Maths Specialist

[Wayzee]

Hi, sorry for the cliche and common question. I want to be a theoretical physicist or something in the field of chem and I love maths. I really have a passion for it and I’m down to study however long it takes. Senior selection just came in and so far I have: Methods, Gen. English, Chem, Physics and Biology. I want to pick specialist but I don’t know if I should. Teachers are recommending not to due to the large workload (since I’ll be picking 6 heavy subjects) and I don’t know what to do. I think I need it because I want to major physics at uni, but some teachers think specialists is ONLY good for engineering. Some advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you all in advance. Willing to provide any further information by the way

[S_R_K]

If you see yourself doing ANY university course which requires a substantial amount of maths (ie. maths, physics, engineering, some areas of economics), then Specialist maths is a good choice. For theoretical physics, a strong background in maths is essential.

[keltingmeith]

Hi, sorry for the cliche and common question. I want to be a theoretical physicist or something in the field of chem and I love maths. I really have a passion for it and I’m down to study however long it takes. Senior selection just came in and so far I have: Methods, Gen. English, Chem, Physics and Biology. I want to pick specialist but I don’t know if I should. Teachers are recommending not to due to the large workload (since I’ll be picking 6 heavy subjects) and I don’t know what to do. I think I need it because I want to major physics at uni, but some teachers think specialists is ONLY good for engineering. Some advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you all in advance. Willing to provide any further information by the way

Your teachers are wrong. While S_R_K summarised everything correctly, I'm going to go a bit in-depth: if you want to major in physics at university, this will also require you to study second year maths (in some form) alongside physics. If you do specialist maths now, you can get into second year much quicker depending on the university you go to. It's not required - but as S_R_K said, it's a good choice, and you'll be studying what's in specialist EVENTUALLY anyway, so why not just get that done now?

Some things that would be nice to know, to help you with potentially meeting half-way with your teachers:
1. What year level are you in now, and which (if any) of the subject's 3/4s you listed would be done in year 11?
2. What are your current mathematics scores like?

[Wayzee]

Thank you both very much, to answer your questions:
1. I am in grade 10 and I’m not too sure what 3/4’s are or if my school supports it - but from what I know it would be math, Chem or physics.
2: Only recently put into maths methods due to previous medical conditions causing absences meaning I haven’t done any advanced exams - just classwork, which I’ve been excelling at. However I did get an A on the assessment we just completed on quadratics.
Thank you again