The Higher Maths exam took place today, and the exam papers are now available to view online here:
Paper 1:
Use this space to discuss the exam, answers, solutions, worries if necessary etc.
The dreaded answers (thanks to Invergordon Academy) are available below:
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Question 12 on Paper 1 is incorrect. You have missed a negative sign. It should be answer C silly!
Yeah I noticed that too. Looks like they’ve re-done some of the questions now.
ugh those answers make me feel horrible
so hopefully ill get soome marks (:
i have like none of thoose answers
Although i have the basic working
x
Do you think they will lower the boundaries for an A and and A band 1, because it was such a difficult paper compared to others. What is the usual cut off for an A band 1?
I think the solution to 7b is flawed as they have assumed a right angle where i dont think you can!
I walked this if the answers are right
Wow i didnt think ther would be people out there that post these things online, thanks i forgot to take paper 1 home, cheers.
The cut off for an A last year was 78% but last year was an easier paper… It’s not unheard of for the pass marl to be lowered significantly and it was done in english a few years ago - by about 15% i think.
what do you think the percentage would be for an A this year, considering how hard everybody found paper 2
according to the head of maths at my school, paper one was pretty reasonable, but paper two was difficuly so the pass mark should be lowered between 5 and 10% he says. I think this would make the A pass mark between 60 & 65%, with your A band one then being between 75 and 80%
personally but i found paper two quite easy, i’m rubbish at maths but everything i could do came up, no optimization haha (L)
gillian, it shows u on 7b the triangle is right angled, as a the rectangle to the right as two right angle sides, obviously this is the same line/vector.
5 and 10 % ?
i hope your right, i got an A for my prelims but the only way im getting an A for the real exam is if it comes down quite a bit.
wow thanks for putting these answers up. i think i got about 65% give or take depending on how generous the marker will be for giving certain marks. i realllllly hope the A pass mark gets down that much, i kindaa doubt it, but it would be great so im keeping my fingers crossed.
oh nooo, i think paper 2 may have brought my marks right down!
The higher pass marks for Maths have been consistent for a few years and looking at both papers, this years paper isn’t significantly more difficult than previous ones. I would think the pass mark for a grade A will remain around 100 marks. B is usually in the mid 80s with a grade C in the mid 60s. In particular, the format of paper 2 is very similar to 2008 with a heavy emphasis on A/B questions at the end.
The only slight concern is the integration (paper 2 Q5) where an incorrect answer in part (a) can make parts (b) and (c) significantly more difficult. Also, the graph for that question is rather confusing which makes it more likely that a small mistake may occur in the first part. If this is a problem for a majority of candidates it might affect the pass marks, but I wouldn’t expect much of a drop.
Question 7(b)
I think there is a flaw in the first part. Here’s an alternative solution which skips all the vector geometry and goes straight for the algebra.
|q + r| = sqrt((q + r).(q + r))
= sqrt(q.q + 2q.r + r.r)
= sqrt(|q|² + 2|q||r|cos120 + |r||r|)
= sqrt(3² + 2×4x(3/2)x(-1/2) + (3/2)²)
= sqrt(21/4)
= sqrt(21)/2
I could have made a mistake with that, but I think the working’s sound.
Do use seriously think that the pass mark will be brought down? because i think i got around 42% and i would need that too pass man. i mucked up the objective questions, stupid mistakesi done! and annoyed with myself, i reaslised this when i went over it and obviously i just rushed into doing them. What do you’s think the pass mark will be? Reamin the same, or drop to what :/?
I think that in comparison to the past papers this year was much harder. Most of the questions not even having the same format as in previous papers, like no optimisation question and overall more “problem solving” questions. So I think that the pass mark will be lowered as there are some articles around the web that suggest this.
I thought the majority of paper 1 was pretty straight forward as the majority of the questions were similar to past paper questions. However certain aspects of paper 2 were trickier Q 1-6 were all Ok but Q7 was a real stinker of a question. i went over paper 1 with my teacher and we think ive got 20/20 but ive definately got Q7b wrong. Oh well.. fingers crossed 4 an A (1)
I though Higher paper 2 was ridiculous! It was tooo difficult, page one was OK but the back page, I honestly dont know if I got any. I though half marks 50% would be enough to get a pass (C) but now people are saying its in the mid 60’s, I know Ive NOT got that. Ive heard theve significantly lowered the pass marks…does anyone know what they are?
The head of maths at my school marks for the sqa and this year he was marking papers from a private school where the majority of the pupils get around 90%. This year however they were only getting asround 65-70%
He thinks the pass mark will be lowered by about 10% Hopefully this happens! x
Mr Pritchard, you have substituted 4 for magnitude of q, instead of 3, in the 4th line. If you use 3, it gives the same answer as Invergordon Academy, i.e. 3root3over2. Good alternative though, I hadn’t thought of doing it that way.