A Level Maths Easter Revision

Ashbourne’s A level Maths Easter Revision courses run in morning or afternoon sessions over five days and are taught by a selection of Ashbourne tutors including longstanding members of staff.

Chella Nathan has a BSc in Maths and Physics and B.Eng and has been teaching for more than twenty years. Barry Rhule has a PhD in Physics and is a member of the London Mathematical Society. He has been teaching at the college for many years. Imran Shah also has more than 20 years of experience as well as a first class degree in Physics from Imperial College. He supervises Physics Faculty at Ashbourne and also oversees Lower Sixth Mathematics at Ashbourne. Sean Pillai is Deputy Head of Year 13 and a Personal Tutor at the college. He has a Masters degree with honours from the University of Warwick in Civil Engineering with Business Management and also oversees the Engineering Programme at Ashbourne. Seema Ali graduated from Durham University and had more than 30 years of experience teaching, including at prestigious schools St Paul’s Girls’ School, the City of London School for Girls and Queen’s College, before joining Ashbourne. Last year she led the Further Mathematicians at Ashbourne to a record 67% A*A grades in their A level exams. Rupinder Dhillon, a longstanding member of the department, is a graduate of Chemistry from Brunel and one of the most outstanding communicators of Mathematics it has been our pleasure to employ. Abdul Sami supports our outstanding Mathematic Olympians with supplementary classes in Mathematics and has a PhD in Mathematics from Imperial College. He taught at the Michigan State University for three years before joining the college.

Together this outstanding team helped our students to 60% A*A grades at A level in June 2018.

Timetable

What is covered in the Easter Revision course?

Ashbourne follows the Edexcel syllabus for and AS and A level Maths. We offer the modules outlined below.

Pure Maths year 1 (AS)

Powers, indices: the laws, solving simple equations in powers using prime factorisation. Surds and rationalising denominators.
Roots of quadratic equations: discriminants; completing the square; application to graphs of parabolas; condition for tangency when intersection straight lines
Inequalities: multiplying/dividing by negative numbers.
Straight lines
Transformation of graphs: translation, enlargement; f(x), kf(x), f(x+k), f(x) + k
The remainder theorem, integer and non-integer factors and roots
Mathematical proof
Logarithmic and exponential equations
The binomial theorem
Radian measure; sine and cosine rules; circle theorems
Equations of circles
Simple trigonometry: angles greater than ninety degrees, trigonometric equations; at least 2 solutions
Simple differentiation and integration: areas under curves, equations of tangents and normals, max/min problems
Vectors

Pure Maths year 2 (A2)

Partial fractions
Functions, range and domain with emphasis on logarithmic and exponential functions; inverse functions and graphs; modulus functions and further transformations
Arithmetic and geometric series, recurrence relations
Binomial expansions
Radians, arcs, segments and sectors
Secant, cosecant and cotangent, graphs and inverse functions
Trigonometric equations and identities, Rcos(x + a)
Parametric equationsand sketching curves
Differentiation, product, quotient and chain rule; implicit and parametric differentiation
Integrationpartial fractions, integration by parts, integration by substitution, reverse chain rule and functions of form f(ax+b); areas and trapezium rule
Vectors in 3 dimensions and application to mechanics
Approximation of roots,establishing integer bounds to roots; Newton-Rhapson method
Exponential and logarithms – growth and decay

Statistics and Mechanics year 1 (AS)

Statistics

Data, quantitative and qualitative, sampling, large data sets
Mean, median, mode; variance, standard deviation; quartiles and outliers
Box plots, histograms, cumulative frequencies
Correlation and regression
Probability, venn diagrams, tree diagrams
Mutually exclusive and independent events
Discrete random variables and binomial distribution
Hypothesis testing, one-tailed and two-tailed tests, critical region

Mechanics

Mathematical models in mechanics
Vectors, scalars, units
Constant acceleration and equations, vertical motion in gravity
Forces, F=ma, pulleys and connected particles
Variable acceleration, differentiation, integration and differential equations

Statistics and Mechanics year 2 (A2)

Statistics

Regression, correlation and hypothesis testing
Conditional probability
The normal distribution, hypothesis testing

Mechanics

Moments, equilibrium, centres of mass, tilting
Forces, components, friction, inclined plane
Projectiles
Statics, dynamics, connected particles
Vectors, projectiles, differentiating and integrating