BLOG HAS BEEN MOVED!

Sorry guys

this blog has been moved to…

mathsmethods.blogspot.com

Tell all your methods friends about it so that they can kick some ass too in methods!

regards

David

How does Maths Methods Scale?

Raw Score	Scaled Score
	Further Maths	Maths Methods	Maths Methods (CAS)	Specialist Maths
30	28	37	37	40
35	33	41	42	45
40	38	45	46	49
45	44	48	48	52
50	50	50	50	55

These figures are only approximates, averaged out from the past 5 years!

VCE Maths Methods Exam details

You will have 2 Maths Methods exams.

The first one is a 1 hour exam consisting of a series of short answer questions (approx 10 questions for an overall 40 marks). This is a calculator free, reference free exam. It is worth 22% of your overall score for Maths Methods. Formula sheets will be provided to the students in the exam. This exam is on the 7th of Nov.

The second exam is a 2 hour calculator allowed, reference allowed exam. This exam consists of a series of multiple choice and extended response analysis type questions (approx 22 MCQ and 4 analysis type questions for a total of 80 marks). This exam is worth 44% of your overall score for Maths Methods. This exam is on the 10th of Nov.

Maths Methods bound references…allowed or not?

You are only allowed ONE bound set of notes to take into the particular exams.

They can be your own prepared bound notes or they can be your text book, as long as they follow these rules:

-The notes are securely and permanently bound.

-The notes must be in a book format of A4 size or smaller when closed.

-All the reference materials must be within one bound book, but there is no page limit.

-Materials must be held together via a single horizontal and vertical spine.

-All pages must be bound and securely attached to the spine. Pages must not be able to be detached from the bound book during the exam.

The following forms of binding are not acceptable:

-clips, clamps holding loose pages together

-ring binder folder

-plastic slips which allows pages to be inserted and removed

-any kind of device which allows notes to be detached (post it notes, removable tabs)

-Foldouts.

If one or more pages can be or are detached from the reference materials, the entire Reference Materials will be confiscated by the examination supervisor, and the incident will be reported to the VCAA as a breach or rules.

Some accepted forms of Reference Materials:

-an exercise book

-securely bound note pad

-text book

A few tips on creating better reference materials…

-You can make your references easy to find with colour coding and cutting or folding edges or corners.

-You are allowed to insert colour dividers

-Make things easy to find, write an index or overview to help you find partiular topics or chapters, and number your pages.

Maths Methods exam 2: Tips for bound references

- Make sure you are absolutely familiar with it! Much preferred if you designed and wrote the whole thing!

- Keep it all simple! If it is complicated, then chances are, you won’t be able to understand it in the exam anyway!

- Know where things are! Keep a contents page at the front, colour code the pages, colour code examples vs theory. Also having a page divider to separate different sections is a great idea!

- Make the more important things BIG! And less important things neatly set out.

- Keep similar chapters and connected ideas together, so you can easily relate back and forth.

- Examples are a great way to trigger memory of how to do a particular problem! But make sure you set it out neatly and clearly, or else you might just confuse yourself. Always put examples right after the theory you just covered.

- Get into the mindset of not relying on the reference material, but it’s just there when you absolutely need it. It takes much less time in the exam, if you understand the question and know how to approach it then flickering through your references finding a solution to your problem.

- And don’t forget, if it’s a indefinite integral, put a +c on the end!

Tips on preparing for Maths Methods exams!

-Do a few practise exams early on, to identify your strengths and weaknesses.

-When you realise what particular areas you are weak in, focus on these areas by doing lots of Checkpoints + NEAP etc. exam type questions.

-Draw up a check list of everything you need to cover. The main sections of methods are:

-Algebra

-Graphs and Transformation

-Calculus

-Probability

-Devote more time to doing larger, more predictable questions first, such as equations of tangent and normal, max/min questions, solving trig equations etc.

-Then when you have the bulk of the core ideas down pat, you can focus on smaller sections of the course, such as absolute functions, composite functions, binomial thoerum etc.

-For every question you encounter, ask yourself, how many ways can I solve this question? Most of the time, especially algebra, there are at least 3 different ways you can get to the answer. This way, it will force your brain to connect all these ideas together and able to integrate your understanding.

-Work through as many questions as it takes to get a good feel for the different types of questions that could possibly come up in the exams.

Probability (Normal) Tough Question 5

In a given manufacturing process, components are rejected if they have a particular
dimension greater than 60.4 mm or less than 59.7 mm. It is found that 3% are rejected as
being too large and 5% are rejected for being too small. Assume that the dimension is
normally distributed.

a. Find the mean and standard deviation of the distribution of the dimension, correct to
one decimal place.

b. Use the result of a to find the percentage of rejects if the limits for acceptance are
changed to 60.3 mm and 59.6 mm.

Probability (Normal) Standard Question 3

The hardness of a metal may be determined by impressing a hardened point into the surface of the metal and then measuring the depth of penetration of the point. Suppose that the hardness of a particular alloy is normally distributed with mean 70 and standard deviation 3.

a. If a specimen is acceptable only if its hardness is between 65 and 75, what is the
probability that a randomly chosen specimen has an acceptable hardness?

b. If the acceptable range of hardness was (70 − c, 70 + c), for what value of c would 95%
of all specimens have acceptable hardness?

c. If the acceptable range is the same as in a, and the hardness of each of 10 randomly
selected specimens is independently determined, what is the expected number of
acceptable specimens among the 10?

d. What is the probability that at most eight out of 10 independently selected specimens
have a hardness less than 73.84?

e. The profit on an acceptable specimen is $20.00, while unacceptable specimens result in
a loss of $5.00. If P dollars is the profit on a randomly selected specimen, find the mean
and variance of P.

Probability (Normal) Tough Question 4

Suppose that L, the useful life (in hours) of a fluorescent tube used for indoor gardening, is normally distributed with a mean of 600 and a standard deviation of 4. The fluorescent tubes are sold in boxes of 10. Find the probability that at least three of the tubes in a randomly selected box last longer than 605 hours.

Probability (Normal) Standard Question 2

The owner of a new van complained to the dealer that he was using, on average, 18 litres petrol to drive 100 km. The dealer pointed out that the 15 litres/100 km referred to in an advertisement was ‘just a guide and that actual consumption will vary’. Suppose that the distribution of fuel consumption for this make of van is normal with a mean of 15 litres/100 km and standard deviation 0.75 litres/100 km. 

a. How probable is a van that uses at least 18 litres/100 km?

b What does your answer to a suggest about the manufacturer’s claim?

c Find c1 and c2 such that the van’s fuel consumption is more than c1 but less than c2 a probability of 0.95.

Probability (Normal) Standard Question 1

Potatoes are delivered to a chip factory in semitrailer loads. A sample of 1 kg of the potatoes is chosen from each load and tested for starch content. From past experience it is known that the starch content is normally distributed with a standard deviation 2.1.

If the starch content is greater than 22.0 the potatoes cannot be used for chips, so the semitrailer load is rejected. What is the probability that a load with mean starch content of 18.0 will be rejected?

Probability (Normal) Tough Question 3

The strength of a certain fibre (fibre A) is normally distributed with mean of 45 and standard deviation of 6. The strength of another fibre (fibre B) is also normally distributed with mean of 53 and standard deviation of 5. Now to determine whether a piece of fibre is either A or B, the strength of it is tested. If the strength is lower than a specific value “m”, than it is an A fibre. All other cases would then be type B. For a piece of fibre to be misclassified, it must be in the wrong classification.

The question is, find the value of “m” for which the two probabilities of misclassification are equal!

Probability (Normal) Tough Question 2

The volume of Cola in a particular 350ml can is normally distributed. If there is more than a 5% chance of a can of Cola having less than 347ml, then a fine will be issued. The standard deviation for the amount of Cola in these cans is 2.3ml. The question is, what should the minimum target filling volume (Mean) be, provided that we don’t want any fines to be issued?

Probability (Normal) Tough question 1

The weight of all pugs is normally distributed. 13% of all pugs are under the weight of 7.46Kg, and 17% of all pugs are above the weight of 10.34Kg.

Find the mean, and standard deviation.