Was about to mention that. I did the C1, C2 and S1 modules this year. Not sure whether I should do S2 or D1... choices, I have to pick them in about 10hours time.
A Level maths.
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Was about to mention that. I did the C1, C2 and S1 modules this year. Not sure whether I should do S2 or D1... choices, I have to pick them in about 10hours time.
Dude, forget what everyone says; Mechanics is extremely easy. You'll be board to tears doing stats. Trust me.
I did C1, C2, C3, C4 and M1 and M2.
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That's what I did for my A-level! Mechanics is easy if you get it first time, but I know it takes some people a while to grasp some of the things you're taught.
dante6491 said:
I've heard S2 is pretty difficult but I've got no idea really. D1 is alright but you've got to follow really strict algorithms and rules and write down exactly what they want you to. It's not too hard though if you're good at remembering instructions.
I was under the impression though, that for your A2 you had to pick the applied module that followed the module you did the year previous? So if you did S1 first year, you had to do S2 second year. I could be wrong though.
Associate
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Mechanics F.T.W! I think you can do different applied modules in As and A2, i know a few people who did S1 and D1. Probably just depends if the school has enough teachers.
I did Maths + Stats. The stats was, for the most part, inconceivably dull. Most lessons seemed to revolve in some way around entering implausible data series into a calculator and writing down averages, correlation coefficients, etc. It's also pretty easy. I only really did it because Maths wasn't my strongest subject and it was a lot easier than mechanics. When it came to the later core modules, though, the people who'd already done a lot of calculus in Mech had a big advantage, where my Stats was pretty much useless.
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D1 is ridiculously easy! But also very boring. But as you've already done S1, S2 should also be ok.
Also, can anyone outline what the major areas of study are in each topic (what I'm going to be doing In pure, In stats & In Mech)
Thanks
http://mathsnet.net/
Brilliant website. Helped me through my a-levels. Shame its become subscription based now, but It will still outline what is on the course, but a lot of the example questions now require a login.
EDIT: As this seems to be a bit of a 'list what you did thread', I did C1-4, M1, S1. S1 was a joke. Easiest exam I've ever done.
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i did A levels in maths, further maths, physics and computing last year (ABBA, oh my god my grades spell abba), doing the following maths modules;
Core 1-4
Further Pure 1,2 and 4
Mechanics 1 and 2
Decision 1 and 2
Stats 1
mechanics is far more interesting than stats and decision. decision is very easy, but is actually that boring id would have more fun watching paint dry (not even a joke) and its actually not much use as computers are used to do all the algorithms these days, so unless you want to learn about algorithms (usefull for computing) or need to do it to get enough modules, dont do decision. all the while your learning it your thinking "a computer can do this in 0.00001 seconds, why am i doing it"
stats almost reaches that level of boredom too, but might actually be usefull, so its bearable, i didnt do stats 2 so dont know how hard it is, but it has to be harder than decision 2, so you can go for the easy (extremely) dull one or the harder but still dull and more usefull one
id try stick to core, pure and mechanics. unless you need the others for what you plan to do in the future.
Core 1-4
Further Pure 1,2 and 4
Mechanics 1 and 2
Decision 1 and 2
Stats 1
mechanics is far more interesting than stats and decision. decision is very easy, but is actually that boring id would have more fun watching paint dry (not even a joke) and its actually not much use as computers are used to do all the algorithms these days, so unless you want to learn about algorithms (usefull for computing) or need to do it to get enough modules, dont do decision. all the while your learning it your thinking "a computer can do this in 0.00001 seconds, why am i doing it"
stats almost reaches that level of boredom too, but might actually be usefull, so its bearable, i didnt do stats 2 so dont know how hard it is, but it has to be harder than decision 2, so you can go for the easy (extremely) dull one or the harder but still dull and more usefull one
id try stick to core, pure and mechanics. unless you need the others for what you plan to do in the future.
When I did my A-levels (2002) we did P1-P4, M1 and S1.
I wasn't a big fan of mechanics but found stats quite easy and also liked doing pure.
In Further Maths, one of the modules was Discrete maths. Has this now been replaced by Decision?
I wasn't a big fan of mechanics but found stats quite easy and also liked doing pure.
In Further Maths, one of the modules was Discrete maths. Has this now been replaced by Decision?
was it full of algorithms for shortest routes/smallest amounts and stuff like that?
It was a while ago now but think you may be right about that. Think it also included things on logical reasoning and set theory.
I did Pure and Stats 16 years ago or so. I actually found the stats part of it quite interesting though I'm afraid I can't remember enough about it to say why. I also did Psychology A-Level which has a lot of stats in it as well, so it was pretty useful. I suspect both stats and mechanics will have some value to you, depending on your employment aspirations. You'll obviously want mechanics if you plan to become an engineer, for example.
yea probably a similar thing.
id have a look at what your planning on doing in the future, then if still not sure, have a look in the textbooks, see which you like the look of, and go for it
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Like everyone's been saying, pick the modules which most suit the kind of career you want to go into in the future. If it was me I'd just pick mechanics no matter what, because with most people believing it to be the hardest of the three, a university is more likely to give you a place on a course if you've done (and passed) the most difficult module.
/OT
I think Taz should go to Manchester uni instead of Warwick, because all the cool people go to Manchester uni.
/OT
I think Taz should go to Manchester uni instead of Warwick, because all the cool people go to Manchester uni.
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I did 3 Pure, 2 Stats and 1 Decision.
Pure 1 is easy, Pure 3 is hard, Stats is simple.
Pure 1 is easy, Pure 3 is hard, Stats is simple.
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