So, you’re thinking about Mathematics Extension 2? Going further even just one mile can be intense, let alone four. The struggle between a nice push and a lighter load is always up to you to decide. And you may not necessarily know if your choice will backfire down the track. Taking a gamble is always risky, but it’s entirely up to you whether you want it to pay off.
What pushes a typical Extension 1 student into this course?
Talent alone can be enough for an X1 student to succeed, but it’s probably insufficient at this point. X1 is designed in a way such that the whole course builds on 2U. Mathematics Extension 2 does a bit of that but then throws a whole pile of random new concepts. Persistence and willingness are both required to handle the degree of difficulty this course imposes. You will need to devote a significant amount of time in this course to cover as much of it as you can; the course is so large that to properly cover it, the course actually requires all 240 indicative hours allocated instead of just the 60 extra you gain.
You’d want to be better at spotting subtleties when dealing with algebra, as well as have a strong ability to adapt to a new type of problem. Whilst you may feel overwhelmed, you should be prepared to brave the nuisance of excessive algebra. Little things such as being able to experiment can aid this. Time management will be creeping behind X2 students a lot, as they must make sure they don’t let maths eat into valuable study time for other subjects.
This course can be one of the most rewarding courses (high performance impacts extraordinarily on marks and many more university degrees will start easier). But, it can backfire if it’s all played out wrong.
Finding such a motivation
Mathematics Extension 2 has that effect where if you can’t do it, you will feel terrible and/or tired. If, back in X1, you could pick yourself up and somehow work around it, you’ll certainly be able to do it for X2. The course challenges you to explore more advanced methods and results. A word of warning: much of the examinable content is generally only discovered in past papers. Your textbooks are only useful up to a certain extent!
Anyone who really loves mathematics will already be there. Anyone who always pushes to the final answer is also there. But if you’re a bit too easily susceptible to abandoning nasty questions you may want to consider this subject’s value more carefully. It is regarded as one of the most rewarding courses. However, the payoffs aren’t realised if you attempt to do nothing but coast through it.
If you want to be super cool, you could be one of those students that will fall asleep from the fatigue of struggling, wake up, suddenly generate 10 or so light bulbs and then somehow finish it off!
This course IS a challenge
Essentially, Mathematics Extension 2 is just the overclocked version of X1. On an absolute scale, none of the eight topics can be immediately tagged as “easy”. Occasionally, concepts in this course become abstract. You may need to draw on your intuition to find an answer, and perhaps an expectation as to what the final answer is.
It’s possible to achieve exceedingly high marks in X1, but at the same time being hit by a mediocre one here. You simply cannot guarantee that you’ll address every cornerstone of the course; it’s ultimately a matter of how well you can apply your own skills to mathematical problems.
My experience tackling the Mathematics Extension 2 course:
This course was just love and hate. Although it ended up being my best course (and thank goodness it had), getting there had its ups and downs. At some point, a lot of concepts would stop making sense, and the solutions I see on past papers would read like elvish. Give it a few days later, and suddenly many things will click in. These moments of satisfaction were the best. As this was the hardest subject I took, and it only expanded my knowledge of maths concepts/results/methods further. At some point during my study schedule I decided that apart from Bloons Tower Defence, this would be a source of procrastination for me. Yes, sometimes when I’d get stuck I’d feel upset. Fortunately, it gets balanced out by the other times when I feel brilliant about solving the last question on the paper.
I made sure that despite my struggles, I wouldn’t just stop right there. And that was probably why I felt so excited when I saw my end result. It showed me that my efforts had paid off and encouraged me to pursue my passion for maths further. It was certainly a rewarding experience at the end of the day.
Rui wrote course notes for Mathematics Extension 2 – buy them here!
