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March 29, 2024, 05:59:02 am

Author Topic: Further Or Specialist Maths?  (Read 1060 times)  Share 

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zoharreznik

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Further Or Specialist Maths?
« on: January 17, 2020, 09:28:22 pm »
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Hi everyone,
I've been debating for quite a while in regard to whether I should do Specialist Maths or Further Maths.
These are the subjects I am currently enrolled in:

English
Chemistry
Specialist
Tertiary Hebrew (this is not a full subject)

My reasoning for wanting to do Further:
- A less competitive environment- I get more anxious in a competitive class so this is better for me
- I can be with my friends
- The workload is lighter- meaning I can put a lot more focus into English and Chemistry
- The maths is easier
I tried doing a Further Maths exam today (the first part at least) to see how difficult it was. Out of the core, I managed to answer 15 out of the 24 questions having been barely exposed to any Further curriculum, and got 10 of those correct. I didn't bother with the modules yet but I definitely will try them later- my school does Matrices and Networks.

My worries for Further:
- Quite a few Methods kids in my cohort are doing it
- I am prone to making silly mistakes quite often
- The subject is very competitive
- The English/ reasoning based questions may trick me

My reasoning for doing Spesh:
- I didn't find Spesh 1/2 too difficult (averaged about 75%) but there were difficult sections
- Did Methods so I have a decent background of maths- I got a 41 in Methods but I did worse than I desired in the exams.
- The maths is interesting

My worries for Spesh:
- The class is extremely competitive (there is lots of high-achieving Methods kids in it) which will make me quite anxious (I don't cope too well with this kind of environment lol)
- The curriculum may be quite hard
- The workload is heavy and may detract from my other subjects

Honestly, I'm really stuck as to what to pick. Ultimately, I want to do the best I possibly can, but I want to ensure I minimise how anxious and tense I am going to feel, so the easier questions in Further may be better. Indeed, I am more regulated to Methods/ Spesh style questions and it is definitely good knowing I can afford to make silly mistakes (which may be triggered if I get nervous or feel pressure in the exams). Again, Spesh seems very difficult but that may be because the year hasn't actually started yet.

I would really appreciate any advice you could give me!! :)


2019: Hebrew [31], Mathematical Methods [41]

2020: English [41], Chemistry [41], Specialist Mathematics [39], Tertiary Hebrew [4.5 increment]

ATAR: 98.75

Sine

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Re: Further Or Specialist Maths?
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2020, 09:38:48 pm »
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You have thought about it quite a lot and from what I can see you are leaning a bit towards the futher side of things (correct me if I am wrong).

If you get easily distressed and anxious from competitiveness it makes sense to go to further, however, the cohort in further for the state is actually quite competitive as well (maybe not the the extent in spesh tho). In Further losing 1 mark generally equals 1 loss of study score, so whilst the contnet is relatively easy there is very little room for careless errors.

On the other hand for most cases I think if someone is considering spesh they should do it and they are probably capable of it. Although if you personally feel like this could lead to a lot of stress it is your choice on whether it is worth it or not.

Finally, I'll leave you with the following:
A raw 36 in specialist yields a higher score than a raw 48 in Further Maths.

Admittedly, scaling is there to make all subjects even but it goes to show you can make a bunch of mistakes in spesh and still walk away with a scaled score in the high 40s whereas Further Maths that is dropping 2 marks. Obviously, the content is tougher in spec so you probably would have to put in more time to get to the same level in Spes/Further.

zoharreznik

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Re: Further Or Specialist Maths?
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2020, 09:42:52 pm »
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You have thought about it quite a lot and from what I can see you are leaning a bit towards the futher side of things (correct me if I am wrong).

If you get easily distressed and anxious from competitiveness it makes sense to go to further, however, the cohort in further for the state is actually quite competitive as well (maybe not the the extent in spesh tho). In Further losing 1 mark generally equals 1 loss of study score, so whilst the contnet is relatively easy there is very little room for careless errors.

On the other hand for most cases I think if someone is considering spesh they should do it and they are probably capable of it. Although if you personally feel like this could lead to a lot of stress it is your choice on whether it is worth it or not.

Finally, I'll leave you with the following:
A raw 36 in specialist yields a higher score than a raw 48 in Further Maths.

Admittedly, scaling is there to make all subjects even but it goes to show you can make a bunch of mistakes in spesh and still walk away with a scaled score in the high 40s whereas Further Maths that is dropping 2 marks. Obviously, the content is tougher in spec so you probably would have to put in more time to get to the same level in Spes/Further.

Hey Sine!
I'm not trying to lean towards Further, it's just multiple people seem to be a bit unhappy with the Spesh environment (people put a lot of pressure on each other) and I know it may affect one's decision. May I ask if you did Spesh, and if so did you find any of the SACs/exams/content difficult? Or if you did Further, did you find any of it difficult?
2019: Hebrew [31], Mathematical Methods [41]

2020: English [41], Chemistry [41], Specialist Mathematics [39], Tertiary Hebrew [4.5 increment]

ATAR: 98.75

ashmi

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Re: Further Or Specialist Maths?
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2020, 09:48:31 pm »
+1
Hi everyone,
I've been debating for quite a while in regard to whether I should do Specialist Maths or Further Maths.
These are the subjects I am currently enrolled in:

English
Chemistry
Specialist
Tertiary Hebrew (this is not a full subject)

My reasoning for wanting to do Further:
- A less competitive environment- I get more anxious in a competitive class so this is better for me
- I can be with my friends
- The workload is lighter- meaning I can put a lot more focus into English and Chemistry
- The maths is easier
I tried doing a Further Maths exam today (the first part at least) to see how difficult it was. Out of the core, I managed to answer 15 out of the 24 questions having been barely exposed to any Further curriculum, and got 10 of those correct. I didn't bother with the modules yet but I definitely will try them later- my school does Matrices and Networks.

My worries for Further:
- Quite a few Methods kids in my cohort are doing it
- I am prone to making silly mistakes quite often
- The subject is very competitive
- The English/ reasoning based questions may trick me

My reasoning for doing Spesh:
- I didn't find Spesh 1/2 too difficult (averaged about 75%) but there were difficult sections
- Did Methods so I have a decent background of maths- I got a 41 in Methods but I did worse than I desired in the exams.
- The maths is interesting

My worries for Spesh:
- The class is extremely competitive (there is lots of high-achieving Methods kids in it) which will make me quite anxious (I don't cope too well with this kind of environment lol)
- The curriculum may be quite hard
- The workload is heavy and may detract from my other subjects

Honestly, I'm really stuck as to what to pick. Ultimately, I want to do the best I possibly can, but I want to ensure I minimise how anxious and tense I am going to feel, so the easier questions in Further may be better. Indeed, I am more regulated to Methods/ Spesh style questions and it is definitely good knowing I can afford to make silly mistakes (which may be triggered if I get nervous or feel pressure in the exams). Again, Spesh seems very difficult but that may be because the year hasn't actually started yet.

I would really appreciate any advice you could give me!! :)

Hi Zoharreznik!
Out of Spesh and Further, which one do you see yourself being more interested in overtime? In this scenario, I would pick the maths that makes you feel the most comfortable and is the most appealing to you as you will tend to do better in it. For Further, the competition is very competitive when it comes close to exams (a lot of Methods and even Spesh students actually do Further surprisingly). Every mistake you make in Further means quite a lot and it really boils down to which maths you would be more interested in. Since you have done Methods, you might find Spesh to be a bit easier since you have a base knowledge and since it would be your only maths subject.

Coming from a personal Further perspective, if I could go back in time I wished I picked Spesh just because the content overlapped more with Methods (more interesting) and I wouldn't be forced to change my CAS settings constantly. (Also you get used to doing exams with and without CAS). If you plan to do something using maths in the future (e.g. engineering) I would personally go with Spesh but if not, then maybe Further might be right for you! ;D

Even if you find Spesh difficult, do remember that scaling exists to make all subjects equal (the competitiveness of the subject). Further is harder to be perfect in and unless you think you can reach this perfection, I would just go with Spesh. My biggest regret of VCE was definitely not doing Spesh and if you are capable of doing it, I highly recommend you do. (Extend and challenge yourself)

Sine

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Re: Further Or Specialist Maths?
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2020, 09:52:07 pm »
+1
Hey Sine!
I'm not trying to lean towards Further, it's just multiple people seem to be a bit unhappy with the Spesh environment (people put a lot of pressure on each other) and I know it may affect one's decision. May I ask if you did Spesh, and if so did you find any of the SACs/exams/content difficult? Or if you did Further, did you find any of it difficult?
I did Maths Methods and Specialist Maths and personally didn't find them too difficult.

I am familiar with Further Maths too (although I didn't study it) - like you have already said the content is relatively easy for most students and years 7-10 covers areas of it quite well but the hardest part of the subject is just not making careless errors.

-snip-
tbf the necessity of perfection in Specialist Maths is quite similar to Further Maths in terms of raw scores and the notion of 1 mark loss = 1 study score loss applies to Specialist Maths most years for the study scores 40-50. Although as you said scaling helps heaps haha