Specialist Or Further

[corey1515]

I am finding it very hard to come up with a decision if to do specialist or further, I am averaging an A in Math methods, I am aiming for 90+, I know specialist gets marked up a lot but im worried that their to too much work and effort required for the subject and that it might affect my other subjects. If I did further could I still get in the 40's without putting in as much effort as I would with specialist because I know the course work is very easy in further, is it true that if you make a few mistakes in your exam you pretty much stuff up your whole study score? I want to do engineering when I finish school but specialist is not a prerequisite. I also feel that if I do specilaist I would be competing against brainiacs.I really just want to choose the subject that will result in the better ATAR but i know that all depends on the person
Any thoughts?

[Damoz.G]

I'd pick Further, but please don't underestimate the difficulty of a subject. Also, no if you lose a few marks, it does not stuff up your SS. Thats a lie that gets spread around very quickly every year. =/

[Mr Keshy]

I can't comment on the difficulty of getting a scaled 40 in spesh or further. But the one thing I can tell you is to not pick a subject based on how it scales. It scales however much it scales for a reason!

Also, a point which I've not actually heard anyone say, which is quite surprising is that, if you do know a subject well, and I'd say you're far more likely to "master" further over spesh, you will be far more motivated to study for it. But if you do spesh, and for examples sake, you aren't very good at it, you won't be as motivated to study for it during the exam period and so you run the risk of getting a substantially lower score than you would've expected. I'm going through this phase for methods and chem tbh, but I've sucked it up now and am working hard again!

Also, doing spesh this year would really help you out if you want to do engineering I think! By the looks of it, you seem capable and committed so maybe give it ago if you have a head start program at your school? If you find it hard, drop it and pick up further, and further will be easier to catch up on so you'd be fine either way!

Hope that helped you and didn't confuse you hahaha!

[b^3]

I'd pick Further, but please don't underestimate the difficulty of a subject. Also, no if you lose a few marks, it does not stuff up your SS. Thats a lie that gets spread around very quickly every year. =/

Depends on what you mean by 'stuff up'.

While further is easier, a lot of people underestimate the competition and not put as much effort into it that they could, and as a result drop their study score a little.

On the other hand, if you do spesh it will help a lot for engineering later on (you can still do the unit at uni that covers spesh if you don't do it in VCE though). It's just that you're going to need to be able to do higher level maths in engineering later on, so doing spesh is advantageous. With that being said you shouldn't do it for the sake of doing it. You sound like you're doing alright in methods, if you're willing to put in that extra effort for spesh then it will pay off in the end. Even if you do slightly above average in spesh, the scaling will nearly compensate for what'd you'd get in Further. If you get a 30-35 in spesh it scales to around 42-47, which you might be able to get in Further. But then you could have done spesh and learnt a lot more for what you're going to use later on, and well you could even get higher than that in spesh and have it scale about 50. I'm not suggesting you do a subject for scaling though, just comparing what you could get as a result. As you get to the higher end of scores in further it becomes a lot more competitive and harder to gain those few extra study scores.

Spesh will probably be hard, but if you put your mind to it to put in a lot of effort, it'll pay dividends in the end. If you think you can cope with spesh, then go for it. As Mr Keshy has said, you can start off by giving spesh a shot, and if it is too hard at the start of the year, then drop it and pick up further, which would be easy to catch up on.

[sjayne]

I've really enjoyed further and I know a lot of people have underestimated it's difficulty this year because a lot of tricky questions tend to pop up in the exams. I personally really like how the content was different from methods as I didn't get them confused.
However, specialist is supposed to help a lot with methods and it's a good choice if you really enjoy maths,  getting those 'ah' moments of understanding and it's also more rewarding as a subject than further is.

[texroy]

Can't answer for Specialist but...

If I did further could I still get in the 40's without putting in as much effort as I would with specialist

That is true.

the course work is very easy in further

Debatable. Some students do struggle with the coursework.

is it true that if you make a few mistakes in your exam you pretty much stuff up your whole study score?

Absolutely.
I have dropped less than 3 marks per SAC all year. My teacher has faith that a flawless exam will produce a 50, but given that I usually drop 7-8 marks (out of 100, and they are REALLY minor discrepancies), I will probably get a 42. You drop 6 and that goes up to a 44. Drop 3 and it's a 46. Further is SUPER competitive, and I know students who have gotten 45 in Methods, but only 39 in Further because they made 'silly mistakes' due to misreading questions.

[BigAl]

a 40 in further is equvailent to a 30 in spesh as far as workload is concerned

[Patches]

Can only speak for my experience, but further was incredibly boring this year and I wish I'd done spesh or physics instead. Yeah, you might get a good score out of it (touch wood...) but you'll feel like you've wasted an inordinate amount of time.

[BLACKCATT]

This topic is very debatable however, it really comes down to yourself. Do you enjoy challenges or would you rather something more simple in terms of concepts? They both have their up and downs, Y NOT DO ALL 3? XD
Bear in mind that if you do 3 maths, 1 in 3 of them end up as your 5th or 6th subject, in other words, only 10% of the lowest out of all three maths will be accounted for.

[brenden]

Man, I wish I challenged myself more in high-school. I'd be taking spesh 100% of the time if I could go back.

[Damoz.G]

Man, I wish I challenged myself more in high-school. I'd be taking spesh 100% of the time if I could go back.

Really? I'm glad I didn't pick Spesh. The horror.......

[random_person]

Really? I'm glad I didn't pick Spesh. The horror.......

What? Spesh is the best subject ever, you actually get challenged. I feel as though I wasted year 11, should have done Biol or some other subject

[sjayne]

yeah that's true... my school practically forced our yr 10 accelerated class to do further in year 11. If we had the 1/2 version of specialist I would have chosen that 100%.

[Damoz.G]

What? Spesh is the best subject ever, you actually get challenged. I feel as though I wasted year 11, should have done Biol or some other subject

A 50 in Further and getting Premiers in Year 11? I've be absolutely STOKED with that, not guttered or regretful.

[random_person]

A 50 in Further and getting Premiers in Year 11? I've be absolutely STOKED with that, not guttered or regretful.

I am not gutted or regretful with my results but then again I feel as though I learned nothing you know?