Exam Preparation Ideas

[IB SURVIVOR]

Guyz am a MAY 2010 IB student , I would like to hear from you guys about the following

1. how do you prepare for your school mathematics tests ?

2. Which Mathematics Book do you use ? --- I am a Math SL student so are using the Maths SL for IB Diploma Book

3. Any supplement items such as study guides that u find useful ?

4. Any techniques that you find boosting math's scores ?

[Chelleee]

1. how do you prepare for your school mathematics tests ?

uhhh listen in class and i've started doing at least 1 past paper every week now that finals are just round the corner

don't leave prep till the last minute, math is probably the only subject you CAN'T cram for

2. Which Mathematics Book do you use ?

i'm SL as well and i use HL & SL versions of 'Mathematics for the international student' from Haese & Harris Publications

SL tends you give you more examples/questions but HL questions are sometimes harder

3. Any supplement items such as study guides that u find useful ?

i haven't heard of a study guide for math but i use questionbanks

they're extremely useful when i just want to practice a certain section of the syllabus as opposed to digging through past papers to find particular questions

4. Any techniques that you find boosting math's scores ?

try hard to get good marks on your ia's (my aim was to get an average of 17 for both Type I and II - and i got it hope it doesn't get moderated down)

in general practice practice practice

there's no use just knowing the rules of you don't know how to use it

oh and figure out what rules are in the data booklet and which ones aint

eg. i use the HL rule to figure out nCr which obviously isn't in the data booklet

lastly, use a stopwatch when you do q's to give you some kinda idea of how much practice you need to do

good luck

[SharkSpider]

For math in IB, I'd strongly warn against using any of the official IB textbooks, because unlike the physics ones, they're inefficient and written in a way that would end up teaching you math like you'd be taught a science course, not good. Generally, for the calculus parts of IB math, you'll want a real calculus textbook. The one I used in HL (and consequently, the one that's used in first year and second year university courses here) is Stewart's textbook (preferrably an early transendentals version, it's better to learn that way, IMO). A PDF is available via torrent, if you look, or if you can't find it I don't mind .rar-ing up a textbook and posting it here. Seriously beats anything the official IB can come up with, and it's conveniently organized in chapters 10 and 11 if you're doing the DEs and infinite sequences/series option in HL.

As far as studying for IB goes, practice problems and past exams are definitely the #1 way to score high marks in math and sci courses.

[Lex@]

Guyz am a MAY 2010 IB student , I would like to hear from you guys about the following

1. how do you prepare for your school mathematics tests ?

Preparation

1) make notes of basic maths rules

2) learn those rules and formulas

3) practice hard questions from text book

4) practice past papers questions

5) get your 7 in maths exam))))

Edited October 14, 2009 by Lex@

[chrypton]

The best advice I can give you is to do LOADS of past paper questions! You will be able to work much faster on the exam when you know how much is required of you for each problem. Also, always check the mark-scheme thoroughly when checking your answers, to see if you left out something or not.