How To Get An A/A* In Coursework. (How to Cope with Coursework)

Member Name: cindy1

Product:	How to Cope with Coursework
Date:	12/03/01 (122 review reads)
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Advantages: Inside secrets

Disadvantages: Need to do a lot of work

Are you a mature student taking your Maths GCSE, or is your teenager taking this exam? If so read on.
Anybody will tell you that GCSE Maths coursework is the hardest subject to obtain an A/A* grade in.
I have many great tips to get that elusive grade.

1) Normally you will be presented with a relatively simple problem, such as finding the area and perimeter of a triangle. What you actually need to do is too use as many ways as possible to find the answer. Start off with the simple things like Pythagoras and the formula for finding the area of triangles. Then explore other ways e.g. a graph, trigonometry, Herons formula and even a ruler. Basically, anything you can think of.

2) You will normally be asked to investigate further, say the triangle is 3 by 4, take a number off each side and look for a pattern. Try to find the nth terms, remember this impresses examiners.

3) Finally, you will be asked to investigate further. What you need to do here is to find relevant related tasks. In this example you could investigate other 2D shapes and 3D shapes, use graph paper for the 3D shapes as it will look more impressive. You don't have to carry out the tasks, just write them down so the examiner knows you are aware of the possiblies.

Presentation and communicating.

You need to organise your coursework in a logical way. Make an index or contents so the examiner can pick and chose in a logical way.
Introduce how you are going to start the task.
Explain everything you are doing throughout.
Write up a conclusion, stating what you achieved and what you've discovered.
If you can write an appendix, this is an extra piece of work at the end of your folder. Here you can explore an unfamiliar area of maths, which is related to the original task. This will really express the examiners.

Lastly, you need to include work that is higher than GCSE to get an A*. A good A level site is scool.co.uk. This
site will give you loaded of ideas, and it's easy to follow. Alternately obtain a good A level book, such as the Longman or Letts series.

If your coursework is 2 or 3 pages long, you can't expect to get the top grades. As a rough guide my coursework was 34 pages long, and it had a 5 page appendix, for which I got an A*.

It is a lot of work, but it's worth it when you get your results. So GOOD LUCK!

I decided to write this piece because there are hardly any decent coursework books or websites. If I had followed advice from books and websites, I wouldn't have done so well, so I'd advice you to remember that most books are totally misleading, and don't really tell you the real story.

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