I've been thinking about my subject selection as teachers are just starting to introduce it to the class. I'm currently in Year 9 with an accelerated program and thus complete a 3/4 next year. So far, my maths teacher has suggested a plan along the lines of:
Year 10: Further 3/4 + Methods 1/2
Year 11: Methods 3/4 + Specialist 1/2
Year 12: Specialist 3/4
However, having covered in class some of the further mathematics work (e.g. linear programming) and briefly glanced at a past exam, I am not so keen. Would I be right in concluding it is more procedure-based rather than mathematical intuition? Similarly, I've covered matrices stuff from a more advanced linear algebra text yet how the information is presented in Further alienates my understanding
. I've really enjoyed learning trig/calculus/derivations because it 'makes sense' to me - I'm not sure how well these skills would translate.
Is doing Further really worth it, and otherwise, would it make sense to 'shift' specialist down to do it simultaneously with methods in Year 10/11?