What do you think is the hardest section of the honours maths course?

I_ENJOY_BATHS

I was just wondering what people thought.

Canard

Algebra And consequently paper 1 in its entirety! That, or normal distribution, just havent gotten my head around them yet.

Vanilla_Ice

Binomial induction maybe

JonnyMcNamee

Integration and some sequence + series questions.. They can be fairly frustrating at times :pac:

Togepi

Algebra's a b*tch.

(And I used to love algebra.)

Wesc.

None of it :cool:

Eathrin

None of it's particularly difficult but there can sometimes be some tricky Differentiation/Integration questions.

Algebra:eek: Seriously?!....it's so straightforward, you can even check your answer when you're done:p. In diff/int you have no idea whether you're right or wrong.

Paper 2 doesn't seem as difficult as it was made out to be. Sure it's a complete and utter pile of shíte as an exam but it's not too demanding.

**Timbuk2**

Eathrin wrote: »

Algebra:eek: Seriously?!....it's so straightforward, you can even check your answer when you're done:p. In diff/int you have no idea whether you're right or wrong.

You can integrate back something you differentiated, or differentiate back something you've integrated, to see if you get the same*, and thus check if you are right.

*If you integrate back something you differentiate, your answer may differ by a constant because the derivative of a constant is 0, so if you integrate back you will have the definite integral +c (where c is a constant).

Sean.

I suppose none of it is "difficult". A better term would be "comprehensible". Maths is simply logic, you learn to understand a topic and then it's easy. Everything on the leaving cert maths course can be understood if the work is put in. The topics you find "difficult" are simply the topics you haven't looked at yet. I remember I used to look at the integration section of the paper and think "SHIIIIT!" but then we did that chapter in class and I realized all the answers were in the tables! If you're finding it particularly difficult to understand, look at the the tutorials on Engineers Ireland, they're slow paced and very easy to latch on to: http://steps.ie/maths/videos.aspx. To give you an answer to your question, I currently find geometry and proofs difficult, because I've never really looked over them. I'm sure however that if I do look over that chapter, in detail, it'll be just as handy as the rest of the course!

Eathrin

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

You can integrate back something you differentiated, or differentiate back something you've integrated, to see if you get the same*, and thus check if you are right.

*If you integrate back something you differentiate, your answer may differ by a constant because the derivative of a constant is 0, so if you integrate back you will have the definite integral +c (where c is a constant).

Yes for simple equations but not for definite integration!

finality

not a fan of theorems. Everything else is fun.

I_ENJOY_BATHS

So despite the poor new project maths system, would you guys say if I put a tonne of work in I would be able to achieve a high C or B in the Leaving? I got an A in my 5th year summer test but it was fairly straight forward with Geometry of the line, algebra and indices and log questions.

reznov

It is a complex task to identify what I feel is most difficult. All wounds heal with time is the saying which is applicable to all topics of Maths. Perhaps Probability for now!

Togepi

Eathrin wrote: »

Algebra:eek: Seriously?!....it's so straightforward, you can even check your answer when you're done:p. In diff/int you have no idea whether you're right or wrong.

In my mock I've estimated that I got about 10 marks between the two Algebra questions, so yeah 10% (feel free to laugh). :P

It's probably because I covered the whole Algebra part of the course in about four or five one-hour grinds, as opposed to six or seven weeks of daily classes. :cool:

And how in the name of jaysus do you check your answer?

ride-the-spiral

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

You can integrate back something you differentiated, or differentiate back something you've integrated, to see if you get the same*, and thus check if you are right.

*If you integrate back something you differentiate, your answer may differ by a constant because the derivative of a constant is 0, so if you integrate back you will have the definite integral +c (where c is a constant).

I never trusted my integration enough to check my differentiation answers doing that