ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => VCE Mathematics => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Specialist Mathematics => Topic started by: Henreezy on April 11, 2013, 03:48:34 pm

Title: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: Henreezy on April 11, 2013, 03:48:34 pm
I don't know if there's a topic on this but,
it seems like everyone in my class (myself included) are enjoying specialist more than methods and finding it more engaging and easy as opposed to methods. The general consensus is that methods is more difficult or uninteresting.. how do you all feel about it?

I guess being engaged, switched on and focused is what makes it easier and simultaneously more enjoyable, but I don't see why methods feels harder than spesh..
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: Professor Polonsky on April 11, 2013, 03:57:26 pm
I think difficulty is very subjective, and Spesh builds on many Methods topics. But as for Spesh being more enjoyable, completely agreed. And I think you'd find that is indeed the overall consensus amongst Spesh students.
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: Stick on April 11, 2013, 07:22:09 pm
Since Further just ingrained perfection (in terms of minimising errors) in me, I actually enjoy Methods a lot more since it's easier than Specialist to achieve it. I'm not used to that sort of uncomfortable feeling I get with Specialist due to the long, involved and often messy working out just yet.
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: Conic on April 11, 2013, 08:07:27 pm
Specialist is more interesting, Methods is more simple imo.
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: deleted on April 11, 2013, 08:09:38 pm
I enjoy specialist WAY more, and I probably do twice as much work for spesh than I do for methods.

Yet, I went better on my first SAC in methods than in specialist.
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: silverpixeli on April 11, 2013, 08:16:05 pm
I much prefer specialist. Maybe it's the challenge, maybe it's the topics we cover. I find complex numbers and vectors SO much more interesting than matrix transformations or even probability, for example.
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: pi on April 11, 2013, 08:19:08 pm
Spesh is more fun and intellectually stimulating, Methods is easier to get a higher score.
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: zvezda on April 13, 2013, 06:09:30 pm
agreed. I find myself so distracted doing methods because its just the same stuff all the time
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: Thu Thu Train on April 13, 2013, 06:16:12 pm
Methods is all about 'doing' maths while Specialist is more about 'understanding' maths?
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: lzxnl on April 14, 2013, 10:11:31 am
I personally found Methods to be a bore no matter how many times I did it. As everyone else has mentioned, Specialist Maths actually gets us thinking. Methods is just regurgitating what we learnt from the textbook with different numbers.

I think difficulty is very subjective, and Spesh builds on many Methods topics. But as for Spesh being more enjoyable, completely agreed. And I think you'd find that is indeed the overall consensus amongst Spesh students.

The irony is that although it is the overall consensus at my school too, Methods students choose not to take Specialist Maths because they think it's too hard. The students that do...enjoy it.
Title: Re: Specialist vs Methods
Post by: BigAl on April 14, 2013, 03:12:48 pm
Those who dont like the transformation matrices and stuff..you're gonna have a bad time at uni :) I remember I left the transformation question entirely blank in the second exam. One more thing..I enjoyed spesh way more than methods but ended up with two exactly same scores :)