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