Andrew's Guide to IB Mathematics Universe

Survival Papers (AdventurousAndrew and christina77) Survival Papers focus on the core topics that we consider crucial for a grade (level) 5 student. If you're consistently smashing these papers, getting a 5 on the real exam should be relatively straightforward. Papers 1A , 1B , 1C , 1D and 2A are available at the moment with the respective markschemes and scoring guides.   The Survival Guide will be posted in late April. Booster Papers Less straightforward than Survival Papers, more manageable than a typical Andrew's mock exam, hopefully on par with a typical past paper: here you go! Unit Tests Quadratics Trig relationships Sequences and series Intro to probability Probability distributions

Trigonometry. Is. Back. Two unit tests, AASL and AAHL, on trigonometric identities!! If you’ve been here for any amount of time you know that I am obsessed with disgusting-looking trigonometric equations. I’m happy to report that a couple more nasty trig equations are on the way!   Advice for AAHL students who are not aiming for 7: do not bother attempting every questions, you will run out of time.   AASL: (30 minutes, 4 questions)   AASL MS:   AAHL: (1 hour, 2 sections, 12 questions – very long )   AAHL MS:   It’s been a while since I posted my three booklets on trigonometric functions and identities – go to Triangles become Circles page for more details!   Have a wonderful week. C:   Andrew    

 Hey y’all! Sorry for the rather long pause – last week we didn’t have any wifi at my place!   Today I’m back with Survival Paper 2A! Different structure, same predictable questions. Just as Survival Papers 1A-1D cover Paper 1-style questions, Survival Papers 2’s will give you some practice on key Paper 2-style questions.   Without any further ado, here we go!   AISL Survival Paper 2A:   AISL Survival Paper 2A MS:   AISL Survival Paper 2A Scoring Guide:     P.S: The Survival Guide for AISL shall be posted around 20 April. Similar to Survival Guide AASL, it is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all topics, but merely a checklist to see if you’re on track to a 4.   Have fun with maths!   Andrew

Hi y’all! After letting AISL take the stage for the previous month, today I am back with something I’m a little better at: writing AA trigonometry tests.   We’re currently doing trigonometric equations with my students and I thought there’s no better time to start a brand new AA unit tests than this. Welcome back to v2.2 of Trigonometric Quartet!   Let’s kick this off with trigonometric functions test. As usual, both versions have more than half of the questions in common, but of course there are more challenges on the AAHL version as you guys are ready to take on even more maths!   AAHL Trig Functions v2.2:   AAHL Trig Functions v2.2 MS:   AASL Trig Functions v2.2:   AASL Trig Functions v2.2 MS:        

 Hey there peeps!   Sorry for the MIA. I know it’s an aspirational goal to post weekly (rather, to have time to write and post stuff weekly) and it was successful for exactly two weeks. ;p   Starting now, I’ll aim to post every other week. It’ll be a mix of + AI survival papers, as I’ve been neglecting y’all for too long + unit tests – that’s why most peeps are here in the first place! + updates on biannual mocks + insights on teaching.   Let me elaborate. Teaching is an experimental science. We all conduct experiments on our students to decide what works. A good teacher is one who can respond to the student(s) in front of them, giving every student the thing they need to succeed. I’ll document what worked well and what wasn’t so hot, what my expectations were and what the reality had to offer. Hopefully fellow teachers and tutors will find my two cents useful.   That being said, most of my audience are DP students, so I’ll keep it to once every month or two.

 2 nd post of the series! Andrew being consistent for once!   Hey y’all! Survival Paper 1B is out! Continuation of 1A, this is the practice you’re looking for if you’re struggling and you want an anchor to hold onto. 50 marks, 50 minutes, levels 1-5.   Some of you are wondering about the frequency of posting – WHAT IS UP with Andrew posting two weeks in a row. I’ll try my best (“endeavour”, for those who use fancy words) to post something weekly, whether it is a survival paper, a unit test, or some Challenge Questions (yes it is a spoiler, more details to come).   Without any further ado, here’s what you signed up for! Survival Paper:   Survival Paper MS:   Scoring Guide:     Happy 2024! C:

 Hey there hoomans!   Welcome to 2024. What better way to start the year than making up for the kiddos whom I’ve neglected over the last year or so: AISL! Can we have some drumrolls for… AISL Survival Papers!   With the collaboration of christina77, we’ve finally put together a couple survival papers for you guys. (It’s mostly her keeping me on my toes since last July :p) Predictable structure, predictable questions, predictable grades. Grinding all of them should give you the skills required to get a 4.   I’m aware that most questions on these papers don’t have a lot of words, and that’s because I’m a simple man. That means you’ll need to practise the art of filtering words in word problems on your own, either using your textbook or past papers. All roads lead to Rome; don’t take what I say as the answer to everything.   There will be five papers mimicking the style of paper 1 and three papers following the same style as paper 2. That’s only because it takes FOREVE

Hey there kiddos!   N23s, good job! Enjoy your break before uni starts!! M24s, be ready. Your school may have mocks around this time or early next year, this is the time to make a difference!   I just realised I have a couple flashy torture devices unit tests in my vault ready to go, and today let’s do a bit of vectors. QP: MS:      

Hey y'all! I've been pretty quiet lately - as predicted uni work really  caught up with me and I'm constantly running against the clock. This post is NOT intended for students. It's intended for teachers who are interested in different ways of thinking about summative  assessments as well as public examinations. We're going big here. That being said, I've finally finished reading one of my favourite papers from Dylan Wiliam, a key figure in assessment research, and spent a bit of time digesting what I've read. The paper is titled "Quality in assessment: The meaning and consequences of standards". It should be available for free, online, on Research Gate, but of course you can get your hands on it elsewhere. This is my first time sharing my research notes with y'all, so let me know how it goes. Instead of making this post dreadfully long, I've put the link to the google docs with the summary here . Enjoy! N23 students:  may the odds be ever

Hey y’all.   Just under 7 weeks and N23s are gonna take their final IB exams. Y’all are about to become members of the old people gang, congrats!   I noticed that I already posted Unit Tests v2 for all of trigonometry except trigonometric relationships, so now’s the time to correct that. As usual, there’s considerable challenge (I hope) at the top end, especially the time pressure, but students of all abilities have opportunities to show off what they know.   Some quick words before we get to the tests.   1) November 2023 mocks N23 mocks will be coming next weekend! Buckle up, we’re preparing for takeoff.   RShields is proofing the paper a 2 nd round before they’re sent off to y’all.   AASL, I think the papers reflect the difficulty of the actual papers. AAHL, they’re definitely on the harder end, especially Paper 3.   (Speaking of that I gotta start writing the MS too oop-)   2) Revision Sessions (on IB Discord) As exams are quick approaching we’ll be hosting some revision sessions