 14 more activities - to go!

I also beat my level 2 record on live mathletics, it's now 75!

Tomorrow is Monday, so I should be getting my next certificate (silver) then, or Tuesday if not.

Even more testing times

I got my perfect on the handling data test, after getting 100% on the 2 outstanding tasks I had to do. That's 14 units down, and 2 to go!!!! The AQA GCSE Higher tier course is nearly finished, and it's nearly time to start my next one, whichever it may be. It could be the Year 12 General, but I'm not sure yet.

Another little thing: I got a new record on the level 4 on live mathletics today, 66! It's the same as level 3, but it just shows I'm getting good at the division on it.

Current status: 186 gold bars
8098 points

Plodding on

I've made some progress today. I've now nearly finished the data handling unit on Mathletics, with only one more concept to attempt, and another to get 100% (it's the cumulative frequency histogram one, which is a pig), and of course, the test, but I hope I'll manage all those in the next couple of days.

Current status: 184 gold bars
6240 points

More testing times

I've done a lot of Mathletics today! I finished the trigonometry test, getting 100% without too much trouble, and I also finished the probability unit. That makes 13 out of 16 units finished! The ones I have left are data handling (tedious), areas and volumes (more tedious) and measure and construction (easy). My gold bar status is 176 out of 208, should get this course finished next week!

Another little thing that happened today is I beat my record for level 3 on live mathletics: it's now 66! My records for the other levels are still 72/74/63/54 respectively. I know my score on level 2 is higher than level 1, but personally I find it easier to subtract than add.

IMC

Here's a little bit of 'real' maths news: I found out my score from the Intermediate Maths Challenge! (I already knew I had a gold certificate and entering the pink kangaroo) I was one mark over the Kangaroo threshold; in other words 88 out of 135! I actually thought I'd got about 95, being so deluded about my maths ability, but I still got into the Kangaroo so I'm happy!

The pink mathematical kangaroo takes place on March 15th - two weeks on Thursday. I better start trying some old papers now!

I found the IMC relatively easy; I thought it was going to be impossible and was so nervous for about an hour before I started it. Then when I got there, the first question came to me immediately, and most of the others weren't that difficult either. I answered all 15 of the first section (of which I believe I got 13 right) and I also answered 5 of the last 10 (4 must have been right, one of the earlier ones wrong). I also worked out the answer to 16 to be B at the last minute, but decided I couldn't risk putting it down in case it was wrong - and it turned out to be the right answer. I'm kind of annoyed, but it wouldn't have changed my certificate or follow on round, and had it and one other question been wrong, I wouldn't have got into the Kangaroo.

I'm learning a lot for the Senior Maths Challenge in November!

Testing times

I've just completed two tests on Mathletics. I got 94% on the Inequalities one, that's the third time (out of three) I've had that score, so I'm not best pleased. It's silly things, like putting a positive instead of negative sign, or selecting the 'less than' rather than 'less than or equal to' sign, that stop me from getting full marks on that one. Meanwhile, I got 100% on my Quadratics test! Very easy, admittedly, just solving using factorisation, recognising mistakes in the formula, and recognising parabolas. I now have 9 complete units, out of 16, and I just need to retry the Inequalities test to complete another!

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog! I've decided to set it up to keep track of my various maths achievements and thoughts I experience in time, primarily on the educational website 'Mathletics' - but, I may also include a few 'real' things too.

Keep checking my blog for updates!