Tips for Irish Ordinary Level Leaving Cert Mathematics Students

Examination Tips for Leaving Certificate Mathematics Ordinary Level Paper I and Paper II Jasper McEwan 1. Hopefully you sat the mock exams and have the results back. Practice using past examination papers, paying particular attention to the paper and the questions you scored worst in. 2. Get a goodnight sleep before the exam. Do not stay up all night cramming. 3. Learn off any necessary formulae well before exam and practice using them. 4. Arrive at the exam hall in good time to compose yourself. 5. Make sure you have all the necessary equipment including pens, pencils erasers, ruler, geometry set and calculator. 6. Use a calculator you are used to using. Do not borrow one or buy one just before the exam. 7. Do not panic. Treat this exam as a challenge. 8. Read the entire paper before you begin and make sure you understand the rules regarding which questions you should answer. This should take approximately 5 minutes. 9. Decide how much time you have for each question before exam. It should be approximately 24 minutes. 10. Decide which questions you will answer. Do your best question first, next best question second and so on. The mocks will give you a good idea of which questions you are best at. This should settle you down and get some marks under the belt. 11. Do not be distracted by others or how much writing they appear to be doing. Remember it’s about quality not quantity. 12. If you think you made a mistake, simply but a line through the work and continue. You may have been on the right track and could still get marks for the attempt. 13. Do not waste time with tippex. Do not even bring it into exam. It’s a waste of time. Marks are for effort and not neatness. Put line through incorrect work and continue. 14. Be familiar with the maths tables and know which formulae are in the tables and where. 15. Show all calculations and lay work out step by step even if the answer appears obvious. If you calculate in your head and put down an incorrect answer without the steps, you will receive zero marks. If you show the steps but still get wrong answer you could get 9 out of 10 (90%). 16. Write all steps in a logical order so that the corrector does not have to search all over the place for your work. 17. Show all rough work over to the right hand side of the paper. You could get marks for this so make sure the examiner can see it. 18. Write clearly allowing plenty of room between steps. 19. Always include the units such as cm, m2, €, km/hr etc. 20. Be careful with negative numbers. Know the rules of sign and take special care when putting a negative number into a formula that already contains a minus. E.g.: Formula: x – y = (when x = 3 and y = -2). Inserting the x and y values into the formula gives us, 3 --2 which becomes 3 + 2 = 5. 21. If the answer requires a rounding off to say, 2 places of decimals etc, you will lose marks if you do not do so or do so incorrectly. 22. Include graphs and diagrams where necessary. They can always help with a solution and may get you the attempt mark. 23. Statistical graphs and coordinate graphs should be done on graph paper for greater accuracy. 24. When taking readings from graphs, make sure to include the vertical and/or horizontal lines from the graph to the axis to show corrector how you reached your answer. 25. Use your calculator for difficult calculations and double-check everything. 26. Do not waste time with different colour pens or highlighters. 27. Do not write out the questions, even partially. You do not get any marks for this. If someone told you otherwise, they’re incorrect. 28. If you use your calculator indicate by putting (calc) on the paper where you do so. 29. Even when using your calculator for a series of calculations, still write down each step. You could still make a mistake and the steps may gain you marks. 30. Ensure that your answers are realistic. Don’t have silly mistakes like someone’s height is 3m or an average car journey of 300 km/hr. 31. Once the time allocated to each question elapses, move on even if you are not finished. Leave some space and come back to the question later if you have time. 32. It is far better to get the requisite number of questions attempted than to complete only half the questions. 33. Bring some sweets like glucose with you in case you need a sugar boost halfway through exam. 34. Even if you are not sure how to do a question, at least give it a go and try to at least get the attempt mark which is 1/3 of the marks for a step in the right direction. 35. Do not leave the examination early. There is barely enough time to complete the exam. There are always questions to check and to finish. How the examination is marked As a mathematics teacher with over 20 years experience I am always amazed by students who leave exams early, only attempt half the questions and report that they got 15% in their mocks. It is worth taking the time to look at how the exam is marked and planning your strategy around that. A correct answer will receive full marks. In the case of incorrect answers the examiner will subtract marks using a series of ‘slips’ and ‘blunders’. The examiner will check to see where the mistake was made and subtract 1 for a slip, a small error such as misreading a question or writing down the wrong sign. If the answer could have been correct otherwise a student could get 9 out of 10 provided they show all the steps. A blunder is a major mathematical error such as omitting something important or not knowing a formula. 3 marks are subtracted for each blunder. However the same error in the same section is penalised only once! If a student takes any step in the right direction of the answer, they will receive the attempt mark for that part of the question, no matter how many slips and blunders they make. The attempt mark is 1/3 of the marks for that section of the question. The attempt is the minimum mark you can get for a question provided you have taken one step in the right direction. Hence the worst mark any student should get is 33% and that is without completing one question, which is unlikely. There is no excuse for not getting at least 40%. Useful Websites http://www.teachnet.ie/resources/default.asp?NCID=275&RTID=3&RCID=66&RSI D=1 http://www.whyslopes.com http://www.purplemath.com http://www.skoool.ie/content_template.asp?id=3112