How I got a 50 in Further Mathematics - By Stick

[Professor Polonsky]

I believe having further in place is a good idea, but the academically stronger math students, who show very high capability in year 10 math, or have plans to do Specialist in year 12/ or co currently with further shouldn't be allowed.

Why not?

[Professor Polonsky]

More on-point though (I don't think any system which tries to order people by their potential to succeed in post-secondary education will be completely fair), you have to compete with stronger students in every subject. Why not mathematics?

[lala1911]

More on-point though (I don't think any system which tries to order people by their potential to succeed in post-secondary education will be completely fair), you have to compete with stronger students in every subject. Why not mathematics?

Well Further v Spesh is similar to EAL v English.. EAL is intended for students who have weaker English skills compared to English students.. same with Further and Spesh.

To be completely fair I don't know you're eligible to do EAL.

[Professor Polonsky]

EAL is designed for students from whom English has not been their primary language for most of their life, and hence they are at a disadvantage compared to mainstream English students. It's not about your level of skill, rather an inherent disadvantage.

To be honest, in an ideal world, I wouldn't be eligible for it. However, it is not comparable to Further/Spesh. You're attempting to make a separation by skill, which is not present in any VCE subject. If it were so, you would essentially be awarding people for being weaker students. A weaker student would be getting that 50 in Further than those getting lower marks in Methods/Spesh.

[Stick]

Well Further v Spesh is similar to EAL v English.. EAL is intended for students who have weaker English skills compared to English students.. same with Further and Spesh.

To be completely fair I don't know you're eligible to do EAL.

That's not really the same. Mathematics is the only instance in VCE where we get similar subjects varying in difficulty.

[Snorlax]

I'm not sure I understand the logic of having an 'easier maths'. Further really should either become harder, or be abolished. It's not like there's an easy chemistry, or history, or English.

To my understanding, the 3 maths available in VCE are scaled against each other. So it's not really an advantage, it's just harder work for the less capable. If you want a 'harder' maths, you should have gone and taken UMEP Maths or something.
Don't take away something that is built for the less capable students just to adjust for the needs of some of the more 'maths heavy' students.