Is it easy?

[hey222]

Hey I was actually wondering how easy Further Maths is? Is it under-estimated? I mean from what I see (I'm in year 10, Math advanced and have *fanatically* bought the Further book) it is quite straight-forward and simple? Should I think again?

[MJRomeo81]

It's easy to sit back all year and get above 30. However it's fucking insane to get 50. At the top end, one mark lost = 1 study score. Don't forget scaling either.

If you're math advanced, I'd definitely be dong Methods due to university prereqs. Further is so tedious you'd probably enjoy Methods or spesh more anyway.

 

[paulsterio]

yes, further maths is extremely easy to lose marks and hence study scores, it also scales down

with the new spesh scaling, you can get a 50 with a 38 raw, i think getting a 38 raw in spesh is easier than getting a 50 raw in further, any day, not to mention spesh will help you with methods

[Furbob]

Further maths can be useful if you're planning to do Commerce for statistics (is a compulsory unit at Monash, not sure about Melbourne)

[Planck's constant]

Hey I was actually wondering how easy Further Maths is? Is it under-estimated? I mean from what I see (I'm in year 10, Math advanced and have *fanatically* bought the Further book) it is quite straight-forward and simple? Should I think again?

No. It is not under-estimated. Its dead easy.
I did not do Further, but I am currently helping 2 Year 12 students with it.
I cant even think of Further as Maths. Its more like a Humanities subject.

If you are planning ahead for Uni, it is infinitely better to just do the three maths: Methods, Spesh, UMEP/MUEP.
Not only will this combo give you max value for ATAR purposes, but also when you get to Uni you will be streets ahead of everyone tackling serious Calculus and Linear Algebra for the first time. 

[Stick]

If you have a choice in it, don't do it. At my school, we weren't allowed to do Methods 3/4 in Year 11 after doing 1/2 in Year 10, so we could either stop accelerating or complete Further 3/4. I could have done the former, but at my school non-accelerating students only do 5 VCE subjects, instead of 6, so I had to do it if I wanted to maximise my ATAR.

Further Maths is becoming extremely competitive and is being taken by a lot of good Maths students. I only recommend it if you're alright at Methods and enjoy maths.

[greenbeans]

Easy to do understand and get decent marks, hard to do exceptionally well in.

Why? Well I've kinda just explained why. The more people understand the theory and how to do the questions, the more competition there is for the highest marks.

I enjoyed it because it was a break from my 4 mainly essay-based subjects and it was my only maths, but also because the content was pretty simple and logical.

A lot of the content previously learnt in years leading up to VCE is a great foundation for Futher.

Best of luck!

[Black Cat.1]

i dunno, i found it pretty easy. I got a raw 31 in methods    but i got a raw 43 in further  .... clearly i wasnt a very maths oriented student, but i did well in further because i BELIEVED i could do well. u have to believe in urself if u want to ace a subject. i got 94.15, and all my teachers said i wouldnt beat 85. just believe and u can do it

[max payne]

I dont think any subject is 'easy' or 'hard', they just require different skills because at the end of the day your not graded on your marks but where you placed compared to everyone else. Its all relative so you should pick subjects that suit your skills. If your very cautious and good at minimising mistakes then further would suit you.

[nisha]

i think getting a 38 raw in spesh is easier than getting a 50 raw in further, any day

Thats quite unfair to say. I know you personally got an excellent score for Spesh, but in the end, you cannot distinguish which is easier or which is harder. Maybe you are just really smart, and by saying that its easy to get a 38 raw score for spesh, is slightly unfair to those of whom who find it difficult to get a score like that. Not everyone is as smart as you palusterio. I would encourage some diplomacy, as there are some people (me, namely) who are not gifted and find it extremely hard to do well in spesh.

[mpathy]

i think getting a 38 raw in spesh is easier than getting a 50 raw in further, any day

Thats quite unfair to say. I know you personally got an excellent score for Spesh, but in the end, you cannot distinguish which is easier or which is harder. Maybe you are just really smart, and by saying that its easy to get a 38 raw score for spesh, is slightly unfair to those of whom who find it difficult to get a score like that. Not everyone is as smart as you palusterio. I would encourage some diplomacy, as there are some people (me, namely) who are not gifted and find it extremely hard to do well in spesh.

I concur. It takes me absolutely ages for the information to stick into my brain, literally, couple that with depression, social+family problems and your in for the worst year of your life. Everyone is different some people are just naturally more orientated to maths/science subjects while others prefer the humanities more hence why they find the subject more difficult, some people are just not good with abstract concepts in general and that's why they choose subjects which are more hands-on, carpenters, electricians etc. there is this perception that the people who go TAFE are just slackers who don't like to do work, but that IMO is ridiculous since everyone learns differently. Schools should start actually integrating more senses (visual especially) into the learning, not everyone can understand a formula straight away, some people need to incorporate all their senses in order to understand the material deeply which is what the exam requires.

[Black Cat.1]

yes, further maths is extremely easy to lose marks and hence study scores, it also scales down

with the new spesh scaling, you can get a 50 with a 38 raw, i think getting a 38 raw in spesh is easier than getting a 50 raw in further, any day, not to mention spesh will help you with methods

my friend got 27 in spech raw, while gettin 48 in further. it depends on what sort of maths ur interested in. (he did methods early in yr 11, and did further and spech in year 12)

[Mr. Study]

My 2 cents.

I have done the General Maths Further orientated subject and I will say this, It is a different way of thinking when compared to Methods and Specialist.

In Methods and Specialist, I guess you think quite 'hard' on each question, trying to decipher and understand what you're being asked, within a given real life scenario.

In Further, It is more 'direct'. If that makes sense? Like, I remember doing financial arithmetic and in that, we were given a scenario, with, basically, some numbers and all we had to do was apply a formula or transpose it. In saying that, it was not as easy as it sounds, I did lose marks for careless mistakes, which can happen quite frequently in Further. Hence, why you should read and understand what the question

To me, I guess you couldn't compare the subjects, contrary to what other people are saying. As they, (Further to Methods/Specialist) are different subjects in the sense on how you think. However, I did quite enjoy General Maths Further as it was actually different to Methods and Specialist and it did allow me to be more careful in my working out.

I guess Methods/Specialist feels more 'abstract' whereas Further is applicable to Commerce based subjects. (Which I enjoyed. )

tl:dr: Ask your teachers, Look through the textbooks, Make a judgment for yourself on your interests. Don't think since they're all maths, I can basically scale them like Specialist>Methods>Further, which I think is not true.

[charmanderp]

i think getting a 38 raw in spesh is easier than getting a 50 raw in further, any day

Thats quite unfair to say. I know you personally got an excellent score for Spesh, but in the end, you cannot distinguish which is easier or which is harder. Maybe you are just really smart, and by saying that its easy to get a 38 raw score for spesh, is slightly unfair to those of whom who find it difficult to get a score like that. Not everyone is as smart as you palusterio. I would encourage some diplomacy, as there are some people (me, namely) who are not gifted and find it extremely hard to do well in spesh.

Umm in Paul's defence, he didn't say it was easy to get a 38 in Spesh, just that he reckons it would be easier than getting a 50 in Further. Which is pretty justifiable, there is literally no margin for error if you want to get a 50 (or indeed, more than 45) in Further, whereas in Spesh (or indeed any subject) if you can understand some of the topics pretty well and others superficially, you're a chance of getting 35+.

[Truck]

i think getting a 38 raw in spesh is easier than getting a 50 raw in further, any day

Thats quite unfair to say. I know you personally got an excellent score for Spesh, but in the end, you cannot distinguish which is easier or which is harder. Maybe you are just really smart, and by saying that its easy to get a 38 raw score for spesh, is slightly unfair to those of whom who find it difficult to get a score like that. Not everyone is as smart as you palusterio. I would encourage some diplomacy, as there are some people (me, namely) who are not gifted and find it extremely hard to do well in spesh.

All Paul said is that it would be easier to get a 38 in Spec then a 50 in further, not that Spec is easy. I don't think you should take it so personally, it's actually pretty easy to distinguish which is harder - getting a 50 in further = perfect exams + for most schools, rank 1 in SACs. A 38 in spec can be obtained by a combination of B+/A's. Now the type of person who would be getting a 50 in further should be pretty good at maths in the first place, so it's perfectly reasonable to assume they'd be able to comprehend Spec concepts to at least get a B+/A on an exam. I don't understand where you think he's saying that a 38 in spec is "easy", if anything he's proposing that a 50 in further is quite hard...