Probability, Annuities and Spherical Geometry ... that's a fairly big chunk of stuff!
You might be better off asking about specific questions or sections instead.
PROBABILITY TIPS?
• Always give answers as simplified fractions unless asked otherwise.
• Remember that you always get a value between 0 and 1.
• Always make sure that you have two parts: number of ways your event can occur, divided by the total number of possible outcomes.
• For permutations and combinations, just ask yourself if the order in which you select the items are important. If the order is NOT important, then you divide. (A few examples will help here.)
• Probabilty trees, write the probabilities on the branches and multiply along each branch.
ANNUITIES TIPS?
• Make sure you use a graphic calculator if you can. Seriously.
•*Future value/Present value ... say you want to get a balance of $5000 in 5 years from now. You can do that by saving a certain amount of money into your account every month. You can use the FV rule to work out what that amount needs to be. OR you can invest a large SINGLE lump sum now that will grow to the same amount, $5000, under compound interest. The single lump sum is the PV.
• For loans, ALWAYS use the PV rule, and the amount of the loan is the present value.
SPHERICAL GEOMETRY?
• Make sure you know east from west. North and south seems a bit easier.
•*Know the difference between great circles and small circles.
•*Know the arc length of a circle formula.
• There are heaps of little knowledge bits in this topic...
• 1 nautical mile = 1.852 km
• 1 nautical mile is defined as 1 minute along a great circle, 60 nm = 60 minutes or 60 nm = 1 degree ... so 1 degree along a great circle is 60 nautical miles, so to find a quick distance along a great circle you can do angle x 60 and get the distance in nautical miles.
• In 24 hours, the world turns 360 ... in 1 hour the world turns 15, so the time difference in hours is simply the angle ÷ 15. DON'T try to remember any other way of doing it, it will make things too confusing.
• Remember the Speed/Distance/Time formulas.
• 1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour ... it's just a unit of speed. Really, when you see knots (and you will) it looks like "knots" but you read it as "nautical miles per hour".
Hope this helps. I owe you for the Sharp calculator info.
