ATAR Notes: Forum

Uni Stuff => Universities - Victoria => University of Melbourne => Topic started by: Ilovemathsmeth on August 13, 2009, 06:31:15 pm

Title: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on August 13, 2009, 06:31:15 pm
I have read in a booklet that Specialist Maths is not a prerequisite for Actuarial Studies. I am keen to pursue it but I do not do Specialist Maths. What kind of alternative course pathway is there for me to take and is it even possible to do it without Specialist? Your advice is appreciated!
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: lacoste on August 13, 2009, 06:43:12 pm
I have read in a booklet that Specialist Maths is not a prerequisite for Actuarial Studies.

Yes. Possible if you said its not a prerequiste.

Also, if you enjoy maths then that should be great for you in uni.
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: IntoTheNewWorld on August 13, 2009, 06:46:21 pm
I have read in a booklet that Specialist Maths is not a prerequisite for Actuarial Studies. I am keen to pursue it but I do not do Specialist Maths. What kind of alternative course pathway is there for me to take and is it even possible to do it without Specialist? Your advice is appreciated!

I believe you take some sort of bridging Maths subject if you don't do Specialist Maths, it's definitely possible to do Actuarial Studies without doing Specialist Maths in VCE
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Gloamglozer on August 13, 2009, 07:07:23 pm
Yes, in the 2009 VTAC Guide, it says that a bridging course will be required if you did not do Spesh in VCE.

I was going to ask about that in the up-coming Open Day.  :)
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on August 13, 2009, 11:02:22 pm
Awesome!! =D

Thanks heaps!
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Voltaire on August 13, 2009, 11:53:14 pm
do spesh math if your planning on going to melb uni
if you get over 37 (i/e minimum of 38)you can go into accelarted maths, and if you get between 27 and 37 you cant skip calculus 1.
so yea its not a prerequisite but makes things easier
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on August 14, 2009, 07:43:35 pm
Ohh but I'm in year 12, I can't change subjects at this point! I think it's the biggest mistake I made with my subjects...but whatever. At least I can do Actuarial without it.

I covered Methods in my summer holidays of year 10, reckon I could cover the Spesh course over a summer?
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: zzdfa on August 14, 2009, 07:55:29 pm
yes, you have around 4 months = 16 weeks > 1 chapter a week

+ you obviously know the basics (methods) well
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: AppleXY on August 14, 2009, 09:31:08 pm
but the thing I don't get is that spec math is more suited to engineers than actuaries :S

I mean statics,dynamics and vectors (ok vectors may be useful lol) are completely useless in business, really.
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: zzdfa on August 14, 2009, 10:07:39 pm
sure spesh it's more suited to engineers, but the other stuff you learn is still useful;dynamics/statics are only a small part of the spesh course
also the reasoning, problem solving abilities blah blah blah that you get by doing spesh are good.

then again everything you learn in high school you will relearn in uni, I guess they just want to make sure you can keep up (i.e. if you can't get >37 in spesh you won't succeed in acc maths 1/2).
You could probably talk to someone at UoM and ask them if you would be able to get into acc maths 1/2 without spesh, I think they would let you with your methods score.

i am just curious, why did you not do spesh if you love maths so much?
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: mark_alec on August 15, 2009, 12:33:11 am
It would be difficult to get into the accelerated maths stream without specialist maths. You may be able to take an ability test, but if you don't know calculus and vectors from the spec course, I doubt you could do well.
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: monokekie on August 16, 2009, 06:17:47 pm
oh with regard to the >37 spesh score, is it scaled or raw? lol
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: danieltennis on August 16, 2009, 06:24:42 pm
oh with regard to the >37 spesh score, is it scaled or raw? lol

37 raw
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: monokekie on August 16, 2009, 06:25:56 pm
arhok tkx
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Gloamglozer on August 17, 2009, 02:55:21 pm
Here's a handout I grabbed from Open Day yesterday.  It's double sided:
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Gloamglozer on August 17, 2009, 02:57:07 pm
And here's the other side.  This is the actual program:

Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: lacoste on August 17, 2009, 04:06:19 pm
hey, where did you get that for gloam ?

are other majors listed like this?

thx
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Gloamglozer on August 17, 2009, 04:59:19 pm
hey, where did you get that for gloam ?

are other majors listed like this?

thx

I grabbed a copy of almost all the brochures in the Economics Faculty at The University of Melbourne Open Day yesterday.  The "actuarial studies" is a major of the B.Com at UoM.  What else are you interested in?
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: lacoste on August 17, 2009, 05:08:04 pm
Could you also post up the guides of Management at UoM if thats not any trouble?

Just wondering the exact subjects needed in that. The website have only a very brief subject plan
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: zzdfa on August 17, 2009, 05:24:19 pm
lacoste, do you mean handbook.unimelb.edu.au?
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on August 17, 2009, 05:43:09 pm
Thanks so much :)
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on August 17, 2009, 05:47:47 pm
sure spesh it's more suited to engineers, but the other stuff you learn is still useful;dynamics/statics are only a small part of the spesh course
also the reasoning, problem solving abilities blah blah blah that you get by doing spesh are good.

then again everything you learn in high school you will relearn in uni, I guess they just want to make sure you can keep up (i.e. if you can't get >37 in spesh you won't succeed in acc maths 1/2).
You could probably talk to someone at UoM and ask them if you would be able to get into acc maths 1/2 without spesh, I think they would let you with your methods score.

i am just curious, why did you not do spesh if you love maths so much?

Haha thanks for your suggestions!

No worries, I didn't take it because people told me that doing both a LOTE and Specialist in year 12 would hamper your performance rather than enhance it. I was doing French, but lost interest in the subject after having a pretty good year and then ended up having no LOTE and no Specialist :(
Title: Re: Specialist Maths for Actuarial Studies
Post by: QuantumJG on August 18, 2009, 12:02:53 am
I have read in a booklet that Specialist Maths is not a prerequisite for Actuarial Studies. I am keen to pursue it but I do not do Specialist Maths. What kind of alternative course pathway is there for me to take and is it even possible to do it without Specialist? Your advice is appreciated!

Specialist maths is a prerequisite for actuarial studies. This is what I hate about people who do methods and further and not methods and specialist maths. Since you got a 49 raw for maths methods last year, a 38 in specialist maths would have been EASY. For actuarial studies you need to do accelerated maths (entry requirement is 37+ in specialist maths) for some reason. You could potentially try and ask them since you got an almost perfect score for methods whether you could do some form of bridging.

the maths I enjoy though is pure and applied, but, statistics yuck.