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!