Methods and spesh or methods then spesh?

[Edward Elric]

Is it more beneficial to have done methods 3/4 the previous year before doing specialist 3/4 or doing both concurrently the same year? I heard mixed responses from various people however the general concensus seems to be doing both the same year, will significantly help your methods, as both subjects overlap in a lot of areas. Thoughts?

[Thorium]

Is it more beneficial to have done methods 3/4 the previous year before doing specialist 3/4 or doing both concurrently the same year? I heard mixed responses from various people however the general concensus seems to be doing both the same year, will significantly help your methods, as both subjects overlap in a lot of areas. Thoughts?

I strongly recommended you to do both at once. This is primarily because they both have numerous mutual concepts. The only area of study of methods not done in spesh is probability. So if you do both at once you will be pretty much doing 1.5 subjects. In addition, spesh goes beyond the scope of methods, so it will aid you to have an elevated knowledge of most of the concepts in methods.

Hope that helps

EDIT: 100th post o'lala

[Professor Polonsky]

I disagree that either is definitely advantageous over the other.

If you do Methods first, Spesh will have very little new content - and so you will perform better on it. On the other hand, doing them concurrently will probably help a fair bit with Methods, as you'll be exposed to more advanced concepts at the same time.

[Edward Elric]

I disagree that either is definitely advantageous over the other.

If you do Methods first, Spesh will have very little new content - and so you will perform better on it. On the other hand, doing them concurrently will probably help a fair bit with Methods, as you'll be exposed to more advanced concepts at the same time.

thanks

[Edward Elric]

I strongly recommended you to do both at once. This is primarily because they both have numerous mutual concepts. The only area of study of methods not done in spesh is probability. So if you do both at once you will be pretty much doing 1.5 subjects. In addition, spesh goes beyond the scope of methods, so it will aid you to have an elevated knowledge of most of the concepts in methods.

Hope that helps

EDIT: 100th post o'lala

Thank you, It helped a lot

[keltingmeith]

It also depends on your school and how pretentious your teacher is. At my school is, spec was a struggle, because all the "required methods knowledge" we got to in spec first. Then, because "methods is required for specialist", my methods teacher tried to get me and my friends to go to all the methods things over the spec things, even though we had already covered the material weeks beforehand...

So look at who your teachers are, and decide - are they annoying enough that you can tolerate it?

[Edward Elric]

It also depends on your school and how pretentious your teacher is. At my school is, spec was a struggle, because all the "required methods knowledge" we got to in spec first. Then, because "methods is required for specialist", my methods teacher tried to get me and my friends to go to all the methods things over the spec things, even though we had already covered the material weeks beforehand...

So look at who your teachers are, and decide - are they annoying enough that you can tolerate it?

Hmm interesting, I have the same teacher for both meth and spesh and I have to say that he goes over things super fast in spesh as we are the higher maths class and also because we have already covered the basics in methods. Also He is very pretentious as he always boast,'you wont have to know this in methods, however my specialist maths students should be able to answer this' etc... So Im a little divided on my opinions. Thanks for your comment

[Reus]

Is it possible to do ¾ spec and not do ¾ methods? My school isn't allowing apparently (for my brother)

[keltingmeith]

The VCAA study design assumes that you've done/are doing methods, so you really should do it.

The annoying thing is, though, that most students (as a result of schools, like in my situation) will end up doing them at the some time, and so your spec knowledge helps your methods knowledge, instead of the other way round (like it's meant to work).

May I ask why you're brother doesn't want to do methods?

[Reus]

Doesn't enjoy it as much, grades also play a role. But I thought he should do something he enjoys instead of two maths. I guess that can't happen 

[keltingmeith]

If he doesn't enjoy methods, he's fucked for spec.

Vectors and complex numbers - sure, they're different, but they're comparatively a tiny amount of the course. The rest of it is building on to circular functions, conic sections (weird graphs like ellipses and hyperbolas. In methods you know circles and parabolas), more calculus stuff, WAY more calculus applications. If he's struggling/annoyed with all that, there's no point with spec, hahah.

[Professor Polonsky]

Is it possible to do ¾ spec and not do ¾ methods? My school isn't allowing apparently (for my brother)

Nope. One of the only things VCAA prohibits.