Technique Masterclasses

Pure Mathematics 4

Spaced Repetition Schedule

Provenance: written 2026-09-29. Built primarily from signal-frequency-and-boundaries.md §1 (this paper's existing whole-paper frequency table, read in full) and all eleven signal-topic-brief-*.md files in this same folder (each read in full), which supply a per-topic frequency count, mark-tariff pattern and — in one case below — a direct correction to §1's own row, named explicitly rather than silently substituted. Also read directly for this pass: forge-exam-technique-guide.md §1 (the real per-question mark/timing table, reused rather than re-derived) and §2 (the M/A/B mechanics referenced in §4 below); codex-formula-and-method-bank.md's "Master GIVEN vs MEMORIZE table" and forge-battle- card.md (both grepped, confirming the single must-memorize P4 formula and that neither document states a repetition schedule); content/veridian/question-bank/wma14.ts (checked — see §0 below on why this document does not draw from it); paper-anatomy.ts (checked and excluded from the tiering below, for the same reason WMA13's sibling document excludes its own paper-anatomy page — it is a paper-structure lesson, not an examinable spec topic, and has no SIGNAL topic brief to draw a frequency count from). The lesson-audit-log entry in research/veridian/WMA14-verified-facts.md (dated 2026-09-14, under "Lesson-audit log") was read directly to verify the integration-by-parts correction in §2 below rather than taking the topic brief's citation of it on trust. No new primary-source PDF was opened for this document — every fact below reuses a citation already verified elsewhere in this facts bank; this document's own contribution is the repetition-count construction in §3, built on top of those existing citations. The six-cycle Day-0/2/5/10/18/30 widening-interval pattern in §3 is reused, unchanged, from this course's own content/veridian/technique-hub/wbs11/forge-spaced-repetition-schedule.md §3, exactly as the WBS12/13, WMA11, WMA12 and WMA13 siblings already reuse it — flagged here as a reused scheduling convention, not a new finding. No likelihood, probability, or grade-boundary figure appears anywhere below.

WMA14 — Spaced Repetition Schedule (Unit P4: Pure Mathematics 4)

0. What this is, and what it deliberately doesn't repeat

This document answers one question: given WMA14's real, uneven distribution of exam coverage across its eleven taught spec topics, how many times should a student revisit each one before the exam, and in what order? It does not re-teach content, and does not reproduce:

What it adds: an actual repetition count per taught topic, built from the real sightings-per-topic each SIGNAL topic brief independently established, rather than assuming WMA14's eleven topics deserve equal revision time.


1. Why repetition count should track this paper's real, uneven frequency

Three real, paper-specific facts argue against a flat schedule.

First, the eleven topics span a six-fold real range, with one clear leader. Proof by contradiction (spec 1.1) is confirmed in 6 of the 7 WMA14 series this course has mined question-by-question — genuinely ahead of everything else, not tied at the top the way WMA13's two leading topics were [signal-topic-brief-proof-by-contradiction.md]. At the other end, two topics are each confirmed in only 1 of 7: position vectors and the foot of a perpendicular (spec 7.4–7.5), and area under a parametric curve (spec 6.5) [signal-topic-brief-position-vectors-distance-and-foot-of-perpendicular.md; signal-topic-brief-area-under-a-parametric-curve.md]. A flat schedule would spend as much repetition on either thin topic as on proof by contradiction, despite a six-fold gap in how often each has a real, citable anchor.

Second, the two thinnest topics are named directly in this course's own source document as a sourcing artefact, not a rarity signal — and unlike WMA13's parallel thin-topic case, both have a full, real question available to simulate. signal-frequency-and-boundaries.md §1 states this in its own words: "the bottom two rows (1 of 7 each) are a sourcing artefact, not evidence of rarity... Area under a parametric curve (6.5) is a compulsory, explicitly spec-listed skill that had zero citations anywhere in this facts bank until the January 2026 series was reviewed... Do not read either row as 'safe to deprioritise.'" Both thin topics also happen to have a real, fully-sized confirmed question behind their single citation — Oct 2021 Q7 (9 marks) for position vectors/foot of perpendicular, Jan 2026 Q7 (16 marks, the largest confirmed item in the whole facts bank) for area under a parametric curve [forge-exam-technique-guide.md §1]. That changes what a single pass on each should actually look like, worked through in §4 below.

Third, a real correction exists between the whole-paper frequency table and one topic's own brief, and this schedule uses the corrected figure rather than silently picking one. signal-frequency-and-boundaries.md §1 lists integration by parts and substitution (spec 6.2) at 3 of 7 (October 2021, October 2022, January 2024). That topic's own brief re-derives the count directly from this facts bank's lesson-audit log (dated 2026-09-14) and finds a fourth, genuinely real anchor the main table's row omits: June 2022 Q8(b), a mark-scheme-only citation (no examiner's report exists for that series) that was used to fix a dM1-vs-M1 marking error in the live lesson file itself [signal-topic-brief-integration-by-parts-and-substitution.md; lesson-audit-log entry, WMA14-verified- facts.md]. The brief notes this is the same convention this facts bank already applies elsewhere — the separable-differential-equations row counts a mark-scheme-only January 2026 citation the same way — so 4 of 7, not 3, is the count this schedule uses, stated here as a correction rather than a quiet substitution.

None of this licenses skipping a thin topic: every one of the eleven is compulsory spec content [research/veridian/WMA14-verified-facts.md §1]. What it licenses is an honest allocation of repeated practice — a topic with one real citable anchor has a thinner repeatable past-paper pattern to drill against than one with six, though as §4 shows, "thinner pattern" does not always mean "smaller pass."


2. The tiers, built from each topic's own real, cited frequency

Tier 1 — 6 of 7, the clear leader

Tier 2 — 5 of 7

Tier 3 — 4 of 7, four topics genuinely tied

Tier 4 — 3 of 7, three topics tied

Tier 5 — 1 of 7, thinnest confirmed record on the whole paper, for the same reason in both cases

Both Tier 5 topics are named explicitly in signal-frequency-and-boundaries.md §1 as a sourcing artefact, not a rarity signal — restated here rather than left implicit, since a Tier 5 placement is the one most at risk of being misread as "safe to skip."


3. The six-cycle schedule

This reuses the six-cycle, widening-interval pattern (Day 0, 2, 5, 10, 18, 30) already established for this course in wbs11/forge-spaced-repetition-schedule.md §3 — a scheduling convention, stated here as one, not a new cited finding. If fewer than 30 days remain, compress by dropping the latest cycles first and keep Cycle 1 intact, since both Tier 5 topics' only scheduled passes live there.

CycleDayTier 1 (every cycle)Tier 2Tier 3Tier 4Tier 5
10Proof by contradiction (1st)Binomial expansion (1st)Implicit/parametric differentiation (1st); Separable DE (1st)—Position vectors/foot of perpendicular — only pass; Area under a parametric curve — only pass
22Proof by contradiction (2nd)Binomial expansion (2nd)Vectors (1st)Volume of revolution (1st)—
35Proof by contradiction (3rd)—Implicit/parametric differentiation (2nd); Integration by parts (1st)Parametric conversion (1st)—
410Proof by contradiction (4th)Binomial expansion (3rd)Vectors (2nd); Separable DE (2nd)Partial fractions (1st)—
518Proof by contradiction (5th)—Implicit/parametric differentiation (3rd); Integration by parts (2nd)Parametric conversion (2nd); Volume of revolution (2nd)—
630Proof by contradiction (6th)Binomial expansion (4th)Vectors (3rd); Separable DE (3rd); Integration by parts (3rd)Partial fractions (2nd)—

Reading this as repetition counts rather than a calendar: proof by contradiction gets six passes — one every cycle, matching its clear lead as this paper's single most frequently confirmed topic. Binomial expansion gets four passes. Implicit/parametric differentiation, vectors, separable differential equations and integration by parts each get three passes — the four-way tie at 4 of 7. Partial fractions, parametric conversion and volume of revolution each get two passes — the three-way tie at 3 of 7. Position vectors/foot of perpendicular and area under a parametric curve each get exactly one pass, in Cycle 1 only, and are not scheduled again — consistent with §1 and §2's reasoning, though §4 below states explicitly why that one pass should not be a short one for either topic.

Per-cycle load is 6, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6 topics — close to flat, with Cycle 1 and Cycle 6 carrying one extra item each (both Tier 5 passes land in Cycle 1; Cycle 6 absorbs the third round of three Tier 3 items and the second round of a Tier 4 item), so that the two thinnest topics are drilled early rather than risking a compressed run-up dropping them entirely.


4. Judgement calls stated explicitly

Both Tier 5 topics get only one scheduled pass, but that pass should be a full simulated question, not a shortened drill — a genuinely different call from how this course's WMA13 sibling document treated its own thinnest topic. WMA13's reciprocal/inverse-trig case had never anchored more than a single mark of its own on any transcribed paper, so there was no real multi-mark worked example to simulate. WMA14's two Tier 5 topics are the opposite shape: each has exactly one real citation, but that citation is a large, fully-formed question (9 marks for position vectors/foot of perpendicular; 16 marks — the paper's biggest confirmed item — for area under a parametric curve). A student's single pass on either topic is better spent working the real question shape end to end under timed conditions (≈11 minutes and ≈19 minutes respectively, per forge-exam-technique-guide.md §1's real timing figures) than as a quick recognition drill, precisely because a full real anchor exists to simulate.

The integration-by-parts correction in §1 changes this topic's tier, and that has a real knock-on effect worth naming rather than leaving implicit. At the uncorrected "3 of 7," this topic would sit in Tier 4 alongside partial fractions, parametric conversion and volume of revolution, and would be scheduled for two passes rather than three. Using the corrected "4 of 7" instead moves it into Tier 3, and gives it one additional pass (Cycle 6) beyond what the uncorrected count would justify. This schedule uses the corrected figure because the correction itself is grounded in a real, verified mark-scheme anchor (§1) — not because the higher tier was more convenient for a tidier-looking distribution.

Separable differential equations is scheduled at its lesson's own bundled 4-of-7 count, not the stricter 3-of-7 count for spec 6.4 alone. As §2 states, one of the four sightings (Jan 2024 Q4) never reaches an actual separable-equation solve. This schedule does not split the topic into two slots — the lesson file itself teaches the rates-of-change setup and the separable solve as one unit — but a student using this table should know that roughly a quarter of this topic's own scheduled repetition budget draws on a sighting that is genuinely about the differentiation setup, not the integration-and-solve stage the topic is nominally scheduled for.

Vectors' two documented error patterns are different enough that a single pass should not treat them as one drill. The acute-vs-obtuse angle slip (a numerical/interpretation error, applying cos⁡−1\cos^{-1} correctly but reporting the wrong one of the two angles a dot product allows) and the skewness-via-"not-perpendicular" slip (a conceptual error about what property actually proves two lines are skew) sit inside the same spec point but are not the same mistake. Each of this topic's three scheduled passes should include both, not alternate between them, since both are real and independently confirmed rather than one being a subset of the other.

The tier boundaries in §2 follow each topic's own real, most-recently-stated count exactly, including where three topics land on an exact tie. Partial fractions, parametric conversion and volume of revolution are all confirmed at exactly 3 of 7; implicit/parametric differentiation, vectors, separable DE and integration by parts are all confirmed at exactly 4 of 7 (the last only after the §1 correction). None of these ties is broken by adjusting one topic up or down to spread topics more evenly across tiers — the real counts are what they are, and this schedule's tier and pass-count structure follows them as reported rather than smoothing them into a more evenly-spread-looking distribution.


5. Where this document's scope ends

This document gives a repetition count and an order; it does not give a grade boundary, a likelihood percentage, or a claim about what will appear on any specific future paper — none of those exist in this course's WMA14 source review, and inventing one here would violate this course's own no-fabrication discipline, the same standard the facts bank, SIGNAL, FORGE and CODEX all hold to elsewhere. It also does not address exam-day wellness, logistics, or a final-48-hours countdown — no other WMA14 technique-hub document covers that territory either, so nothing here should be read as filling that specific gap.


6. Honesty notes


Sources used

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