Prep for Advanced Functions

[Cold Fire]

In Sept I will be in grade 12 and one of the courses that i know is going to drop my avg is Advanced functions I'm not strong in math and I have been so lazy this summer so i thought i better start thinking now

I want to teach myself during the the rest of summer break about Advanced Functions. My math teacher said they jammed 20% more content into the course >:( . I want to get a good head start. I plan on studying about 90min a day.

For the people on RFD that have taken the new Advanced Functions can you tell me how to prep myself for Advanced functions.

Thanks in Advance

[Rishi]

I haven't taken the course myself, but I'm familiar with the content from having tutored a MHF4U student last year. The course has these major units:

1. Polynomial Functions - factor theorem, remainder theorem, rational root theorem, long division. Learn synthetic division, it isn't in the curriculum but it will help you. Talk to the teacher to ensure you can get full marks for using it, though. This unit is ESSENTIAL as you will apply the concepts you learn here throughout the course to other types of functions.

2. Rational Functions - everything form polynomial functions + graphing. Asymptotes using basic limit work and domain restrictions. The graphing will be elementary as you don't know the calculus needed to do it the "real" way.

3. Log/exponential functions and inverse functions. Definition of an inverse, log laws (LEARN THESE), converting exp functions to log form and vice versa. Solving these functions.

4. Trig functions. Hardest unit, IMO. The unit circle and radians as a unit of measure. Solving trig equations and identities. PRACTICE IDENTITIES and ALWAYS triple check trig equations for restrictions. Learn all the tricks like adding 0 (something minus itself) or multiplying by 1 (something over itself). Your teacher may mix this with previous units by giving you, say, an log function with a trigonometric base.

5. Rates of change. Easy as hell, basically grade 9 number crunching. Don't worry about it.

If you fall behind you are screwed (since you are not strong in math) but if you learn the first concepts well you will be set. Watch out for the trig identities, this is toughest section of the course as it has little or no relation to what you've learned before and is vastly more complex than grade 11 trig.

[kenvin100]

I like your spirit, I reallly do..

I think the best advice i can give u is to perfect your math skills, more importantly factoring..there are new ways to factor equations in grade12..but its good if u can rly do the basics rly quick..

did u like transformations in gr11..if u didn, i suggest u change your mind, cause i'd say 20% of the course is transformations..

functions is easier than calculus..the only problem last school yr is that we had no books, which sucks (trust me, i feel 30% cause of that alone) You are safe though cause there are new books to support the new curriculum

best of luck in math, cause if u do drop math, you're literally dropping a whole ton of career choices...so if u do drop it, have a good back up career and follow it

[Sniper001]

I like your spirit, I reallly do..

I think the best advice i can give u is to perfect your math skills, more importantly factoring..there are new ways to factor equations in grade12..but its good if u can rly do the basics rly quick..

did u like transformations in gr11..if u didn, i suggest u change your mind, cause i'd say 20% of the course is transformations..

functions is easier than calculus..the only problem last school yr is that we had no books, which sucks (trust me, i feel 30% cause of that alone) You are safe though cause there are new books to support the new curriculum

best of luck in math, cause if u do drop math, you're literally dropping a whole ton of career choices...so if u do drop it, have a good back up career and follow it

Yeah, I heard about the new textbook coming out for upcoming grade 12's. Anybody know what its called? ISBN number or something?

[Rishi]

Yeah, I heard about the new textbook coming out for upcoming grade 12's. Anybody know what its called? ISBN number or something?
It will suck, every textbook used by Ontario schools in the last 10 years has sucked.

[Cold Fire]

Advanced Functions: http://k12.nelson.com/productpage.aspx?Isbn=0176374434

ISBN-13: 9780176374433
ISBN/ISSN: 0176374434

Calc & Vectors: http://k12.nelson.com/productpage.aspx?Isbn=0176374442

ISBN-13: 9780176374440
ISBN/ISSN: 0176374442


Good news Calc & Vectors book has 1-9 sample chapters

Bad news none for Advacnced Functions :(

[VmanAK47]

Last year I took both courses and it was supposbly harder then this year and it was actually really easy last year so don't worry :P I found 11 harder for some reason..

[kenvin100]

It will suck, every textbook used by Ontario schools in the last 10 years has sucked.

i rather have a book that has at least 500 pages with answers over getting 500 sheets of paper and losing them!

[Sniper001]

Advanced Functions: http://k12.nelson.com/productpage.aspx?Isbn=0176374434

ISBN-13: 9780176374433
ISBN/ISSN: 0176374434

Calc & Vectors: http://k12.nelson.com/productpage.aspx?Isbn=0176374442

ISBN-13: 9780176374440
ISBN/ISSN: 0176374442


Good news Calc & Vectors book has 1-9 sample chapters

Bad news none for Advacnced Functions :(

Thanks a lot, appreciate it. And yeah, I definetly have to agree with kenvin100 on that one. Ah well, I guess the best thing to do is just review what your notes + examples from grade 11 and ensure you keep up with the homework in grade 12.

[sweeper]

When do you have Advanced Functions? If your school is semestered you should consider taking it in your 2nd semester rather than your 1st if you are not confident.

That way you wont have to stress about doing so well on your exam as your Math grade will be final whereas if you took it in your 2nd semester it would be less stressful after you get accepted by your university of choice, although you should still be motivated to do well in your 2nd semester, the pressure is much less than in the 1st semester IMO.

[ben_liu]

Hey bro, don't stress over this, if the teacher is giving good notes/examples, you'll do fine... BTW, new books are finally out? YAY for the new grade 12's

[flash2008]

the course is pretty easy, but as mentioned make sure you know the first chapter thoroughly. Trig I found was the hardest unit for sure, but like with anything, just keep doing practice problems.

I loved calculus and did a lot better in that course then adv functions (more effort, i guess). I just found it easier cause its basically one concept applied to different equations. As long as you let yourself see everything as the same rather then getting spooked with ln, log, sin, cos, etc, you'll be fine.
Vectors screwed me over as my teacher rushed through it and I was never able to wrap my head around the concepts (although when I finally sat down to sort of understand it for the exams, it didn't seem that hard as long as you did the homework unlike me).

As for prepping, I wouldn't worry too much of the latter stuff, but, if you insist, practice factoring! (AND LEARN synthetic division, it'll come in handy both later in the course and in calculus)

[Cold Fire]

My School is semestered and the thing is I know I have Advanced Functions first Semester because if you are taking calc as well you need to do Advanced first>:(

At my school theres 3 math teachers one is ok and easy going, the other makes kids $h!t there pants and the final one is nice but rushes lessons

For grade 12 I took

Calc
Advanced functions
English
Accounting
World Business
Business leadership

My goal is to get into Wilfred BBA or UTSC Co-op Managment aiming for just under 90%:cheesygri

Grade 11 Trig was very easy IMO and factoring was not that bad

At my school last year was the first year and it went from only grade 9 to 11. This year is the first year with grade 12 also first graduating year:cheesygri So there nobody really knows how teachers are

Thanks for all help

[Dougmoto]

Advanced functions was mad easy... except i slacked off the start of the year. I think our entire mark was based on 8-9 Unit tests and a final.

Calc was a bit harder, imo. I had a good mark going into the final, and then it dropped 6%, because it was the end of the year and i didn't give a ****.

But it's good that you're getting textbooks. We did the whole curriculum with handouts and photocopies, and you had to make sure you REALLY understood the teacher.

[kenvin100]

When do you have Advanced Functions? If your school is semestered you should consider taking it in your 2nd semester rather than your 1st if you are not confident.

That way you wont have to stress about doing so well on your exam as your Math grade will be final whereas if you took it in your 2nd semester it would be less stressful after you get accepted by your university of choice, although you should still be motivated to do well in your 2nd semester, the pressure is much less than in the 1st semester IMO.

actualy u gotta take functions first, cause if u dont understand that, u cant do calc apparantly..i didnt get functions compeltely so that prolly explains my calc mark, but i admit i liked and did better in calculus..

[Sniper001]

actualy u gotta take functions first, cause if u dont understand that, u cant do calc apparantly..i didnt get functions compeltely so that prolly explains my calc mark, but i admit i liked and did better in calculus..
Not apparently... if you don't take advanced functions you CANNOT do calculus in school. Advanced Functions is a prerequisite to do calculus.

[sPiKyAZN]

Just keep up with homework and you'll be okay. Easier said than done though since it get get to be quite a lot at times.

Are you taking Calculus and Vectors? Calculus is pretty easy, taking derivatives gets very repetitive and once you've got the basics down its easy. Vectors is a massive pile of BS though, I found that the hardest math all year. If you're taking physics it helps a bit though. I guess I was just pissed off that I almost lost my scholarship and even my admission because of vectors despite the fact that it had absolutely no relevance to what I was going into (business).

[flash2008]

Just keep up with homework and you'll be okay. Easier said than done though since it get get to be quite a lot at times.

Are you taking Calculus and Vectors? Calculus is pretty easy, taking derivatives gets very repetitive and once you've got the basics down its easy. Vectors is a massive pile of BS though, I found that the hardest math all year. If you're taking physics it helps a bit though. I guess I was just pissed off that I almost lost my scholarship and even my admission because of vectors despite the fact that it had absolutely no relevance to what I was going into (business).

I agree, adding vectors in there really seemed like a clueless move. It is only really useful for engineering students, but it seems they didn't consider business students and their requirement of calculus (as well as life science students). It isn't related AT ALL. They should've just introduced concepts of antiderivatives/integration, as atleast it is SOMEWHAT related.

And they should've just had a seperate course incorporating vectors and other geometry concepts, as I'm sure potential engineers would not mind taking another (more thorough) mathematics course.

And advanced functions can also be a co-requisite with calculus & vectors, as they can be taken side by side in the same semester (and not necessarily one before the other).

[Cold Fire]

I asked my guidance counselor last year and they all said advanced first then Calc. You cant take them together.


Just curious what did you guys get last year in terms of marks and averages:?:

[Dougmoto]

94 for functions
91 for calc (freaking 6% drop from the exam, as i said)

So really, don't sweat it. The hardest class in grade 12 imo is english, because it's so subjective. My teacher didn't give anyone higher than 80 on the exam, and our class average must have been 5% lower than other classes.

[VmanAK47]

80 functions -didnt try all the way lol... fooled around.
92 calculus and vectors

[Cold Fire]

damn you guys are smart A$$e$ i feel like such a ****** with my low 80's in math>:( . It is true English is very subjective but in gr11 I got 89% so I have don't have to worry about that much.:cheesygri

Thanks keep the answers coming

PS how much do you guys study to get theses marks

[Dougmoto]

As i said, it's going to depend completely on your grade 12 teacher. Realistically, no one cares about your grade 11 marks, so don't worry. In fact, i think i brought my average up almost 10% from grade 11 to grade 12 (started trying) from a 82 to a 91.X, and got into each uni i applied to. Just make sure you start getting at least a little bit more serious in grade 12.

Grade 11, i wouldn't study at all.
Grade 12, i studied untill i understood the concepts and was confident. I dont think i ever crammed, because i like living healthy :)

Take grade 12 as a fresh start, and don't get discouraged. My english teacher was a masochist, and I kind of let it get to me. As a result, english really dragged my average down, and might have hurt my chances for scholarships. But whatever, tough teachers just make you tougher.

[bluser]

Omg.. Is it true that Calculus isn't apart of that course anymore??

If so OP, it'll be a walk in the park. But it's never a bad idea to study ahead!

Anyways!

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/Alg.aspx

That's helpful! Also check

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcI/CalcI.aspx

Check out the review part! And if you're a super curious kinda person...
Venture into the Calculus... get your head around what a limit is!

[VmanAK47]

damn you guys are smart A$$e$ i feel like such a ****** with my low 80's in math>:( . It is true English is very subjective but in gr11 I got 89% so I have don't have to worry about that much.:cheesygri

Thanks keep the answers coming

PS how much do you guys study to get theses marks

Not alot max 1 hour a day for me lol....

[VmanAK47]

Omg.. Is it true that Calculus isn't apart of that course anymore??

If so OP, it'll be a walk in the park. But it's never a bad idea to study ahead!

Anyways!

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/Alg.aspx

That's helpful! Also check

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcI/CalcI.aspx

Check out the review part! And if you're a super curious kinda person...
Venture into the Calculus... get your head around what a limit is!

Calculus is the easy part of the course and it can't be taken out that would be dumb lol... Vectors on the other hand is really annoying thats the only part of the course I had to actually review everyday.. and I didn't get it till the last minute :P

[bluser]

Vectors? You're thinking of Algebra Geo.? I don't recall any vectors in gr. 12 calculus and I think that they have separated Adv. Functions from Calculus. That's what some kids told me! :|

[Dougmoto]

Algeo is vectors no?

We did the usual stuff: intersection of lines in 2/3 space, planes, projections, etc.

But the actual course is called calculus and vectors.

[Cold Fire]

Thanks for all the advice

Just a quick question does Wilfred BBA and UTSC Co-op Management require 4U courses or 4U/M:?:

Thanks

[sPiKyAZN]

damn you guys are smart A$$e$ i feel like such a ****** with my low 80's in math>:( . It is true English is very subjective but in gr11 I got 89% so I have don't have to worry about that much.:cheesygri

Thanks keep the answers coming

PS how much do you guys study to get theses marks

Haha not everyone's a genius here...I had a 90 average but that was with all my maths in the 70s and one high 80 since I retook it in night school. I can't really quantify how much I study...some days I'd just play video games all day and some days I was up until 3am. Chalk it up to procrastination. Don't gauge how much you should study from others...study until you get it.

Also, personally, grade 12 was my best year. Every year up until grade 12 I had a crap course that I hated. This year although I wasn't very fond of Adv Func/Calc I still had a ton of fun with all my other courses. I think the key to success is to have some sort of interest in what you're learning...I'm a business nerd and I enjoyed learning about all aspects of it. This allowed me to raise my average by about 5-7%.

Check electronicinfo.ca I'm pretty sure it's 6 m/u courses and you have to meet the pre-requisites. Some places don't take more than 2 M courses from the same discipline (subject area).

[VmanAK47]

Algeo is vectors no?

We did the usual stuff: intersection of lines in 2/3 space, planes, projections, etc.

But the actual course is called calculus and vectors.

No vectors is somewhat like physics.

Like calculating air speed, ground speed and amount of force needed in different questions.

[sPiKyAZN]

No vectors is somewhat like physics.

Like calculating air speed, ground speed and amount of force needed in different questions.

There's more goodness in it too, like determinants, matricies, dot product, cross product and other bundles of joy that I have tried to forget. It covers more than what they do in physics.

[Dougmoto]

No vectors is somewhat like physics.

Like calculating air speed, ground speed and amount of force needed in different questions.

Oh yea we did that too, relative velocities, which are a ***** when worded stupidly, force questions... but that **** was easy after taking physics, so i kind of forgot about it.

[Rishi]

There's more goodness in it too, like determinants, matricies, dot product, cross product and other bundles of joy that I have tried to forget. It covers more than what they do in physics.
Matrices have been axed from new vectors course.

[Cold Fire]

so if i took 6 courses which i will, i will have to take 4U and 2M:?: to get into Wilfred BBA and UTSC Co-op management

Thanks

[ECSTATIC]

juuuuuuust out of curiousity: if you take a course in night school that requires a text book, do you have to purchase the textbook? (advanced functions). I'm planning on applying for night school if I get a crappy teacher for math (we haven't received our final timetables yet)

[sPiKyAZN]

juuuuuuust out of curiousity: if you take a course in night school that requires a text book, do you have to purchase the textbook? (advanced functions). I'm planning on applying for night school if I get a crappy teacher for math (we haven't received our final timetables yet)

Yes, you buy the book in night school. And don't take night school if you have to, the teachers there are garbage as well.

I retook advance functions in night school because I wasn't happy about my mark in day school. I really didn't learn anything there, all the teachers seemed like rejects from day school lmao. The only thing it provided me with tests that were easier, however, they were marked by a mediocre teacher so that kind of balanced out and stopped me from raising my mark too much. I guess it depends how lucky you are...some kids got teachers that knew less than they did so they all got 90s.

[ECSTATIC]

you have to buy it? but what do you do when you're done with it?
is there a refund fee or anything?

[sPiKyAZN]

you have to buy it? but what do you do when you're done with it?
is there a refund fee or anything?

lol no. You'll have to just eat it and possibly find a way to sell it after or something. Night school runs in normal schools so they have nowhere to store textbooks and lend them out like day schools.

When I took adv functions last year we didn't have textbooks so luckily i didn't have to buy one. I heard this year the textbook is out though, but I could be wrong.

[Sniper001]

lol no. You'll have to just eat it and possibly find a way to sell it after or something. Night school runs in normal schools so they have nowhere to store textbooks and lend them out like day schools.

When I took adv functions last year we didn't have textbooks so luckily i didn't have to buy one. I heard this year the textbook is out though, but I could be wrong.
You are correct. This coming September the new textbooks are out for Advanced Functions.

[brownsuga_91]

you have to buy it? but what do you do when you're done with it?
is there a refund fee or anything?

I know with my catholic school board and the public school board you just give a check the first day of classes and you get your check back when you return the book. if you don't return the book then they keep the cheque to pay the missing text book. same with summer school