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Mathematics HL: exam preperation, tips and tricks


Tiger

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I recently had my first HL mathematics mock exam on topic 1 of the curriculum. It followed the same pace and style of the final exams. Despite preparing pretty well (and for a long time), the test caught me by surprise, and didn't go well at all. The pace especially was very hard to keep up with. From all of you people, I'd like to ask, what are some ways to get better at doing the hl maths exams, how to better prepare for them, and please feel free to give any tips and tricks in general. Thanks!

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I left my first Math HL test feeling the same way about a month  ago, shocked about the difficulty of the questions and the pace. Now after the second test we did, I scored well!
What I am saying is its OK if you unperformed in the first test as it takes time to adapt to those IB questions but with time you will improve.

To improve study more at least 1-2hrs a day of math, answer all your questions from your textbook, answer all revision questions given by teacher, and do more questions using a questionbank. The questionbank really helps for adapting to these Ib questions, so get one! and just practice practice practice, with lots of practice you will improve.

 

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The first couple of tests are generally very difficult if you're not used to the style of the questions being asked (in my experience, textbook exercises rarely have many questions that are actually "HL questions").

Just keep practicing, and use question banks/questions from past papers.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would take a mixed approach to practicing questions. For example factoring: first do a lot of repetition of the problems of simple (Ax2+ Bx + C) types, then move on to IB questions do a few from each type, like say where instead of A, B, C being given values, it could be 2x2 + kx + 3 = 0 and find k such that it has 2 equal roots. You should both make sure that you can master the skill (IB questions often have you factor something as part of a longer question) as well as be prepared for the occasional trick questions IB may throw at you. So do not practice only the repetitive questions, or only IB questions. 

With the time you have, you should attempt as many challenging questions as you can, even if it takes more than 1 hour a problem. Once you know the general math technique, you should try as many challenging problems as you can. Also when you are learning a topic for the first time, you would rather do less problems completely/properly than more problems but just "thinking out the steps" and skim through. Use proper math notations and get used to writing in pen for the exam! 

 

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Not doing well in a math test always happens when one takes a really tough math course

exactly what happened last year for the highest level math class in my school.

Just saying now the class split in halves because this year they have even harder math 10101010!

Just don't worry about it, it was your first shot so now you know how the questions are.

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  • 5 months later...

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