Why is there no probability in Specialist Maths?

[YouAreNowReadingMyName]

I tried to think of a few hypothetical reasons, and all I got was...nothing. Nothing substantial, anyway. Maybe the only reason is that they want to something to separate Methods and Spesh, other than Spesh being a harder version with vectors and mechanics?

I could, however, think of a two merits for the other side; you can include tricky continuous random variable calculus questions so that it's a harder exam, and you eliminate those (plausible, albeit high unlikely) situations where students who're weaker at probability do extremely well for Spesh. But really, just curious to know why this is the case?

[TrueTears]

It's VCE.

[pi]

There once was prob in spesh, but it was a decade or more ago

Attached is a formula sheet from an older course that might interest you, unfortunately it is the course before this that had prob (as far as I know)

[b^3]

When (if) the national curriculum (finally) comes in there's going to be some probability in spesh, material like statistical inference and confidence intervals, stuff from first year uni stats -> http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/SeniorSecondary/Mathematics/Specialist-Mathematics/Curriculum/SeniorSecondary#page=4
It's not exactly set in stone, but it'll be something like that.

(They're getting rid of the mechanics stuff, which is a shame, that's one of the best parts of spesh and leads onto better understanding/partly sets you up for some engineering courses. They are bringing a few other things in though, so I guess there is that trade off).

EDIT: added a little.

[alondouek]

When the national curriculum comes in there's going to be some probability in spesh, material like statistical inference and confidence intervals, stuff from first year uni stats -> http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/SeniorSecondary/Mathematics/Specialist-Mathematics/Curriculum/SeniorSecondary#page=4
It's not exactly set in stone, but it'll be something like that.

(They're getting rid of the mechanics stuff, which is a shame, that's one of the best parts of spesh and leads onto better understanding/partly sets you up for some engineering courses).

I don't really think I'm entirely in favour of that. It's good to learn about statistical inference etc, but it shouldn't be at the expense of something else.

If it were up to me (LOL) then I'd keep mechanics in Spec and put statistical inference as part of biology (or other science subjects, though I've only encountered stats in biology-based units thus far), or even introduce another subject entirely, relating to scientific practice and communication.

[TrueTears]

I'm heavily biased towards probability/measure theory, it's perhaps one of the most useful and beautiful branches of maths.

Think about it, almost every branch of science requires a theory of probability; nothing is for certain, and "probability" provides a general framework to address this uncertainty. I'd heavily favour probability over mechanics anyday.

[b^3]

I'm heavily biased towards probability/measure theory, it's perhaps one of the most useful and beautiful branches of maths.

Think about it, almost every branch of science requires a theory of probability; nothing is for certain, and "probability" provides a general framework to address this uncertainty. I'd heavily favour probability over mechanics anyday.

Yeah, just remember it's probably going to get "VCEdifed", and watered down from what it really could be. First year uni courses will need a bit of restructuring, some will be taking a step backwards, while others will be taking a step forwards. I guess it just depends on the course really.

EDIT: Probably starting to slide a bit off topic here..

EDIT2: Also you hated physic-y type things TrueTears! Really they should move some of the mechanics stuff into Physics with actual proper maths, similar to how it's done in spesh (if not making it harder).

[BigAl]

Well i think specialist maths should serve to those who want to pursue a career in applied maths..like engineering or physics. It's good to see that vectors and linear algebra are extended more..so students will know what's waiting them at uni. I wish there were sequences and series included in the schedule( convergence, summation and multiplication)

Yeah, just remember it's probably going to get "VCEdifed", and watered down from what it really could be. First year uni courses will need a bit of restructuring, some will be taking a step backwards, while others will be taking a step forwards. I guess it just depends on the course really.

EDIT: Probably starting to slide a bit off topic here..

EDIT2: Also you hated physic-y type things TrueTears! Really they should move some of the mechanics stuff into Physics with actual proper maths, similar to how it's done in spesh (if not making it harder).

I haven't tasted what mathematical physics looks like until I took astrophysics class...I think there is still time until we see some physics taught just like at MIT..you'll get what I mean if you watch classic physics videos from this crazy prof of MIT on youtube

MOD EDIT: Merged double post - 2/cos(c)

[Lasercookie]

They do still have some of the physicsy stuff listed in the Australian Curriculum b^3

Towards the bottom of Unit 3, has the stuff about acceleration, velocity etc.
Unit 4, under "Modelling motion", they have momentum, forces, "understand motion of a body under concurrent forces", simple harmonic motion and so on there.
So I'd expect inclined planes, Newton's laws and some of the statics questions to still be there.

Some of that Australian Curriculum spesh probability stuff seems to be stuff that's currently in methods, rather than throwing in a lot of new probability content into it (combinatorics in Unit 1 Aust Curric Spesh etc.). I'm interested to see what VCAA does with that.

It's good to see that vectors and linear algebra are extended more..so students will know what's waiting them at uni.

Not really with the linear algebra, they've restricted determinants, inverses and linear systems to 2 by 2 matrices and shoved that off to Spesh. It's pretty much the stuff that a lot of methods students would be already be familiar with.  There's not much new with the linear transformation stuff, again almost all of that is Methods Unit 3 stuff.

[shadows]

Well there is probability in Methods, and isn't it compulsory for students doing Specialist to have either completed or doing it concurrently?

I think methods probability is probably suffice in terms of difficulty for VCE students. If there was "spesh probability", i'd say it would too hard, and there isn't enough time in the year to fit all the content in..

Well i don't know, just my assumption....

[Gloamglozer]

It's VCE.

I'm surprised the Melbourne Model has nothing to do with this to be honest.