trinity Posted November 26, 2016 Report Share Posted November 26, 2016 i struggled with grade 10 semester 1 SL maths, i want to be more prepared for grade 11 so that i achieve the grades i want. is there any tips on what i can be expecting for grade 11 and any tips on studying over the holidays. any help would be appreciated a lot! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theiblife Posted November 27, 2016 Report Share Posted November 27, 2016 Hi I personally think that SL maths isn't a big jump from grade 10 maths. I'm three months into IB and we have done functions, quadratics, and sequences, nothing too hard yet. I did the Canadian curriculum math challenge in grade 10 and I think that was harder than IB maths. What part of math are you struggling with? Understanding the concepts or the applications of the content and doing word problems? The basics of math still remain the same even in grade 11- in my opinion, you should review the parts of math you struggled with this semester and get a good grasp of them before moving onto any grade 11 maths because the concepts build on top of each other and if you don't understand one, it can be difficult to understand the other. I can only offer you some general tips because I don't know which part of the maths you are struggling in. Do all the practice problems you can get. Use resources like your textbook, questions you do in class, and try doing a google search for your topic to get some other problems as well. The questions in math might use different figures and different wording, but the main concept and how you apply it will remain the same across most problems. If you can expose yourself to as many types of questions there are for the topic, you guarantee yourself a higher mark because a) you will understand the problem on your test when you see it, and b) you will be able to solve it faster since you have already done some practice ones. Double-check all your answers. There are so many calculations to do in math- you are bound to make a few mistakes in copying over your answers from your calculator to the sheet, or silly mistakes like forgetting to add a negative sign. Leave some extra time at the end of the test to double-check you answers and, as mentioned below, make sure you are answering the question. I usually allow myself around 5-10 minutes to re-check longer problems. Make sure you are answering the question. This is by far the biggest mistake I made on my first IB math test. You will not get the A marks (answer marks) if your answer is not correct. If the question asks you to find the positive value of k, and you get, for example, -2 and 2, you must reject the negative value or you will not get all marks as you have not answered the question properly. Be strategic with the marks. In IB, there are marks for the correct method and the correct answer. This way, you will get the marks for using the right method to solve the problem even if your end result doesn't match the markscheme. Aim to get all the possible method marks at least, even if you cannot always get to the correct answer- this is where doing practice problems also comes in. You will be able to better apply the method to a problem if you have done similar ones before. If you really want to study early for SL maths, then you should start with the "easier" topics that carry directly over from grade 10 such as quadratics and sequences. I think after you have reviewed the harder topics from grade 10, you could start with sequences and series if you wanted to work ahead. The main concept is understanding patterns in sequences and series and then applying that knowledge to "real life" questions like compound interest problems and bouncing ball questions. Maybe a IB maths teacher could provide you with a textbook that you could use for understanding the course material- I use this one. Sorry about the long answer. I'm in IB SL Maths 11 right now and I've been trying to pull myself up from a 6 to a 7 by doing the same that I mentioned above. I hope this helps If you have any other questions, I'd be glad to help. 3 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
studying Posted November 28, 2016 Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 ^^ Those were really great tips! Math is one of my best subjects, and I just also wanted to add that when you do practice problems don't skip over you mistakes. If you finish a problem and see that you end up getting the wrong answer, highlight it right away. Then try to figure out why you got the wrong answer, and how to get the correct one. If you can't figure it out yourself, ask your math teacher after class or get one of your mathematically talented friends to explain it to you. Then after you understand, make explanatory notes for yourself that you can use to study before an exam. This might be really tedious if your someone who makes a lot of mistakes when you practice, but trust me- when you learn from your mistakes you improve so much faster!! Hope this made sense and helps you! Good luck 👍 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinity Posted November 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 thank you both so much for the tips!! they helped a lot! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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