Hardest Section of Maths?

md99

....induction...

not including the line or circle, let's be honest about those two!

JC 2K3

The circle is one of the easiest questions on the HL course. It's one chapter, there's a severely restricted amount of questions they can ask.... The line, however can be quite difficult.

Nothing on the course is particularly hard until you get to part (c) of any question.

I voted algebra because that seems to present absolute bitches of part (c)s the most often.


Induction the hardest? All you do is follow a standard series of steps for any question(n=1 works, therefore n=k works so prove n=k+1 works, and considering the amount of questions they can ask is very restricted you've most likely done many very similar examples already) and you get the marks....

Nehpets

I said algebra too. But for me, sometimes I like some sections more than others and obviously they are easier then.. and then I'll start liking a different section etc etc

rjt

Depends completely on the person, and their own strengths/weaknesses. A lot of people have difficulty with induction for whatever reason (some never fully get their head around the basic concept, how is it a proof if we begin with an assumption? And then some people are just a bit weaker at manipulating expressions into the required form).

Coordinate geometry of a circle, as JC2K3 said, is pretty limited in available questions, but they can be messy and take longer than other sections. If you're prone to small mistakes, then you can quickly lose a lot of marks. I generally avoid it, because I'm more likely to make stupid mistakes in it, and because I think it's more time consuming, I lose time needed to check over it.

Algebra can either be very easy or very tough. It's a really quick section if you can do it well, but there is the odd messy question that could easily screw you in the exam.

Vectors is similar, it can be really nice or really awful. I really didn't like the DEB mock vector question this year, but a lot of the past paper questions are nice enough.

I always hated probability and was glad to skip that when I did my leaving. The rest was grand.

md99

I, too, hated the DEB Vectors question. Painful!!!

I find the Line and Circle quite easy though...

sternn

Induction by far, didnt even attempt that question in the mocks and wont in the leaving cert. Trig is surprisingly easy, never revised it for the mocks and still managed to get 90 out of the 2 questions!

Steve01

Ah, the joy of ordinary level maths...

johnsheehy

OMG!!
Induction is what i would consider the easiest. I believe its down to the teacher, a bad teacher will make anything seem hard.
For me I dislike integration, probability is frustrating because you dont know if your right or not. circle and line are easy IMO,
Theres 2 types of maths students, paper 1 people and paper 2 people. I have always been a paper 2 person, I find i prefer everyday problems.

Mushy

I said Trig cos it comes up quite often in various things. Once I get up off my lazy arse, I'll study it properly and it'll all be good. Havent looked at the Line or Circle since last year, so when looked at it during the mocks, it was all a foreign language to me. Just need to keep working a small bit on the rest, cos they arent the hardest.

P.S. Havent done Induction or Further Calculus yet