Review on 2016 O Level 4048 Math

Hi all

  Though I am not taking O Level anymore, I have heard from my juniors that this year's Math Paper was exceptionally hard, with the question on Peter and his Magazine Company?

  Yes, the paper for this year examination is exceptionally hard as compared to previous years. This is obvious due to the syllabus change. For those taking the paper, do you notice that many questions are based on 'Explain' or 'Suggest'? That is because for this new syllabus, the percentage of marks that is allocated to reasoning and justification doubled compared to Syllabus 4016, which mainly focused on knowledge usage.

  I used 2 hours 12 mins to finish the paper, which is much longer than the usual 1 hr 30 min that I had used last year. I scored  87/100 for the paper, excluding the possible marks lost by Presentation and Units. This shows the level of thinking and processing time needed for the new syllabus.
I used 45 mins for the Peter questions due to the many minute details of the questions that need to be processed in order to gain the correct answer. The correct answer of that question is within the range of $9.22 to $20.

  Apart from that, I have noticed that the new syllabus like to merge topics together in the questions. For example Q8 required knowledge of both Trigonometry and Volume to gain the correct answer. This is an eye opener of what the new syllabus perceives students to do, which is to emphasise on Application.

Advice to Current O Level students
DO NOT LOSE HEART JUST BECAUSE OF E MATH! They are merely trying to scare you! Don't fall to that temptation to give up just yet. Once you hand up the Science MCQ PMCAS, then you can Sever ties with O Level all you want... This is not quite the time for these thoughts yet!'n
Advice to Secondary 3 2016
If you are weak in our foundation for either topics in the syllabus, use this December Holidays to work on your foundation. You WILL NOT score well if you continue to be weak on your foundation, with thoughts of the 10 Mark Application Question I the new syllabus!

  Go on! Push it!

Ordinary Student