Discouraged with specialist

[JackSonSmith]

I've doing quite badly in Specialist so far (average less than one third of my methods scores on practice tests).

I've been finding the subject to be quite interesting and enjoyable, however I am not going too well. I find proofs (show that questions) and extended response questions to be especially difficult.

The most concerning part is that I'm spending significantly more time studying for specialist than my other subjects.

Does anyone have advice as to what I should do?

[StupidProdigy]

I've doing quite badly in Specialist so far (average less than one third of my methods scores on practice tests).

I've been finding the subject to be quite interesting and enjoyable, however I am not going too well. I find proofs (show that questions) and extended response questions to be especially difficult.

The most concerning part is that I'm spending significantly more time studying for specialist than my other subjects.

Does anyone have advice as to what I should do?

Personally I'm in a similar position, I have put a fair bit of time into specialist (due to not doing gma). Butttt, I think all it takes it practice, practice and more practice. Also make sure you're specialist (or any) study is effective, it shouldn't be measured by time put in but rather the understanding you develop. Last thing I have to say is that the score for tests that you have gotten shouldn't be compared to other classes, it is about ranking in the subject cohort, not numerical values, if you're doing as well as the rest of your cohort then don't stress out!

[Special At Specialist]

Specialist maths is a very time-consuming subject, but if you study hard for spesh, then you will automatically learn most of the content for methods because of the high overlap.

Proofs are something that most people struggle with, but it's something you need to learn if you're planning on doing university maths. The best way to become good at proofs is with lots and lots of practice. Look up proofs on things like Pythagoras' Theorem and the cosine rule, then try to do a few proofs on your own. There are plenty of problems out there for you to practice on. The more proofs you do, the more intuitive you'll find them.

[Gentoo]

If it helps any, there has yet to be a proof question on a VCAA exam (some 'show that' and 'verify' but they're not intrinsically hard), or at least I don't remember seeing one. Vector proofs can get bloody difficult, so it's not just you. Always remember that if something's hard, as has been mentioned, that doesn't make it harder to get a good score as it's just how well you do relative to others that determines that.

As for 'automatically learning most of the methods content' by studying spesh which someone mentioned, that's a pretty liberal interpretation of the word 'most'. :p It'll help with a decent amount of stuff (pretty much some calculus stuff) but not that much.

Also keep in mind for harder subjects like Spesh you can improve exponentially once you reach a certain competence level - once you really 'get it'. Keep persevering and the pieces of the puzzle will likely just come together.

[StressedAlready]

Specialist maths is a very time-consuming subject, but if you study hard for spesh, then you will automatically learn most of the content for methods because of the high overlap.

Proofs are something that most people struggle with, but it's something you need to learn if you're planning on doing university maths. The best way to become good at proofs is with lots and lots of practice. Look up proofs on things like Pythagoras' Theorem and the cosine rule, then try to do a few proofs on your own. There are plenty of problems out there for you to practice on. The more proofs you do, the more intuitive you'll find them.

This is my spesh teacher's motto in life. He says it about once every day in an attempt to motivate us but the amount of work that goes into the subject is insane. Srsly, on homework alone, I spend on average 2 hours on SPESH. I went from being at the top of my class to feeling like I am at the bottom. We haven't had a SAC yet so I can't tell for sure.

My teacher keeps telling me I'm doing fine but the pressure is getting to me.

And you know how VCE is that gigantic competition? That never hit me until I started specialist. Suddenly life is a measure of how many questions you were able to do without help, how much of the material you can retain and a constant countdown until your next SAC. I can't even admit I'm struggling because my class is doing that creepy, let's-keep-an-eye-on-the-competition thing and it's driving me nuts.

People tell you that spesh is hard, but I guess you don't realise it until you start.

How do you deal with this? How do you deal with those horrible moments when you want to quit? I mean, having done specialist before, I'm sure you've had these moments, right? Those moments when you're tired of math, tired of VCE and just tired of life?

[Gentoo]

Don't worry about what other people are doing; focus on your own goals and achievements. Sure, it is technically a competition but it doesn't really help to think of it that way (except to cope with harder questions as I talked about earlier). Your aim is to do as well as you can do and nothing in that goal requires the knowledge of how others are doing.

Do you feel like you're learning from your homework? Try and make the focus on the actual learning of the concepts rather than the workload itself. Doing 2 hours isn't going to help necessarily if you're not in the right frame of mind and not absorbing anything. And your potential competency under test conditions is not a measure of "how many questions you can do without help" in the early stages of your learning; keep asking for help until you understand the concepts. Then doing them speedily won't seem like so much of a challenge. I barely understood anything in Spesh the first time I saw it. That doesn't matter though; you keep working until it makes sense. Spesh is hard, but very rewarding once you get to a certain level; you can get scaled scores above 50 despite making a decent amount of mistakes in the exam (and SACs), something that can't be said for any other subject. So there's a light at the end of the tunnel for sure.

If you're finding yourself consistently feeling down, there are plenty of people to talk to, professionals included. Don't feel alone, there's a lot of people feeling just like you, and there's also a lot of people that can help with what is essentially a stressful time.

[StressedAlready]

Don't worry about what other people are doing; focus on your own goals and achievements. Sure, it is technically a competition but it doesn't really help to think of it that way (except to cope with harder questions as I talked about earlier). Your aim is to do as well as you can do and nothing in that goal requires the knowledge of how others are doing.

Do you feel like you're learning from your homework? Try and make the focus on the actual learning of the concepts rather than the workload itself. Doing 2 hours isn't going to help necessarily if you're not in the right frame of mind and not absorbing anything. And your potential competency under test conditions is not a measure of "how many questions you can do without help" in the early stages of your learning; keep asking for help until you understand the concepts. Then doing them speedily won't seem like so much of a challenge. I barely understood anything in Spesh the first time I saw it. That doesn't matter though; you keep working until it makes sense. Spesh is hard, but very rewarding once you get to a certain level; you can get scaled scores above 50 despite making a decent amount of mistakes in the exam (and SACs), something that can't be said for any other subject. So there's a light at the end of the tunnel for sure.

If you're finding yourself consistently feeling down, there are plenty of people to talk to, professionals included. Don't feel alone, there's a lot of people feeling just like you, and there's also a lot of people that can help with what is essentially a stressful time.

idk. It helps consolidate my learning, sure. But I think it's a bit in excess tbh. I could probably do half the work and still get the same effect but nope. We get assigned a million questions to do it's unbelievable.

Forget the professionals. You work just as well. ;p
If I do find myself feeling consistently down though, I will seek help from pros. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

I seriously feel so much better (and much more motivated) knowing that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Sure, it's relatively far away but there is one.

Thank you.