Mistake on exam formula sheet

A mistake was made on my exam formula sheet: Square brackets were missing around the Simpson’s and Trapezium rules for numerical integration. I (luckily) noticed this during the exam, and so my answer should still be correct.

It is a bit hard to see how NZQA could manage to screw up the formula sheet, though.

Exam over!

Thus endeth my first and last external exam of the year. I think I did farly well, hoping for a few Merits if I’m lucky. Still, can’t really know until results come out sometime next year. Now I can relax in the knowledge that I have NCEA Level 2.

Mathomatic: A computer algebra system that takes the drudge away

In my procrastinating, I have discovered Mathomatic. It is a handy tool for performing fairly simple algebraic manipulation, without having to dive into something like Octave. It can do simple integration and differentiation, and can be used to simplify algebraic expressions. Nifty!

It also does division of polynomials, one of the most boring and forgettable things in my calculus course.

If only Mathomatic was allowed in exams!

Studying for my Calculus exam

I’m off school today, studying for my Calculus exam, which is tomorrow. Huzzah for procrastination(hey, this is the only non-calculus tab I have open!). I’ve done two practice papers today, and got Merit on one and Achieved on the other.

Tomorrow, when I do my exam, I have 3 hours to get 4 papers done. The two practice ones I did today took up two hours in total. Hopefully I magically get faster by tomorrow. Two of the papers I have already done during the school year, so it doesn’t matter if I fail them. Not that I will, of course!

Ahh, it will be good to finish the course and get NCEA Level 2. Quite funny, that if I do Physics next year, I will know more about calculus than the Year 13’s doing the same course.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m on about, this is the New Zealand educational system. A concise explanation can be found here.