applied maths. alone?

smurphy11

just wondering if anyone thinks that it is possible to get an A1 in applied maths doing the subject completely on my own and getting very little or no grinds what so ever. im in 5th year now and am willing to do any amount of work to achieve my goals. also i am an A student in maths and physics, so what do you guys think?

ChemHickey

smurphy11 wrote: »

just wondering if anyone thinks that it is possible to get an A1 in applied maths doing the subject completely on my own and getting very little or no grinds what so ever. im in 5th year now and am willing to do any amount of work to achieve my goals. also i am an A student in maths and physics, so what do you guys think?

Anything in possible if you work at it. 5th year as in after TY or 5th year as in LC? Either way it is possible, the latter being more difficult.

One of the biggest regrets of my life was not doing Applied Maths for leaving cert!

smurphy11

ChemHickey wrote: »

Anything in possible if you work at it. 5th year as in after TY or 5th year as in LC? Either way it is possible, the latter being more difficult.

One of the biggest regrets of my life was not doing Applied Maths for leaving cert!

5th year as in doing lc in 2014, actually im repeating 5th year due to unforeseen circumstances last year (not a dosser), so basically all my other subjects are revision at this stage and just boring, so i need a challenge, anyone else who did applied maths alone?

spurious

I think if you're already doing HL Maths and Physics, it should be very do-able.
There may well be someone on your staff who is a qualified Applied Maths teacher, even if they are not currently teaching it. Ask and see if they can check some Applied Maths past questions for you.
Good luck with it.

Canard

People here have done it every year. People do it with a lot of subjects, economics and ag science being prime examples, but it's just less heard of with applied maths because not everyone is able for it. If you're good at maths and physics then there's no harm giving it a shot!

Peregrine

Thinking of doing that myself. While I have my Physics teacher (who's also a maths teacher) and my own Maths teacher to help me, neither of them know much about Applied.
Going to wait til Mid term and have a look around, apparently it's doable in 1 year and there's some overlap with HL Maths and Physics

Fresco_007

I'm a 6th year student and am doing applied maths. Find it tough to be honest, even with a great teacher and a class size of 4! Been doing it right through from the start of 5th year. I am doing ok in Higher maths and don't study physics (timtable complications in my school) but the other lads in my class say Applied Maths helps physics, not the usual 'Physics and higher maths help' - they're different subject and although some things do over-lap (differentiation mainly) they are very different. We've only covered 3 and a half questions in fifth year for the exam, you choose 6 to do from 10.

That's only my opinion and as I said, I'm not doing physics. All the best if you do it!

JackTheGrinder

Hey I am in the same boat but I am doing the lc this summer. I hope to get A1 in physics nd a1/a2 in maths, just wondering if I should take applied maths now or is it too late? Is there much else to learn outside of what is on the physics course and maths course? I hear there are a lot of choices on the paper, what questions are guaranteed each year does anyone know? Thanks

dropinthocean

smurphy11 wrote: »

just wondering if anyone thinks that it is possible to get an A1 in applied maths doing the subject completely on my own and getting very little or no grinds what so ever. im in 5th year now and am willing to do any amount of work to achieve my goals. also i am an A student in maths and physics, so what do you guys think?

I started teaching myself Applied Maths in October of 6th year and got an A2, an A1 in 2 years should be no problem OP :cool:

dropinthocean

JackTheGrinder wrote: »

Hey I am in the same boat but I am doing the lc this summer. I hope to get A1 in physics nd a1/a2 in maths, just wondering if I should take applied maths now or is it too late? Is there much else to learn outside of what is on the physics course and maths course? I hear there are a lot of choices on the paper, what questions are guaranteed each year does anyone know? Thanks

I started applied maths about this stage in 6th year. I got A1's in Maths and Physics, but tbh, if you don't look at applied maths, you'll definitely fail it. You need to actually buy the book and go through all the examples. I definitely recommend it, but there is a huge work commitment. (I did at least 2 hours of Applied maths every night in 6th year)
There is alot to learn, and some of the concepts are very difficult to grasp without help. I was lucky bc I was able to ask my physics teacher to help explain some of the concepts if I was really stuck, plus boards is of great help!
There are 10 questions on the paper and you have to answer 6, and generally there is little change in the questions from year to year. So, if you learn those 6 questions well, you'll probably be alright.

Its a very interesting and enjoyable subject, and very worthwile. Plus, I found myself getting alot better at physics and maths when I had tackled a few chapters of Applied maths.

Best of luck

ride-the-spiral

I won't say too much on it as I've answered this a few times now, but it is certainly possible as I got an A1 after doing it myself from 5th year. The best advice is to try and do as many problems from the book (presumably fundamental applied maths by Oliver Murphy) as you can, and once you've finished the topics do as many exam papers as you can. It would help if you had access to those before 2000.

Also, most people are pretty dead set on doing Q 1,2,3,4,5,10 but I always found Q 6,7,8 to be quite easy, and they overlap a good bit. If you have the time its well worth studying 8 or 9 topics as you could find some of the neglected ones come more naturally to you than the commonly answered questions.

mariecxx

my friend studied applied maths on her own... she was very determind and managed the A1 ... if u have an apptiude then go for it.. best of luck