Should I do Specialist?

[kaganz]

See at our school to be eligible for spesh you need to get a 40+ for further in year 11, and to be doing reasonably well in Methods.
I think I'll be getting roughly 46 for Further and I am well in Methods, however i am reluctant to do this subject.
I have been told that it is 40% physics, and I've yet to see physics in my life, however people who are doing specialist this year claim that it helps you in methods immensely and regardless of my lack of physics I should give it a go.
So without any Physics knowledge will I be able to cope with Specialist and how does it help with Methods?

[tony3272]

I would say give it a go. It much more exciting than methods and the physics integrated into it are just basic concepts to explain the maths. Half of my class don't do physics and they're doing just fine. Some of the physics concepts are general knowledge that you didn't know came with equations and others are just things such as projectile motion and such that we prove using basic algebraic skills.

In terms of helping with methods, it will immensely. Almost everything you do in methods except for probability will be covered in spesh or simply just be skills we're assumed to already know.

I've found spesh to be my most enjoyable subject this year as it actually provides a challenge and the concepts are pretty interesting.


By the way are you doing GMA at the moment? The content is pretty much the same with a bit of a step up and more calculus.

[jane1234]

I do spesh and I definitely don't do physics. I have heard that spesh helps physics rather than physics helping spesh so i think you'll be fine without doing any physics. I HATED all the vectors/mechanics/physics-y stuff in GMA last year but this year I've found it fairly easy - these concepts are a lot easier to grasp than some of the others and there are only so many questions they can ask you for this topic. That said, I still sometimes wish the whole course was calculus...

As for helping with methods, I have no idea 'coz I did methods first... but I do find they are quite different subjects, and that the only real overlap would be some of the differentiation/antidifferentiation techniques...

I'd say go for it though, spesh has definitely been one of my favourite subjects this year...

[nacho]

if your going to get a 46 in further, good in methods,
then wouldnt the 3 maths cant be in your top 4 rule stuff you over? (unless further is not ur top 4 )

[dc302]

I agree that spesh helps physics, as well as methods. I did no methods study throughout the year, only spesh, and managed to do decently in methods. I didn't do physics at all, but I did do first year physics in uni, and spesh helped with that immensely. IMO spesh trains your analytic skills the most out of any maths/physics subject in high school, and really sets you up for uni if you wanna do something analytic such as maths/physics/engineering/computer science. Even things like chemistry/physiology (both of which I also did).

However, like nacho said, I don't think you can credit all 3 subjects.. so that may be a problem.

[b^3]

I agree that spesh helps physics, as well as methods. I did no methods study throughout the year, only spesh, and managed to do decently in methods. I didn't do physics at all, but I did do first year physics in uni, and spesh helped with that immensely. IMO spesh trains your analytic skills the most out of any maths/physics subject in high school, and really sets you up for uni if you wanna do something analytic such as maths/physics/engineering/computer science. Even things like chemistry/physiology (both of which I also did).

However, like nacho said, I don't think you can credit all 3 subjects.. so that may be a problem.

A couple of years back you weren't allowed to do three maths but they recently changed this. You can do three maths now, they just can't all be in your top 4, one has to be in the bottom two. But hey, if you are good at maths, stick to it and for me specialist is my most enjoyable subject this year (well every actually).

[Greatness]

I have never done physics stuff before doing spesh, so i thought it would be hard. But after you get your head around it, it's really all the same things over and over Spesh is definitely worth doing, the way you go about answering questions will be faster and more advanced so you will find methods easier compared to if you didnt do spesh. Well that's what i think anyway.

Youre only problem is that you'll be doing 3 maths and it seems as tho you'll do well in them, so they might be your highest scaled scores :s So you'll have to think about that, especially if you're not great with yuor 5th/6th subject. For example i dont think its worth it if get 40s in all the math, but only get say 35 scaled in your bottom 2. That means you're losing roughly 9~ points :S

[m.dogan]

Hey Kaganz,
I'm currently doing spesh and i must say it helps phys more than phys helps spesh.. Are you doing GMA?
Oh and btw spesh helps methods immensely...
So Yeah go for it!

[xZero]

Imma go against the norm here, doing physics helped me in spesh so damn much, in fact everyone in my spesh class who didnt do physics didn't do well in the kinematics/dynamics sac.

However dont let that stop you from taking up spesh, it helps with method (basically did no work for method except right before a sac) and you just have to work a little bit harder to understand the physics part of spesh which is basically newton's 1st 2nd 3rd law.

[Special At Specialist]

Specialist is my funnest subject! I would definitely reccomend it. It makes maths seem a lot more interesting and is a good challenge for a competent student.
I hardly do any methods homework at all and I get A+'s in it most of the year just because I do specialist.
Pretty much every methods topic (except probability) is covered in the specialist course, only to a much deeper extent, so if you can do well in specialist, then you will probably ace methods.

Having said that, I don't do physics and I've found that dynamics is one of the hardest topics for me. I can do kinematics fine since that is mostly calculus and I own at calculus, but I struggle with dynamics. However, dynamics is only one topic, so if you can learn that well, then physics won't help specialist much more.

Physics is basically a really dumbed down version of maths. It is covered in formulas and the hardest part by far is interpreting the question. The maths side of physics is just substituting numbers into a formula which takes little effort at all. I hate physics but I love specialist maths.

[Truck]

Specialist is my funnest subject! I would definitely reccomend it. It makes maths seem a lot more interesting and is a good challenge for a competent student.
I hardly do any methods homework at all and I get A+'s in it most of the year just because I do specialist.
Pretty much every methods topic (except probability) is covered in the specialist course, only to a much deeper extent, so if you can do well in specialist, then you will probably ace methods.

Having said that, I don't do physics and I've found that dynamics is one of the hardest topics for me. I can do kinematics fine since that is mostly calculus and I own at calculus, but I struggle with dynamics. However, dynamics is only one topic, so if you can learn that well, then physics won't help specialist much more.

Physics is basically a really dumbed down version of maths. It is covered in formulas and the hardest part by far is interpreting the question. The maths side of physics is just substituting numbers into a formula which takes little effort at all. I hate physics but I love specialist maths.

Physics is the science which tries to explain how everything in our world interacts and basically works! To say it's dumb downed Maths is pretty far off man, they're both pretty different, and everything in Maths that's Physics based (Dynamics/Kinematics/Mechanics) is just that, based off Physics! At VCE level Physics is pretty easy, but in the whole scheme of things? It's possibly one of the toughest subjects you can study at a high level.

If you guys are doing Spec. without doing physics, I'd suggest in the summer holidays to get a Physics textbook and do the Dynamics/Statics sections in there (and maybe Kinematics, albeit it's much easier to grasp without much physics knowledge). Doing the actual physics work on Dynamics makes it many, many times easier to do.

[tram]

do spech, it's not that bad, physics might help but is defs no magic solution, you'll have to work at it either way if you want to do well, it's just the concepts of physics extended with lots of calculus and vector chucked in-stuff that you wont touch in physics, i never was a fan of physics but topped the class in the dynamics assessment and got full marks so no physics doesn't count you out of doing well by any means.

If you like maths, go for it. Also the main way it will help methods is by making it look much simpler and conceptually easier in comparison, tbh there's not a HUGE content overlap, but enough to let you just slack off in methods every now and then

[dc302]

Lol at maths vs physics debates.

[kwheattt]

if you enjoy maths, then yes!
why? It helps methods immensely, it is actually quite interesting, and you don't have to do physics to be understand dynamics etc.
physics would help, but definately not necessary... I managed without ever doing physics and looking back I probably should've read a physics textbook, but I still managed to adequately complete the exam.
I say, go for it!

[golden]

You will not be at a disadvantage without Physics for Specialist Mathematics.