Post by: m@tty on July 08, 2009, 11:59:44 pm
thanks
Post by: TrueTears on July 09, 2009, 12:01:04 am
Post by: m@tty on July 09, 2009, 12:05:05 am
Post by: TonyHem on July 09, 2009, 01:17:04 am
Post by: NE2000 on July 09, 2009, 10:07:50 am
I'm doing specialist next year and all I've heard is that its hard and time consuming. I would like your opinion of the difficulty. Is there anything braintwistingly hard? Will it take all my time?
thanks
It really shouldn't. If you find Methods easy (as you have indicated) then the bits on graphing and differentiation shouldn't cause any problems. The kinematics and mechanics stuff generally isn't that bad. And if you are good at maths in general then you would hopefully understand the trig, integration and vectors after a while. And that (and a little bit more) is about it for spesh.
Post by: m@tty on July 09, 2009, 10:29:29 am
sorry everybody for my previous post, I did not intend to sound cocky.
Post by: NE2000 on July 09, 2009, 11:35:06 am
I heard specialist maths has alot of worded type questions?
From what I've experienced thus far it is similar to Methods in that the tech free will be fairly non-wordy short answer questions, the multiple choice won't be that wordy either and the extended response can be worded or non-worded just depending on the question itself.
Post by: m@tty on July 09, 2009, 02:13:00 pm
How much time does it take?
Post by: /0 on July 09, 2009, 05:08:11 pm
How much time you take depends on how much practice you want with problems. As long as you do the questions your teacher sets for you then you will have covered the 'theory' part. The majority of spesh problems you encounter in exams and tests will follow predictable patterns, and as long as you do the set questions you should be able to handle these. However, there will always be those problems which require more analytical thinking. You can handle them having only done the set questions, but it's better to have practice beforehand with extended-response questions. Probably doing 5-10 extra analysis-type questions per topic will prepare you well (this doesn't include exam/sac revision time) throughout the year, but remember that
Post by: TrueTears on July 09, 2009, 05:12:10 pm
Specialist is mostly problem solving and little theory.I disagree, it is better to just do the whole book rather than set questions, teachers miss out on important questions.
How much time you take depends on how much practice you want with problems. As long as you do the questions your teacher sets for you then you will have covered the 'theory' part. The majority of spesh problems you encounter in exams and tests will follow predictable patterns, and as long as you do the set questions you should be able to handle these. However, there will always be those problems which require more analytical thinking. You can handle them having only done the set questions, but it's better to have practice beforehand with extended-response questions. Probably doing 5-10 extra analysis-type questions per topic will prepare you well (this doesn't include exam/sac revision time) throughout the year, but remember that
Post by: hyperblade01 on July 09, 2009, 05:20:17 pm
If you've done year 11 spesh (GMA) then like half of what you do in year 12 is already done
Post by: zzdfa on July 09, 2009, 05:20:37 pm
there are very few exam style questions in the textbooks, most of them are routine computation problems, not really problem solving.
actually disregard that, we used maths quest last year so my advice is probably wrong if you use essentials
Post by: /0 on July 09, 2009, 06:01:42 pm
Specialist is mostly problem solving and little theory.I disagree, it is better to just do the whole book rather than set questions, teachers miss out on important questions.
How much time you take depends on how much practice you want with problems. As long as you do the questions your teacher sets for you then you will have covered the 'theory' part. The majority of spesh problems you encounter in exams and tests will follow predictable patterns, and as long as you do the set questions you should be able to handle these. However, there will always be those problems which require more analytical thinking. You can handle them having only done the set questions, but it's better to have practice beforehand with extended-response questions. Probably doing 5-10 extra analysis-type questions per topic will prepare you well (this doesn't include exam/sac revision time) throughout the year, but remember that
We are, of course, assuming that the teachers have picked the important questions. While doing the whole book would be a strategy suited to people like you, it is not suited to everybody.
Post by: TrueTears on July 09, 2009, 06:06:25 pm
Assuming is not good. Especially when you have such bad teachers.Specialist is mostly problem solving and little theory.I disagree, it is better to just do the whole book rather than set questions, teachers miss out on important questions.
How much time you take depends on how much practice you want with problems. As long as you do the questions your teacher sets for you then you will have covered the 'theory' part. The majority of spesh problems you encounter in exams and tests will follow predictable patterns, and as long as you do the set questions you should be able to handle these. However, there will always be those problems which require more analytical thinking. You can handle them having only done the set questions, but it's better to have practice beforehand with extended-response questions. Probably doing 5-10 extra analysis-type questions per topic will prepare you well (this doesn't include exam/sac revision time) throughout the year, but remember that
We are, of course, assuming that the teachers have picked the important questions. While doing the whole book would be a strategy suited to people like you, it is not suited to everybody.
By personal experience, the teachers certainly have missed out on a lot of the good questions.
Post by: rhjc.1991 on July 09, 2009, 06:18:30 pm
The great TT vs /0 argument...Assuming is not good. Especially when you have such bad teachers.Specialist is mostly problem solving and little theory.I disagree, it is better to just do the whole book rather than set questions, teachers miss out on important questions.
How much time you take depends on how much practice you want with problems. As long as you do the questions your teacher sets for you then you will have covered the 'theory' part. The majority of spesh problems you encounter in exams and tests will follow predictable patterns, and as long as you do the set questions you should be able to handle these. However, there will always be those problems which require more analytical thinking. You can handle them having only done the set questions, but it's better to have practice beforehand with extended-response questions. Probably doing 5-10 extra analysis-type questions per topic will prepare you well (this doesn't include exam/sac revision time) throughout the year, but remember that
We are, of course, assuming that the teachers have picked the important questions. While doing the whole book would be a strategy suited to people like you, it is not suited to everybody.
By personal experience, the teachers certainly have missed out on a lot of the good questions.
Post by: Damo17 on July 09, 2009, 06:30:26 pm
I think it is not about how many questions you do but just making sure you understand all the concepts to be covered and feel very confident with them. Once the concepts are learned you should go onto questions from practice exams as many questions from the textbook you would not find in the exams. Doing practice exams in timed conditions and then going over what you couldn't do or got wrong gives much more consolidation to what you have learnt that the textbook questions.
Doing many practice exams and analysing your performance allows you to see clearly what are your strengths and weaknesses. So for your weaknesses, you could go through some textbook questions on that before going ahead with more exams or just go through those exam questions thoroughly and that should give you a much better understanding.
Well this is just my opinion.
Post by: rhjc.1991 on July 09, 2009, 06:34:58 pm
For example, I thought
Post by: TrueTears on July 09, 2009, 06:39:17 pm
Post by: Damo17 on July 09, 2009, 06:58:31 pm
Well, can you really?
For example, I thoughtwas hard until I tried doing it.
Your right about that not being hard.
Post by: rhjc.1991 on July 09, 2009, 07:07:01 pm
Post by: /0 on July 09, 2009, 08:37:43 pm
Assuming is not good. Especially when you have such bad teachers.Specialist is mostly problem solving and little theory.I disagree, it is better to just do the whole book rather than set questions, teachers miss out on important questions.
How much time you take depends on how much practice you want with problems. As long as you do the questions your teacher sets for you then you will have covered the 'theory' part. The majority of spesh problems you encounter in exams and tests will follow predictable patterns, and as long as you do the set questions you should be able to handle these. However, there will always be those problems which require more analytical thinking. You can handle them having only done the set questions, but it's better to have practice beforehand with extended-response questions. Probably doing 5-10 extra analysis-type questions per topic will prepare you well (this doesn't include exam/sac revision time) throughout the year, but remember that
We are, of course, assuming that the teachers have picked the important questions. While doing the whole book would be a strategy suited to people like you, it is not suited to everybody.
By personal experience, the teachers certainly have missed out on a lot of the good questions.
I agree, that can happen. But it doesn't necessarily warrant doing the entire book. It is not as if the good questions the teachers miss (which are pretty rare given mundane topic exercises) are priceless relics which won't turn up elsewhere. If the missed questions are exam-type questions then in all likelihood they will turn up in revision materials or extended response. If they aren't exam-type questions then they could be attempted out of curiosity but not out of necessity.
Post by: m@tty on July 09, 2009, 09:03:48 pm
and I will be the only student.
The teacher has not taught specialist before, so I am not sure
of his knowledge of how to teach it, or the actual concepts.
Post by: TrueTears on July 09, 2009, 09:28:35 pm
The more you do the better you get. Why won't you do more?Assuming is not good. Especially when you have such bad teachers.Specialist is mostly problem solving and little theory.I disagree, it is better to just do the whole book rather than set questions, teachers miss out on important questions.
How much time you take depends on how much practice you want with problems. As long as you do the questions your teacher sets for you then you will have covered the 'theory' part. The majority of spesh problems you encounter in exams and tests will follow predictable patterns, and as long as you do the set questions you should be able to handle these. However, there will always be those problems which require more analytical thinking. You can handle them having only done the set questions, but it's better to have practice beforehand with extended-response questions. Probably doing 5-10 extra analysis-type questions per topic will prepare you well (this doesn't include exam/sac revision time) throughout the year, but remember that
We are, of course, assuming that the teachers have picked the important questions. While doing the whole book would be a strategy suited to people like you, it is not suited to everybody.
By personal experience, the teachers certainly have missed out on a lot of the good questions.
I agree, that can happen. But it doesn't necessarily warrant doing the entire book. It is not as if the good questions the teachers miss (which are pretty rare given mundane topic exercises) are priceless relics which won't turn up elsewhere. If the missed questions are exam-type questions then in all likelihood they will turn up in revision materials or extended response. If they aren't exam-type questions then they could be attempted out of curiosity but not out of necessity.
Post by: wombifat on July 09, 2009, 09:41:16 pm
Next year is the first time my school will be offering specialist,
and I will be the only student.
The teacher has not taught specialist before, so I am not sure
of his knowledge of how to teach it, or the actual concepts.
If you have the teacher i think you may have, he's pretty smart. He got the marks to do medicine apparently.
Post by: mypurpleundercracka on July 09, 2009, 09:50:26 pm
Next year is the first time my school will be offering specialist,
and I will be the only student.
The teacher has not taught specialist before, so I am not sure
of his knowledge of how to teach it, or the actual concepts.
how can they afford to run the class with a single student?
Post by: m@tty on July 09, 2009, 09:52:53 pm
because there is currently not someone on staff who has experiance with specialist maths.
Post by: zzdfa on July 09, 2009, 09:56:02 pm
diminishing returnsThe more you do the better you get. Why won't you do more?Assuming is not good. Especially when you have such bad teachers.Specialist is mostly problem solving and little theory.I disagree, it is better to just do the whole book rather than set questions, teachers miss out on important questions.
How much time you take depends on how much practice you want with problems. As long as you do the questions your teacher sets for you then you will have covered the 'theory' part. The majority of spesh problems you encounter in exams and tests will follow predictable patterns, and as long as you do the set questions you should be able to handle these. However, there will always be those problems which require more analytical thinking. You can handle them having only done the set questions, but it's better to have practice beforehand with extended-response questions. Probably doing 5-10 extra analysis-type questions per topic will prepare you well (this doesn't include exam/sac revision time) throughout the year, but remember that
We are, of course, assuming that the teachers have picked the important questions. While doing the whole book would be a strategy suited to people like you, it is not suited to everybody.
By personal experience, the teachers certainly have missed out on a lot of the good questions.
I agree, that can happen. But it doesn't necessarily warrant doing the entire book. It is not as if the good questions the teachers miss (which are pretty rare given mundane topic exercises) are priceless relics which won't turn up elsewhere. If the missed questions are exam-type questions then in all likelihood they will turn up in revision materials or extended response. If they aren't exam-type questions then they could be attempted out of curiosity but not out of necessity.
the time spent on doing all the textbook questions could be better spent on doing past exams/other subjects/relaxing ;p
Post by: TonyHem on July 10, 2009, 12:14:23 am
We get told to do like every 2nd question, or the 1st column because it is all the same kind of question. ( But the last few of each "question" are always harder, so if you find the 1st one easy, maybe just do the last row/column or w/e)
Post by: shinny on July 10, 2009, 12:54:39 am
The more you do the better you get. Why won't you do more?
This is obvious, but is it practical? I don't think everyone has the motivation to do the entire book. Diverting most of my time to English, I barely even did the exercises and just stuck with the examples we were given in class (mind that I had a ridiculously good spesh teacher though). Also, doing the entire book often gets you into the trap of just applying a 'copy-paste' method to each question section, and not really understanding the concepts behind it. Whilst obviously it's not harmful, there's usually time better spent elsewhere, or just simply not enough time to even do every exercise for most people. My advice is for people to get the Essential spesh book and do some of the extended response style questions from there. Lots to learn from that book unlike others such as MathsQuest which was just rubbish. While you'll probably get stuck often, getting stuck in spesh actually helped me more than anything as I'd spend perhaps an hour on a question, but in the end, completely understand the concept and disregard the need for simply 'grinding' questions for that chapter.
Post by: TrueTears on July 10, 2009, 01:33:20 am
Post by: NE2000 on July 10, 2009, 10:09:59 am
-TT does every question in the book and is adamant he didn't waste time doing so
-/0 doesn't do every question in the book and is adamant he doesn't need to
That's the way all these arguments go.
I started doing every question in the book but stopped because I realised it wasn't helping me too much (MathsQuest :( ). So I just quickly did the set questions and read through all the other questions, if I saw a question that I didn't instantly see the solution I did that too. That should be generally OK. I do Essentials now :) Just doing the questions that seem to be possible problem-causers and the chapter reviews.
But in general I agree with /0 on this. I feel you will get a reward for doing every question in the book, but it is less than the reward you could get from spending that exact amount of time for extra questions from practice exams. But on the other hand, at this stage of the year I'm not sure whether many people have done 10-20 trial exams for spesh. In that sense, during Terms 1 and 2 where your focus is on understanding the concepts and doing the textbook, if you finish every question in the textbook then you can only benefit. Because if person A has finished every question in the textbook and person B has finished the set questions + a few trial exams, then I would say person B probably has better used their first semester, but if person A has finished every question in the textbook and person B has finished the set questions only...and both of them will be doing trial exams next semester, then in terms of spesh alone person A probably is better off (assuming equal mathematical talent, all other variables kept constant).
Just my two cents :)
Post by: kurrymuncher on July 10, 2009, 02:11:48 pm
Post by: andy0004 on July 13, 2009, 06:47:56 pm
Doing methods the year beofre doing Specialist makes the course easier to understand in my opinion. Also, having done physics, the physics part of specialist (last 3 chapters) will be a lot easier. In my opinion, if you do yr 12 methods in yr 11 and managed well, you really should do the subject.
Post by: m@tty on July 13, 2009, 09:24:08 pm
Not to say anyone elses wasn't.
Post by: dcc on July 13, 2009, 09:55:38 pm
And even if you did for whatever silly reason choose to do some questions from the book, there is certainly no need to do all of them. Such an endeavour is overzealous and unnecessary. If you can learn a technique within 5 examples (and I mean learn as in really learn, can recite derivation on the spot), then there's no need to do any more.