The marker's notebook
What the markers say, in plain words. Short pages; each one ends in something to try.
How it's marked
4What markers say every year
5The mistakes that cost most
3Exam day
2The theory behind each mistake
75The theory behind each mistake75
- The step you thought was obvious
- The page nobody could follow
- The arithmetic you rushed
- The forces added, not resolved
- The inequality treated as an equation
- The part you already proved
- The long road you took first
- The substitution you guessed
- The proof written backwards
- The diagram that says nothing
- The answer you stopped short of
- The old limits on a new variable
- The minus that went missing
- The instruction inside the question
- The diagram you didn't draw
- The parts you picked by order
- The claim that wasn't shown
- The substitution you kept silent
- The form that made it hard
- The positive direction you assumed
- The induction template on autopilot
- The geometry you took from the picture
- The missing bars and constant
- The letter you never introduced
- i carried like a letter
- Conjugate roots without real coefficients
- The inside derivative you forgot
- The partial fractions set up wrong
- The numbers you carried too early
- The acceleration form you defaulted to
- Three cases and a conclusion
- Vector or number, unmarked
- De Moivre without its conditions
- The reduction formula left unused
- Induction as the safe answer
- The proof method you didn't choose
- The given you read past
- The working past the finish
- The proof with no ending
- The notation that became unreadable
- The square that got distributed
- The line you copied wrong
- Simultaneous equations done sideways
- The formula you rebuilt from memory
- The rotation with no direction
- The quadrant you skipped
- The constant left for later
- AM–GM in only one shape
- Vectors and numbers added together
- Base point mistaken for direction
- The constant you didn't need
- Reduction formula, one route only
- Radians, units and early rounding
- The answer you never checked
- The square completed with a sign
- SHM from one memorised formula
- The dot product done on autopilot
- Expanding when the target was factored
- The vectors you invented
- The rehearsed answer
- Indefinite treated as an area
- The statement you actually proved
- The limit that went unwritten
- The property the figure didn't have
- The case split you missed
- The region you only outlined
- Two components, one equation
- Triangle inequality out of range
- The point without a parameter
- The pattern you never looked for
- The graph offered as proof
- The root with only one sign
- The answer left in u
- The primitive that looked right
- Zero dot product, zero vector