LC Higher Level Maths, Is It Really THAT Hard?

Ally7

I'm kinda nervous about Honours Maths now, especially when so many people who did well in the JC find it difficult

B0X

The most important thing is doing the homework, especially in 5th year. Dont worry if you cant get the most difficult questions at first (i.e part c's) but make sure you can understand the theory behind what you're doing and why (You can't just learn reams of this stuff off like most other subjects!)

If you've done this, by the time you get to revising in 6th year you'll have a good foundation work from. I wasn't even particuarly good at maths but it becomes quite rewarding when you start figuring questions out for yourself.

Oh and get the papers early, maybe even one of those books which has the exam question on one page and methods on the other. They're mad helpful.

salthillman

B0X wrote: »

I wasn't even particuarly good at maths but it becomes quite rewarding when you start figuring questions out for yourself.

Ya, that sense of figuring out a difficult question is veeeery satisfying!! Much more rewarding than in any other subject... Wish I experienced it more often!!

imp12

I got a B in my JC and my teacher told me I would struggle with HL leaving, but I litterally cruised through it! So, don't be put off by it!
In 5th and 6th year my friend and I sat next to each other at the back, we were both quicker learners than the rest of the class so we ould talk after finishing the q's which did make it more fun;) but it also was good competition cause we both got A's in all the class tests(very helpful, if your teachers not doing them do exam paper q's at home!)
I probably put less effort into maths than other subjects, cause I needed to! but I am confident I got A1's in maths and app.maths:D

coffeelover

Hi guys. I'm going into 5th year in sept and i don't know if i should do honours maths or not. I did it for the JC but I'd say I just about scraped a C. Should I give honours a go or am i wasting time that I could be using to focus on other subjects?

Patri

coffeelover wrote: »

Hi guys. I'm going into 5th year in sept and i don't know if i should do honours maths or not. I did it for the JC but I'd say I just about scraped a C. Should I give honours a go or am i wasting time that I could be using to focus on other subjects?

Give it your best shot is my advice. One of the best maths teachers in my area told me you can drop to pass anytime up to around the christmas of leaving cert. So give it a go, its tough at first anyway but make sure you get the homework done and you'll be sound.

i like pie

i got an A in the junior cert but found maths in 5th year very hard, a lot of people dropped to pass in 5th year especially when the maths got really tough! by summer of 5th year i had lost all hope of doing well in maths for the lc, i had gotten a D in the summer test after putting loads of hours in studying and doing homework!! but i'm so glad i didn't drop down! it's kinda hard to explain but everything came together for me around the pres! i found that i was panicking in tests when i came across a hard sum, having a chat with my teacher made me realise this, now i'm hoping for an A! try doing higher level at least until christmas of 6th year, then if you do drop down you'll have enough time to learn the pass course. good luck with it:)

coffeelover

Thanks guys. I'll give it a go and put in as much work as i can .

salthillman

Patri wrote: »

Give it your best shot is my advice. One of the best maths teachers in my area told me you can drop to pass anytime up to around the christmas of leaving cert. So give it a go, its tough at first anyway but make sure you get the homework done and you'll be sound.

You can drop to pass on the day if the exam if you want, or vice-versa - in any exam! I'd defo recommend doing it for 5th year cos then pass seems oh - so - easy!!

zoom!

All higher level maths seems difficult at the start. But if you keep at it and keeping doing questions over and over, you begin to notice patterns in questions and gain the ability to spot hints and ideas easier. Maths in essence is a skill. You don't really study it but rather practice...

Ruski

When you get your head around it, no.

Patri

salthillman wrote: »

You can drop to pass on the day if the exam if you want, or vice-versa - in any exam! I'd defo recommend doing it for 5th year cos then pass seems oh - so - easy!!

Ya but that would be silly without studying the course, whole different course!

Maybe_Memories

Patri wrote: »

Ya but that would be silly without studying the course, whole different course!

There's enough choice on the paper to be able to do enough on the OL paper if you drop down on the day.

coffeelover

Ya i'm going to stick at it for all of 5th year at least. I don't think i'd like to drop down to pass on the day though :rolleyes:

eoins23456

the key to doing well in higher level maths is exam papers.Do all the papers back as far as 1994.Then email examcraft and other mock paper companies for past maths mock papers.Alternatively ask your teacher for past papers.You will find questions in these that havent been asked before in detail.Also practise doing questions in more then one way.Find various ways of doing problems.Like in the circle using a geometric and an algebraic approach.The key is to be able to figure out what method to use and recall in your head when to use it.Be able to understand what your doing.Even if you dont know what to do if you see an awkward looking part c just think about if for a minute or two and make some sort of attempt.Do not leave out parts of the course.Also for the option question you could teach yourself further probability.It can be done much quicker then then the further series question imo.

Ally7

Will those old exam papers be any good to us now we're starting Project Maths?

i like pie

isn't there only a project maths paper 2 though at the moment? i don't think changes are being made to paper 1 until 2011, according to what i've heard, so yes you can still do the paper 1 q's for practice if this is true.

eoins23456

i mean if your going into sixth year now.The old exam papers would be good for the probability questions id say

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Patri wrote: »

Ya but that would be silly without studying the course, whole different course!

I never said you should! I was just telling him that he has the option of dropping down whenever he wants because some one else was implying that you can only drop down before Christmas:cool:

Depends whether or not you're good at Maths OP. I personally found it quite hard and its certainly difficult if you don't put in any work.

coffeelover

Deleted User wrote: »

Depends whether or not you're good at Maths OP. I personally found it quite hard and its certainly difficult if you don't put in any work.

Ya i found maths hard for the JC so to be honest i don't think i'll last long but i'm willing to put in the work :cool:

Patri

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

There's enough choice on the paper to be able to do enough on the OL paper if you drop down on the day.

Ya but after studying honours til that point I think it'd be thick. Dont get me wrong I only think that for maths really. Like you can get away with it with the languages.

Maybe_Memories

Patri wrote: »

Ya but after studying honours til that point I think it'd be thick. Dont get me wrong I only think that for maths really. Like you can get away with it with the languages.

Yeah, dropping down on the day is pointless, but still an option if someone is really doubtful of passing HL.

ClodaghJoan

not to be upsetting, but i got an A in JC honours maths, I then proceeded to fail every test of LC honours maths in 5th year. But definitely try it for at least a year, you won't know til you do it yourself

justniamh

junior cert honours maths is the same standard as leaving cert ordinary, so if you did well in junior cert, it means you'll hafta up your game and work harder for LC honours, but if you find it too hard you'll be absolutely fine for ordinary.

we didnt start looking at exam papers til 6th year, because a lot of the questions mix different topics together, like trigonometry is in nearly all of the Q's.. and at first i found it quite overwhelming coz it was the first time working with the papers. but plough on through and you should be fine. i got an A in junior cert, found it difficult to get B's in 5th year and ended up with an A2 in the leaving cert last week so its all about how much work ur willing to put in.

salthillman

Unless you like Maths and are good at it do not do HL

niamhocxox

Hey I got an A2 in maths this year and the only way I did, was by doing the exam papers over and over again and marking a question when I didnt get it out first time and then i'd try it again a few days later and mark it again if I made the same mistake......kept going till I could do em all. To be honest I loved maths though and it was the only sudject I genuinely enjoyed studying. You need a great teacher too in my opinion, if you wont have one it'll be tough. I can honestly say I couldnt have gotten an A without my teacher. I got an A in my JC but that is a huge cry away from the level of LC honours, trust me. Give it a go but be prepared to work hard. if you do, you'll be rewarded come next June. Best of Luck and let us know how you get on with it.

lctake2

if you are naturally amazing at it go for it. i'm naturally good at maths and never had major problems doing lc maths but compared to other subjects it's too time consuming to get an a so i dropped to pass as i had 7 higher level anyway. don't even consider jc maths as the same subject the level in standard is so diffrerent

partyatmygaff

It helps a great deal if you've an aptitude for maths. JC Maths you can get by fine on just doing your work and tidbits of study. Project maths looks like a cake walk though compared to what we're doing next year for the LC.