ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Mathematics => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Mathematical Methods CAS => Topic started by: TigerMum on March 23, 2019, 04:41:30 pm
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Currently doing 1/2 Methods, pretty easy at the moment with the early topics in the book.
However, I keep feeling like my class is going too slow, we have a Quadratics test on Monday (Chapter 3 in Cambridge), and I have heard from friends at other schools that they are already on Chapter 6. I'm looking at the year ahead and can't see how my class is actually going to get through the whole book without drastically picking up the pace. I don't have a tutor, so I can't go too far ahead before bumping into things I am unfamiliar with which I would rather be doing with the assistance of a teacher. A lot of people in my class aren't working that quickly and we just keep getting dragged along. To anyone else doing Methods, where are you up to and if it turns out I am quite behind, what could I do to fix this?
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Do you have a calendar from your teacher so you know when, and for how long, you'll be working on each topic?
Still doing quadratics sounds unusual, but perhaps your year will run for longer than most other schools, so you have more time.
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We're on chpt 5. Don't know if this is slow or fast :/
Doing quadratics rn is indeed very unusual. You could ask your teacher about this if you're concerned
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Do you have a calendar from your teacher so you know when, and for how long, you'll be working on each topic?
Still doing quadratics sounds unusual, but perhaps your year will run for longer than most other schools, so you have more time.
We were given a calendar of sorts at the start of Headstart last year, but it looked like a draft and a bunch of the topics were in a different order. We are well behind what the calendar says, but to be fair, it involved us doing Chapter 1 and 2 in headstart and we only had 2 periods in headstart thanks to some useless excursions we had to go on.
Don't think we go for any longer, we have 3 weeks of in the middle of the year and it's a private school.
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Doing quadratics rn is indeed very unusual.
To be fair, we are doing the test and about to start Chapter 4 but yeah, I am a bit concerned that we are taking this long on topics which are entirely prior knowledge. I was about 4-5 exercises ahead of my class during the topic, but I really don't want to be going far ahead without a tutor into topics that I am unfamiliar with, even if I think I could handle it. At the moment, it feels like the same speed that we did in 10A last year which is way too slow in my opinion.
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To be fair, we are doing the test and about to start Chapter 4 but yeah, I am a bit concerned that we are taking this long on topics which are entirely prior knowledge. I was about 4-5 exercises ahead of my class during the topic, but I really don't want to be going far ahead without a tutor into topics that I am unfamiliar with, even if I think I could handle it. At the moment, it feels like the same speed that we did in 10A last year which is way too slow in my opinion.
Working ahead in a subject like methods isn't as hard as you make it out to be in my opinion. Like you said, a lot of what you're doing is entirely prior knowledge, so you can try get started on the next topic once you've finished your current one and if you don't understand it, there's a large range of resources and help online which can aid you in independently learning the content (like the methods question thread and thorough topic guides on atarnotes). Also, when your class does reach those topics, it'll be like revision and you can consolidate your learning. Not saying it will be the same for you, but the topics I had the most difficulty grasping in 1/2 (I didn't do year 10 maths) were trig and the unit circle, inverses and transformations. The textbook explained the rest relatively well.
After all, in my opinion the longer you have to familiarise and practice with topics, the greater your understanding will be. For example someone who's finished the calculus topic 5 months before the exam will have a greater amount of time to consolidate their learning and practice than someone who's finished 1 month before. Take my advice as a grain of salt though, as everyone's learning styles are different.
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There are two Yr11 methods classes at my school and both of them are at chapter 5 and have had two tests so far. There's been no panic here, so I've assumed that we are going at the standard pace.
If you wanna get ahead and need some guidance, the lectures on the holidays seem pretty appealing.
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We just started Chapter 5! 1/2 student here.
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hey there! :D ;D
i was in the same situation last year! at around this point in time, we were up to chapter 4 and other schools had almost finished chapter 7!
the best advice i could give you is to try and get ahead (not by too much, you don't want to skip vital information for the course or forget anything). i did this last year and it helped me a lot. while other students were cramming in chapter 6 before our exam, i had already done chapter 6 and chpater 7 (which we didn't do) and felt really confident for my exams. this is because it gave me time to nut out a lot of practice questions! also, another major disadvantage because of this was that we didn't finish calculus last year because my school was far too behind - getting ahead helped me because calculus at times can be tricky, so having enough practice helped me a lot!
but honestly, dont stress - because just like your school, even my school is behind.
if you would like more resources to help you out, check out NancyPi on youtube - or even khan academy!! these vidoes helped me out a lot considering how far behind we were. For example, my class was preparing for exams but I stared preparing months in advanced so I decided that I would do some intergration problems (we didn't even do intergration in class because we didn't finish the course). Basically, the question wasn't difficult but I didn't like how my answers for the area were negative. I went on youtube and learnt about modulus functions and then i was able to fix my answers!! youtube is such a great resource!!
best of luck with everything though,
i'm sure you'll do great!
- sara
ps if you have any questions about methods feel free to message me :)
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hey there! :D ;D
i was in the same situation last year! at around this point in time, we were up to chapter 4 and other schools had almost finished chapter 7!
the best advice i could give you is to try and get ahead (not by too much, you don't want to skip vital information for the course or forget anything). i did this last year and it helped me a lot. while other students were cramming in chapter 6 before our exam, i had already done chapter 6 and chpater 7 (which we didn't do) and felt really confident for my exams. this is because it gave me time to nut out a lot of practice questions! also, another major disadvantage because of this was that we didn't finish calculus last year because my school was far too behind - getting ahead helped me because calculus at times can be tricky, so having enough practice helped me a lot!
but honestly, dont stress - because just like your school, even my school is behind.
if you would like more resources to help you out, check out NancyPi on youtube - or even khan academy!! these vidoes helped me out a lot considering how far behind we were. For example, my class was preparing for exams but I stared preparing months in advanced so I decided that I would do some intergration problems (we didn't even do intergration in class because we didn't finish the course). Basically, the question wasn't difficult but I didn't like how my answers for the area were negative. I went on youtube and learnt about modulus functions and then i was able to fix my answers!! youtube is such a great resource!!
best of luck with everything though,
i'm sure you'll do great!
- sara
ps if you have any questions about methods feel free to message me :)
Thanks for your advice, I have gone ahead and I feel pretty comfortable with all the content thus far, I have realised how well you are able to learn the course just through using the textbook and online resources.
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Guys, it's vce for me next year and at my school there were some really bad math teachers. I can't imagine having one of them for my vce math methods or else I would fail. I heard he goes really slow and his class falls well behind everyone else.
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I usually can't teach myself complex math and there will be a high chance I will get him because he teaches a lot of subjects that I intend to do. :(
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In VCE you'll be required to self-teach yourself concepts a lot of the times. Even if you have a pretty great teacher.
If it's really a serious concern that lots of other students are worried about as well I guess you could potentially go to someone with authority at your school? Though I think the best thing to do is to make sure you have a firm foundation for maths right now and get into some good study habits so you won't be affected by the teacher next year.
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I realise that this thread has not been active for sometime, but in case u are still looking at this let me just give in a piece of advice.
It is great to self-teach concepts and I definitely recommend u do, but just remember that when you do that, refer to as much resources as possible to understand as much as u can for that particular concept. I personally find topics that require a lot of prior knowledge like some topics of integration difficult to understand without the aid of a variety of sources.
That being said, go with what you find is necessary. If you feel like there is not much time to deepen understanding or likewise, feel free to move on it is up to you.
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I realise that this thread has not been active for sometime, but in case u are still looking at this let me just give in a piece of advice.
It is great to self-teach concepts and I definitely recommend u do, but just remember that when you do that, refer to as much resources as possible to understand as much as u can for that particular concept. I personally find topics that require a lot of prior knowledge like some topics of integration difficult to understand without the aid of a variety of sources.
That being said, go with what you find is necessary. If you feel like there is not much time to deepen understanding or likewise, feel free to move on it is up to you.
Thanks for the advice. I have self-taught most of the content this year and used class time to consolidate. I'm currently doing Circular Functions and no concepts in the book have given me any real trouble yet apart from some tricky extended response questions so I'm pretty happy with my progress.
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just over halfway through the year now, and my school are about to finish up the circular functions topic, just as a marker if you wanted to check the pace you are at with the methods content
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just over halfway through the year now, and my school are about to finish up the circular functions topic, just as a marker if you wanted to check the pace you are at with the methods content
Is this for 1/2? Cos if it's 3/4 then I think you're more than just a bit behind...
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How do you catch up when you are falling really behind in math methods?
I just want some tips in case this happens to me when I do methods next year.
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How do you catch up when you are falling really behind in math methods?
I just want some tips in case this happens to me when I do methods next year.
If you ever fall behind, I think it’s helpful to first take a deep breath and think about your current situation clearly first instead of frantically trying to do more exercises and catch up. Think — What areas am I already confident in? What parts do I need to brush up on? Are there any topics which I do not understand at all? Etc. Sort everything out first so that you clearly know where you’re at in comparison to where you SHOULD be at, so that you would have a clear direction to move forward.
It could also be helpful to ask yourself WHY you fell behind so that it doesn’t happen again, in methods or in any other subject.
Good luck!