1

How to Think
about the
Extension 2
HSC Exam

JW Hick
 2

About the Author

Jonathan Hick completed his HSC in 2004, obtaining a rank of 3rd in NSW in
Mathematics (http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ebos/static/TAINC_2004_12.html)
with 99% and 47/50 in extension 1. Since then he has completed a Bachelor of
Commerce and a Masters in Teaching (Mathematics). He currently works as a casual
teacher, and tutor in the Newcastle Region.

For more free math advice and notes visit Jonathan Hicks tutoring page at

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jonathan-Hick-Clever-Kids/562473473815280

I am happy to provide free help via my facebook page. I will not check it every day but I
will look at it a few times a week.

About this book

This is a draft book about my personal approach towards the extension 2 HSC
examination. The methods I talk about are often my personal opinions on how best to
think about concepts. There may be silly mistakes somewhere and I would appreciate any
feedback if someone identifies one. I am working towards publishing a few books in
2014, including the final version of this book. Hopefully by releasing the draft version of
some books I am working on, it will provide help to students, and also help raise
awareness of my books if/when they get published.

Reproduction and communication for educational purposes

The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of the pages of this
work, whichever is greater, to be reproduced and/or communicated by any educational institution for its
educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a
remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

JW Hick
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Contents

Integration 4
Complex Numbers 8
Curve Sketching 9
Volumes 10
Conics 11
Mechanics 13
Complex Polynomials 16
Harder 3 Unit 17
The Final Questions in the HSC Extension 2 Exam 18

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Integration Summary
Integration by Substitution.

- Remember you will also need to substitute for the differential.

- If it is a definite integral, change the bounds of integration. If it is an indefinite

integral you will have to substitute back after integrating.

- For higher power trigonometric functions, you will combine a U substitution with
trigonometric identities.

- When you have a difference or sum of 2 squares, under a square root in the
denominator, think trigonometric substitution in conjunction with identity
manipulation.

Integration by Parts

This is simply the reverse product rule. Hence,

d (uv) = uv + uv uv = (uv + uv) dx , hence as integrals can be distributed

dx

uv = uv uv dx

- Use IBP when you have to integrate some function of x multiplied by some
function of x.

- Basically just substitution, but remember to pick your u and v functions wisely

Partial Fractions Decomposition

- Whenever you seem to have a lot of stuff on the denominator you should think
partial fractions.

- Basically just set the question equal to the partial fraction format and solve for the
unknown coefficients.

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Other Trigonometric Integration Techniques

- If you have higher powers of trigonometric functions you should be looking to

break the terms up using identities and set up for a U substitution. Remember that
a U substitution is simply a reverse chain rule. The main identity manipulations
2 2
are derived from sin + cos = 1 .

- If you have trigonometric functions not raised to a power then you can use the t-
method.

- If you have tanx, secx or cosecx then you are manipulating for an ln integration.

Reduction Formula

- Reduction formulae is when you are required to break up a higher powered

function to create the (n-1) term in the expression and then use IBP.

- Remember if the original integral appears in the working out of the reduction
formula then you can transfer this to the other side of the equation to group
together like terms.

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Integration in the Extension 2 HSC Exam

There are many integration questions you could potentially be asked, however the main
principles are as follows:

Substitution

Use this when it looks as though a substitution could differentiate into something
useful. If you are required to produce your own substitution (usually are), then make
sure you let u = the function which will differentiate into something helpful.

If a question is worth 3 or 4 marks then it will be a more complex substitution. Look for
the trigonometric substitutions when you see square roots and functions of x squared.
When things are squared you can use trigonometric identities if you substitute correctly.

For higher powered trigonometric integrals you will use identities to break up the high
powered function and set up for a U substitution.

By Parts

Basically, my first thoughts are to look for a substitution, if it seems that wont help then
look for by parts. If you have some function of x being multiplied by some function of
x you should be able to do by parts.

Just remember to pick your u and v wisely as you will have to integrate one function and
differentiate the other function.

Partial Fraction Decomposition

When I see a fraction with lots of functions (usually factorised) in the denominator I
look for partial fractions. Break up the fraction and solve for the unknown coefficients.
This will usually result in some basic simultaneous equations. Once you have the fraction
represented in partial fraction form you can integrate all the broken up fraction parts
separately.

Look for ln and inverse trig functions when you are integrating partial fractions.

-1
tan is a common integral. You may have to complete the square on the denominator so
you get some constant squared + some function of x squared hence it is in

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-1
tan format to integrate. If you can not complete the square on the denominator to put it
-1
in tan format, then look to create partial fractions.

Mental checklist

1. Is there a substitution I can use? (may be trigonometric if t method of lots of

squared and square roots going on)
2. Could I use integration by parts?
3. If there is a fraction could I either complete the square on the denominator and
-1
turn it into a tan question, or could if not could I use partial fractions?

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Complex Numbers Summary

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Complex Numbers in the Extension 2 HSC Exam

The first thing is to know the basic manipulations of complex numbers. Modulus,
conjugate and how to plus, minus, times and divide (make the denominator real).

Definitely expect to get some Argand diagram geometrical manipulation question.

Remember vector addition (tip to tail) and importantly the effect of multiplying complex
numbers (add the arguments and multiply the moduluss). Also revise basic properties of
shapes because you may have to use these properties in your manipulations.

Another common question is one where you use De Moivre to prove something equals
something. Basically bring the power into the argument to create one expression. Equate
this expression to the binomial expansion version of the same expression. From here you
will usually have to equate real and/or imaginary parts to prove whatever it is you need
to. If the question is particularly tough you may have to also use trigonometric identities
to clean up the binomial expansion expression.

Keep in mind how to find the roots of a complex number (put in cis format). For any
higher power manipulation you have to be thinking about cis format.

Know the basic locus stuff, like the circle and the argument locus. They are often shifted
from the origin.

Note, regions (inequalities) are pretty much the same process as equalities. Graph
everything and then you can test to see what regions need to be shaded.

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Curve Sketching Summary

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Curve Sketching in the Extension 2 HSC Exam

Basically you should learn how to work these out from first principles because there will
always be some difficult variation they can throw at you. Important principles to
manipulate functions include:

Shifting up, down, left and right by adding a constant to the function or replacing
(x) with (x+a) etc.
Reflecting in the line x = y by inversing the function
Reflecting in either the x axis or y axis by multiplying by a negative or replacing
(x) with (-x).

These are the basic manipulations, but you will probably get something in addition to
these. You just have to think about the effect of everything, for example if you square the
function then you are multiplying the y value at that point by itself. If y > 1 then it will
get a lot higher at that point, if y < 1 then it will get lower at that point. You can always
use substitution to help get an idea of what the graph will be doing. Just draw dots where
you can identify they exist and start to connect the dots as you get more and see what is
going on.

The questions that can help you are are there any asymptotes?, what happens as x gets
really large? and you can substitute in values of x to see for yourself.

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Volumes Summary

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Volumes in the Extension 2 HSC Exam

Main ideas:

There are three methods taught to find volumes, cylindrical shells, discs or
volume by slicing. Shells and discs are both volumes of revolution. No matter
what you are using all we are doing is volume equals cross sectional area
multiplied by depth.

The integral will represent one dimension in your volume formula. For discs or
slices it will represent the depth. For cylindrical shells it will represent the
thickness of the radius of all the shells you are stacking inside each other, and the
depth will be represented by a difference of two functions. (remember y = 0 is a
function).

Expect to be working with an annulus when finding a volume or revolution.

Whatever axis the area of rotation is perpendicular to tells you the variable you
will be trying to get everything in terms of. Get everything in terms of this
variable and integrate with respect to this variables bounds.

A common question is volume using cylindrical shells. The two options are to either
remember the formula, or to do it by first principles. Using the formula it is simply a case
of writing an expression for the radius and height, noting that they may be a difference of
two functions. If the shells are perpendicular to the x axis then you will have a dx in the
integral hence get everything in terms of x. Same idea, if perpendicular to y axis then dy
hence get everything in terms of y.

The disc method is simply an extension of the Mathematics course volumes of rotation.
The main difference is that you should expect to have an annulus, rather than a whole
circle. It is unlikely you will get a disc question.

Volumes using slices can be a little more difficult. The idea is to create a generic cross
sectional area formula, get everything in terms of the desired variable (whatever axis the
area is perpendicular to) to integrate and then infinitely sum them. Unlike the volumes of
revolution methods, these cross sectional areas are very unlikely to be circles.

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Conics Summary

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Conics in the Extension 2 HSC Exam

With conics it is important to know the generic forms of each conic, and how to calculate
the eccentricity, focus and directrix.

Conics include:

Straight line
Parabola
Circle
Ellipse
Hyperbola (and rectangular hyperbola)

The general form of any conic is,

2 2
ax + bxy + cy + dx + ey + c = 0

Since the first three conics are covered pretty well prior to extension 2 math, you will
normally get an ellipse or a hyperbola type question.

Everything comes off the eccentricity definition, PS:PM = e:1

e=c
a

Focus at (ae,0) directrix at a

e

Finding the equation of tangents and normals are a fairly common question. This is
basically Mathematics stuff, but now you have to use implicit differentiation. Remember
that when you hit both sides of an equa tion with a differential it will have distributive

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properties. Other than this it is basically using the point gradient formula and a bit of
substitution.

Conics is all about knowing eccentricity, directrix and focus formula and then using this
in conjunction with implicit differentiation when you need to find tangents and normals.
Aside from these things, it is basically substitution and manipulating algebra.

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Mechanics Summary

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Mechanics in the Extension 2 HSC Exam

Mechanics is a big unit of work. You will need to understand extension 1 particle motion
well before you start. Test questions are usually circular motion (uniform) types, as this
incorporates most of the more challenges principles.

What you need to understand and be able to do:

Write equations of motion in terms of x, v and a by eliminating the variable time

(t). Basically this is done by using the chain rule to break up differentials but its
easier to just remember the formula

a = d 1 v
2
dx 2

a = v dv
dx

How to differentiate and integrate between x, v and a, when done with respect to
time.

Simple harmonic motion and projectile motion principles, although these usually
arent a part of the extension 2 questions.

Resisted motion

This is basically just about creating an equation of motion from the acceleration on a
particle. However with resistance you will have to include this in your equation. After
you have created the equation of motion you will normally have to manipulate it to prove
something. Inverting both sides and integrating, or manipulating an integral into a general
format are common requirements. Just remember inverting is not a linear operator hence
can not be distributed to each individual term of an equation.

F = ma

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This formula forms the basis of most mechanics questions. In resisted motion the a will
be a sum or difference of multiple expressions as you factor in the resistance.

F=DR

The force equals the driving force less the resisting force.

When you are manipulating integrals to try and put into a general format to integrate,
always be thinking about logarithms, partial fractions and inverse trigonometric
functions.

Circular motion

This is the same as linear mechanics, but now we have to resolve the forces into two
perpendicular directions. That is the main difference in circular motion, we have a
vertical and horizontal component, as opposed to resisted motion which is all in a straight
line.

Centripetal acceleration:

2
ac = v
r

Tangential velocity

v=r

They are the two big ideas of uniform circular motion in terms of formulae that are
introduced.

In uniform circular motion the velocity is always tangential to the displacement vector, so
it is shooting off the circle in the direction of the tangent. The centripetal acceleration is
perpendicular to the tangential velocity, and it is directed towards the centre of the circle
at all times. In uniform circular motion we do not need to deal with the tangential
acceleration (which would speed up the circular motion).

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Most of the mechanic question in the extension 2 HSC exam tend to be banked tracks or
conical pendulum questions. In these questions you need to identify all the forces acting
on the particle, break them up into two perpendicular components and create your
equations of motion from here. Breaking the forces along the x-axis and y-axis is fine.
You will get 2 equations of motion for every particle, like projectile motion. From the
observed acceleration, use F = ma to create the two equations of motion.

Potential forces to identify and resolve into perpendicular components,

Normal reaction perpendicular to the surface

Tension force along the string
Centripetal force if circular motion exists
Gravity
Friction for banked tracks
Any other resistances to the acceleration

Note that if you want to generate an expression involving tan, create the normal two
perpendicular components in terms of cos and sin and simply divide them.

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Complex Polynomials Summary

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Complex Polynomials in the Extension 2 HSC Exam

This is basically a combination of the extension 1 polynomial chapter with complex

numbers. Not a lot of new stuff is introduced, however there can be some pretty tough
algebraic complex polynomial stuff towards the end of the HSC test, so you need to be
clear in your mind as to the main ideas you are expected to work with.

Main ideas

Roots are the values of x which make the polynomial equal zero. Graphically this
is represented as the point where the polynomial touches/crosses the x-axis.

Know the factor and remainder theorems from extension 1. This is basically just
substitution.

The division transformation of a polynomial is the basis of many of the challenge

questions. This is just substitution and forming simultaneous equations to find
unknown coefficients most of the time.

The multiplicity of a root will decrease by 1 (until it gets to zero) every time you
differentiate the polynomial.

If the polynomial has real coefficients and degree 2 or higher, the complex roots
will occur in complex conjugate pairs.

The sum and product of roots, think even letters are negative, and look to form
simultaneous equations to solve for unknown coefficients. Also, if you get
something more complex to substitute in for, think about how you could generate
it, example

2 2 2 2 2
+ to generate this, start with ( + ) and try and equate it to +

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Harder 3 Unit Problems Summary

Basically this is just unique and challenging extension 1 work that could cover a range of
things. Common questions involve,

Main ideas that are used:

Sum and difference of the sum and difference of trigonometric angles to further
manipulate trigonometric expressions

Harder induction, you will have to manipulate the algebra a lot more when you
substitute in (k+1)

Application of calculus to equations and inequalities. Basically you can take the
derivative of both sides and proceed to solve that.

This is pretty much some 3 unit work buried under a lot more algebraic complexities.

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The Final Questions in the HSC Extension 2 Exam

Doing the final questions successfully in the extension 2 HSC exam is a lot like being
asked to drive from one end of a city to another, with almost all pathways ending in a
dead end. The act of driving isnt too difficult, but the act of identifying which exact
route to take, with very few guides along the way is quite difficult.

Basically the final questions will be concepts that you should be familiar with, but buried
under a lot of algebraic manipulation, which on first impression can be daunting. The
following process is how I approach them,

1. IDENTIFICATION, Quickly read over the question, ignoring details, just to get
a general feel for it. Out of all the units of work, what does this seem to relate to?
What specific principles? Write down what you know about these principles and
the usual process to solve these questions. You have now set up a general
structure.

The idea of step one is to get the main principles and processes down on paper to give
you a structure to attack the question from, before the intricacies of the question take you
away from your normal processes. It can be easy to be distracted by all the additional
complexities, but you will be using the same principles that you were taught before.

2. Now you need to CONNECT specific details into the general structure you built
in stage 1. The idea is to form specific equations etc for the question. Read every
sentence and ask yourself, where does this fit into my general structure?, then
connect the ideas.

3. What type of MANIPULATION does it look like I need to do? What were the
main manipulation techniques learned when studying this unit?

4. Keep trying, keep playing with the question and give yourself a chance to
discover the correct algebraic path to the solution

Always be looking at the previous part if the question is broken up, hopefully it will lead
you into the next part. It probably wont be a direct substitution, but ask yourself how
can I manipulate the previous part to use it for the part I am currently on?

In the more challenging ones you will have to identify a key substitution (or multiple)
and then identify how to manipulate it to fit your question. The real challenge is being
able to pick the correct substitution or create the equation with very little in the way of
clues to help you. It is testing your identification skills more than your mathematical
ones. When you are doing the final question, write a list of things I can identify to help
you get into the question if you are finding it difficult.

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EXAMPLE: 2009 FINAL QUESTIONS THOUGHT PROCESSES

(The full working out can be found on the board of studies website for these exam
questions)

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7(a)(i) This appears to be a resisted motion question, as per the word resistance in the
question, among other indicators. What do we know about resisted motion?

a = d 1 v
2
dx 2

a = v dv
dx

F = ma

We are given the vertical equation of motion in the question. What do we normally do
when we get the equation of motion? We manipulate it, usually by substituting in for the
differentials.

Which substitution looks most helpful out of the two acceleration substitutions? The
second one, it doesnt look like there is a v squared in the answer, lets try that one.

What do we do after substituting? Manipulate and since we want x then invert and work
for an integral. We have initial conditions which will help us as we need to account for
the integral constant.

In this second part they have given us a lot of specific values. It is only worth one mark
so we cant have to do too much. All we do is substitute the values in.

(ii) This is an exercise in finding the turning point, with respect to time. We need the
derivative, equal to zero and solve for this value of t, then use this in the displacement
equation.

The trick, is since we have sine and cosine functions, we can in this case manipulate it
and solve it for tan. Other alternatives would be the auxiliary method or the t method.

Basically just solving for the turning point.

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(7)(b)(i) We are dealing with higher powers of complex numbers, so we should be

thinking of Cis format. De Moivre means we can bring the index into a multiple of theta.
Looking at the RHS we want the index to be a multiple of theta.

The final trick is to manipulate the negative n theta using ASTC. The negative n
theta in the cos can be turned into a positive n theta and the negative n theta in the
sin can be manipulated by bringing the negative out the front as a multiple and having
positive n theta. This is easier to just show the working out so here it is,

z = cos + isin, hence

n n
z +z =

{ cos(n) + i sin(n)} + { cos( n) + i sin( n)} =

cos(n) + i sin(n) + cos(n) i sin(n) =

2cos(n)

(ii) Here we need to create a binomial expansion, as can be seen by all the combination
coefficients.

We will need two terms in order to use the binomial expansion, but we do not have a cis
to expand. We will have to use part one, to write the cos theta as an addition of z and
reciprocal z.

We now have something to expand. This next part is a bit tricky, but what you want it to
group the first and last term together, as this will produce the desired first term in the
solution. All the other terms will group to give the final term in the solution. Remember
to write z reciprocal as a negative power just so you can simplify with index laws easier.

(iii) (BLANK)

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(8)(a)(i) Pretty straight forward substitution and manipulation. No tricks here.

(ii) This looks quite messy, however it also seems to be in the format of the above
question, so maybe we can look to use that for a manipulation and substitution which will
make things easier.

If we let n = 1 then we will get LHS = RHS as per the identity proved in (i). That step
was pretty basic.

Assume true for n = k

When n = k+1, this will be the harder part. We will need to manipulate this and use
suitable substitutions to prove LHS = RHS. The idea is to write the LHS in a format
which will help a substitution,
k+1 k k+1

r=1
=
r=1
+
r=k+1

So it is basically the same expression (which we can substitute for) plus the final
expression. In order to prove equality from here you will need to use (i) for another
substitution, and by examining the angles in the expression we will need to let = xk
2
So that part (i) is helpful to us.

(iii) This looks similar to the other formats we were just dealing with. We will need to
use them for substitutions no doubt. We have proved that the statement is true for all
values of n, hence is true for n = also. The only thing we can use is the

lim f(x) = 1
f(x) sinf(x)

Break up the RHS and manipulate to create this expression, remembering cot is a
function of cos and sin.

(iv) This appears to closely relate to the previous question, again I am looking for a
substitution. If let x = in part (iii) then we can easily calculate the value.
2

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(8)(b) The hardest part of this is creating the original inequalities to then manipulate. We
have been given an area under the curve type question so we will have to create some
integral inequality.

What do we know about ns and inequalities? All we know is that the area of the bigger
rectangles is greater than the area of the actual integral which is greater than the smaller
rectangle. Note that the width of the rectangle is 1 unit, and the height is f(n-1) and f(n)
for the bigger and smaller areas respectively.

Hence,

small area < integral area < big area

n
1< 1 dx < 1

n n 1 x n1

1 < ln(n) ln(n 1) < 1

n n1

1 < ln n < 1
n 1 n 1
n

1 1
n
e < n < en 1
n1

invert everything, noting the change in the inequalities and raise to the power of n

n
n
< 1 1 < e
n1 -1
e
n

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(8)(c)(i) (BLANK)

(ii) (BLANK)

JW Hick