Double Maths First Thing: Issue 58

Double Maths First Thing is petitioning the weather to be nicer Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread joy and delight in all things mathematical. I had a nice “oho!” moment in class with a student today looking at a question from a Madas paper – it’s subtly different to an “aha!” moment, there’s an element of “I know exactly what you did there and I admire the audacity.” Links Talking of exam papers, it feels like futile petitions to the exam board season gets earlier each year. Students have been trying this on – complaining that the paper was a bit hard – since at least 2013 and I honestly have to say “that’s sort of the point of an exam”. I’m not an expert in the Scottish Highers, but I looked through the papers and they looked perfectly reasonable to me (I’ve also looked at expert-on-the-ground Chris Smith’s analysis; I wouldn’t presume to speak for him, but I think it’s safe to say my assessment is similar to his. But I didn’t copy, ok?). For the…