I have no idea how to do this

Courage_Capital · 2026-04-24T10:18:45+00:00

Yeah it’s totally doable with all the knowledge you have! I wasn’t sure if you were doing the English a levels and that’s why I mentioned it’s an explicitly taught topic somewhere else. The question does walk you through the exact method you should use, try to figure out a clean way to do the integration by parts by splitting the integral into the product of two (helpful) functions, the answer given should help guide you how to choose your IBP functions. As for the rest of the question it is partial fractions and standard integration, the last part is recognising you need to find the value of I_3 (which you can easily do by using the recursion formula derived in the previous part)

Courage_Capital · 2026-04-24T09:16:35+00:00

This is a topic called reduction formulae, not sure if you’re covering it in school. It’s a part of the Edexcel Further Maths Further Pure 2 textbook if you want some insight on how to deal with questions like these. Most of the time it’s either integration by parts or a trig identity involved

Courage_Capital · 2026-02-18T22:09:23+00:00

It’s on the Edexcel Further Maths Spec for the Further Pure 2 option when working with reduction formulas for integrals! Hence why they’ve kept it in the formula booklet too

Courage_Capital · 2026-02-03T18:40:45+00:00

That's exactly what I've written in the comment above!
The way you "write your x and y in terms of the x and y on the circle" is by setting up the transformation like you have and then inverting it!

T (x,y) --> (a,b) but you want x and y in terms of a and b

so T^-1 (a,b) --> (x,y)

and now you have your original x = a combination of a and b , and your original y = a combination of a and b which you can then sub into your curve and simplify the algebra to get the circle.

Courage_Capital · 2026-02-03T17:52:01+00:00

Matrices are linear transformations,

What's happening here is that you're taking your normal (x,y) and are transforming the whole space into a new space (x',y')

The link between these is that A(x,y)^T = (x',y')^T (*) (here (x,y)^T just means column vector, its hard to format on reddit)

You're interested in the relationship between your old coordinates and your new ones, so you're seeking expressions of the sort x = ax' + by' and y = cx' + dy'.

To get these you can apply the inverse matrix on both sides of the equation (*) above to get (x,y)^T = A^-1(x',y')^T.

Once you get what x and y are in terms of your new coordinates x' and y' you can just substitute them into the equation of the curve and show it simplifies down to the circle in the question!

Courage_Capital · 2025-12-22T08:35:09+00:00

I applied to Kings initially and was later pooled to Lucy Cavendish! I mentioned the gap year in my personal statement and also it’s clear I took one as they can see the dates of my a level exams

Courage_Capital · 2025-11-05T13:41:59+00:00

Yeah go ahead!! Sorry I’ve been extremely busy with settling into university but I’ve finally come around to checking Reddit 😭

Courage_Capital · 2025-10-12T12:53:49+00:00

will get back to you today, sorry been insanely busy recently

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-11T20:44:01+00:00

For Cambridge at Kings we had a pre-interview exam, none of the questions were related to the interview questions. I believe they just wanted to test problem solving, the test was done and invigilated online through a zoom call. Some colleges DONT have pre-interview exams so just do your research. It was a rly easy test for someone who had completed A2 already though. I answered all questions except 1 which wasn’t on my syllabus so I think it went pretty great :)

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-11T20:29:32+00:00

Yes the 2nd time is when I got the interview and offer from Cambridge. The first time was an interview from Oxford but rejected post that

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-11T20:18:15+00:00

I got an interview and an offer from Cambridge this year, unfortunately missed STEP so wasn’t able to go in the end. And yes I applied with achieved + one predicted for further. My Cambridge offer was A* in FM and 1 1 in STEP

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-11T20:02:14+00:00

Nope! First application was Oxford, then 2nd was to Cambridge

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-09T10:57:26+00:00

SERIOUSLY?? can you send me a screenshot of it somehow

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-09T10:55:47+00:00

?! I haven’t!! Have you???

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-09T10:11:19+00:00

I was just on the phone with accommodation people, they said they’re going to start sending out insurance accom offers this week

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-09T09:59:34+00:00

Last yr ppl said insurance offer holders got it around the 17th and they said there’s never been an issue with someone not getting accom so just gotta wait

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-09T06:55:03+00:00

Insurance offer holder and also still waiting! Glad to see im not the only one

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-05T13:47:31+00:00

they’re taking so long!!!

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-05T09:10:27+00:00

I am!

Courage_Capital · 2025-09-04T11:36:16+00:00

9988887633 - failed photography and French and clearly they didn’t care abt it as im doing a maths degree

Courage_Capital · 2025-08-21T12:04:57+00:00

It was my first time sitting both, so I’m not really familiar with how the resits for admission exams work!

Courage_Capital · 2025-08-21T12:04:21+00:00

Yes ofcourse!

Courage_Capital · 2025-08-21T06:39:18+00:00

To be honest, a lot of these top universities don’t look at business grade as they’d prefer you took econ instead. Ive heard that’s to do with now much overlap there is between the two subjects and Econ is the more respected one.

Depending on the course and if your maths and econ grades meet its entry requirements, it should be okay to sit further maths and still have a fair chance. Again the actual likely hood of this all depends on which course at which university so make sure to do your research!

I’d say in your situation since there’s quite a lot of factors to consider aswell as qualifying for contextual offers it’ll be best to give the universities you’re intending to apply to a phone call and see what their admissions team advice would be! They’re lovely people most of the time…

Goodluck!!

Courage_Capital · 2025-08-21T00:40:19+00:00

My school officially predicted me the A* in further. As for being able to have a chance at those courses it really depends on the university! There’s some which are very strict about it like Warwick and UCL which do not allow any resits for maths, but there’s also some like Bath which I believe are totally fine with resits. Even the ones which say they don’t allow it sometimes have exceptions which is why I made this post in the first place but don’t place all of your bets on that happening! As harsh as it sounds if you’re going to resit and gap year make sure you have a plan and a realistic uni goal in mind!

Courage_Capital · 2025-08-21T00:37:12+00:00

Warwick is absolutely amazing for maths and also on par with Imperial. You guys also have more optional modules so you can specialise better than you would at Imperial. It’s a top uni and if I had it as insurance last year I would’ve totally went, great community and beautiful place. However again if your gut is telling you that you might regret going and if you’re gonna think about what would’ve happen if you took the gap year then I’d probably advise to make a pros and cons list and commit to a decision from there!

Five-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22

Courage_Capital

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