Ok well I am currently doing spesh in year 11 and would like to share my imput.
So my school is annoyingly similar, due to some stupid new program I ended up finishing all math up to the start of 1/2 methods (so I did like year 10 enrichment level math) by the end of year 8. But my school was like nah ur year 5 naplan is too low so stay in normal math. Most boring 2 years of my life I swear to God. But anyway now I am doing spesh and methods and in regards to spesh I have some interesting opinions.
1) How difficult spesh is really comes down to how you learn. I absolutely do not believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is some mysterious and difficult beast of a subject that only "asians" as HUA put it can do. It is infact not that much harder than methods, in fact I would even dare to say that at times it is EASIER than methods. The reasons are:
1) The style for learning spesh is far different from methods. In the 1/2 it will be mostly new things and all of it will be new and look intimidating. But the bulk of your learning will not come from learning formulas as it is in methods, a thorough understanding of the theory and appreciation of how they work is vital to enjoying spesh. It is more of a theroy based subject where u need to look at how it works and learn the basics. Some of the questions will be basic "Use formula" but that is because it is all providing a tool box and building the foundation for a future study in math where what u learn will be great to have.
2) Their style of learning bleeds into the style of exams and tests. Unlike in methods where they try to trick you with stupid questions that r just worded so weirdly spesh has a very different approach. Here is the problem, this is what you have to do, do it. Sounds easier right? I mean in methods figuring out the question is like half the battle sometimes but with spesh, u know what u have to do. The only question is how to do it. And boy, is that hard
. They r not easy questions, the questions may be simple but what they r asking will appear confusing and intimidating and u will really struggle with some of them, but being able to work at it and think about it is part of what makes it so fun. It is all about what idea you come up with, how u manage to go about solving it etc. Unless specified, they won't care what method u use to find the answer. One favorite of mine is when it gives u a geometric shape (usually 2), and what I developed was a way to simply graph the shape (Circle equation, or just y=something x=something to get rectangles/squares) and then solve the geometry question as a pure algebra question. As long as u can show how u got the answer, in general u r good.
3) The content is wild. DO NOT BOTHER LOOKING AT THE STUDY DESIGN!!! Most useless peice of crap for spesh. How it works in the 1/2 r there are like 3 areas ur school is requied to show u, vectors, geometry and I think non linear graphs. Then the rest is up to them to choose between a variety of things. But u will find most of it is very cool and very fun, if u have a good teacher they will show u real world applications of the math but I digress.
If u really r bored in math, and r as good as u say u r, then by all means go for it! It will be hard, it won't come as easily as some other subjects but I feel like the struggle makes it all the more worth it and most importantly have some fun exploring some cool math
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