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Why are textbook questions so much easier than actual exam questions? (1 Viewer)

Interdice

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I was looking at some vector questions in the pearson textbook and they were a piece of cake. Did some HSC questions that were actually difficult.

Why?

Also some vector questions would be niceeee.
 

Interdice

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Haha, I get that sentiment, but why can't the textbook authors just include harder questions? I hate getting ass marks because of relying on the damn textbook. I don't want to search through 20 years worth of HSCs for questions that I find difficult to solve.

HSC questions are MUCH harder. And aren't properly taught. i go to a non selective though
 

Drongoski

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Yes. Why the heck did you not mention the actual textbook instead of mentioning the publisher. If you mentioned Cambridge, we all have a fair idea of which text you are referring to. Pearson??
 

Drongoski

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the exam writers just want you to SUFFER
anyways i think this is to differentiate students based on their abilities - like an E3 from an E4
By the way: it's "Dijkstra" (Edsger Dijkstra) rather than "djikstra". You are obviously a clever boy to be even aware of Dijkstra's algorithm.

There are lots of dykes in Holland. I suspect the "dijk"(pronounced 'dike') refers to these, as is the name of American actor, Dick van Dyke.
 
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Masaken

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Yes. Why the heck did you not mention the actual textbook instead of mentioning the publisher. If you mentioned Cambridge, we all have a fair idea of which text you are referring to. Pearson??
i think by pearson they mean fitzpatrick, if i recall correctly i think pearson is their publisher

I was looking at some vector questions in the pearson textbook and they were a piece of cake. Did some HSC questions that were actually difficult.

Why?

Also some vector questions would be niceeee.
if you want more vector questions that are harder, definitely take a look at cambridge's questions (especially the ones towards the end of the exercise in the development section), especially for applications of vectors and vector proofs
 

carrotsss

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Oh right, in that case I’d recommend doing some Cambridge but Cambridge vectors is also way too easy, if you can get one of those past hsc question books that would be much better
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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do terry lee then, not too hard but general difficulty of questions is greater than of cambridge
 

Masaken

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Oh right, in that case I’d recommend doing some Cambridge but Cambridge vectors is also way too easy, if you can get one of those past hsc question books that would be much better
i've got one of those (excel successone, got as a hand-me-down from a friend) but unfortunately they're not much help, since vectors was only added recently as part of the new syllabus and thus only the papers from 2020 onwards have them :(. excel specifically has replacement questions to compensate for the lack of newly introduced topics in the old syllabus papers but the vectors questions are pretty simple too. i'd suggest going through top schools' trial papers then maybe?

do terry lee then, not too hard but general difficulty of questions is greater than of cambridge
oh definitely, i like the geometric proofs questions but physical applications aren't in the new fundamentals book (they do intro to vectors in the first exercise, geometric proofs and applications in the second and projectile motion in the third, then the review exercise)
 

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