Why did you do Spesh?

[zsteve]

Just out of interest, what was the predominant reason you did Specialist Maths? For love of maths, or just for the scaling

Edit: thought better of personal bias

[Adequace]

The maths taught in Specialist just seemed appealing to me, I'm not even that good at maths either, I just try really hard and enjoy it lmao.

Edit: misread title of post, soz D:

[pi]

As much as I liked maths at the time (not that I had much talent at all!), I wouldn't have done the subject if it scaled down I'm clearly not a purist and hence I'm doing 0 maths in uni hahaha

[zsteve]

and hence I'm doing 0 maths in uni hahaha

awww

[Smashby]

I would have to say I did it for the challenge zsteve. I wouldn't call myself a naturally mathematically-minded person (unlike your good self ), so I found it both an enjoyable break from English and LOTEs, as well as a rigorous and rewarding way to perhaps discipline my study habits and practise mental strength in a different manner.

That, and the teacher is a top bloke.

[heart]

Enjoyed maths a lot and still do. I regret not doing more maths at uni, only did accelerated maths 1 which was an awesome subject .

[studentofthenow]

Generally speaking, which type of kids do you guys do better in spesh than in methods?

[Splash-Tackle-Flail]

If I recall correctly I did it because I didn't want to miss out on any mathsy things my friends would get to learn who did it. And because GMA we had a really fun class and everyone was really passionate about it.

Although last year, while the content was real interesting, class was a real struggle- I'm not sure if it was because our really enthusiastic yr 11 teacher left, or because our new one (really nice person, but hadn't taught the subject in 5 years apparently) wasn't as... I don't know how to put it tbh. I guess just being in a situation where if I didn't know the answer, there was no one to really go to in person (AN was great but it's a different type learning- I really don't know how zsteve does it..)- that kinda put me off continuing down a 'mathsy' career.

I guess it's 'potential' (just the idea that it can) to scale significantly above 50-not that it did-was also a contributing reason for me not dropping it after headstart (in which some of my classmates did). In that sense I chose it for similar reasons why one might do further.

[appleandbee]

To be honest, I chose it because my parents forced me to, as they thought it was necessary for most Asians to do so in order to attain a respectable ATAR. That said, if I were to do VCE again, I would still do it by choice because it was enjoyable in year 12, contrary to what I anticipated. It was different to all my other curriculum-related experiences, in that it emphasised proofs and a greater understanding. Also if I choose to do maths subjects in uni, I don't have to do  Calculus 1.

Generally speaking, which type of kids do you guys do better in spesh than in methods?

The people who do really well in competition maths like Melb uni maths comp tend to do really well in Spesh (better or similar to their Methods scores - depending on how good it was). Generally though, it's possible to do better in Spesh as some people did Methods in year 11(Methods benefits Spesh, and the experience of a year 11 maths exam help them to do better in Spesh). There are also others who did both in the same year and neglected Methods as a result, so they did better in Spesh.

[babushka818]

I accelerated 1/2 of methods and did very well in that class, so my teacher highly recommended I take it, more as a challenge than anything else. The scaling is a nice benefit, but I really like learning the content. It's so much more interesting than methods; I'm by no means a maths genius, but I can appreciate good maths. Teacher was pretty much the only reason I took that class to begin with though.

Generally speaking, which type of kids do you guys do better in spesh than in methods?

This doesn't make sense to me haha but if you're asking if spesh kids do better in spesh or methods; I think specialist. Most people I know get better marks in specialist than methods, like my teacher (48- methods, 49- spesh). But this is highly variable, and I think generally is the output of even amounts of work in both subjects. I really don't want to say anything incorrect here, but I've heard the perception that specialist concepts are hard to grasp so if you do, the exam can become more straightforward. However methods concepts are seen as easier to understand so they always twist things in the exam so it's harder for some people to score in. All highly variable though, on many different factors. This is just my opinion from my experience though

[Mikayla789]

Honestly, I feel like I've pretty much always genuinely loved and enjoyed maths It's always been my strong point, and since starting high school, always been that subject I'd look forward to. And as for the scaling, I actually first decided I wanted to do spesh in yr 9, before I knew about scaling (although I wasn't disappointed when I did see it )

(Although I don't know if I can technically answer this question, as I've only done GMA last year, but will do spesh this year)

[MightyBeh]

For fun, of course. Maths is where it's at 

[lzxnl]

I always knew I was strongest in maths, so taking a more advanced maths course seemed logical to me. I proceeded to self-learn the course ahead of time, so doing the subject for VCE made even more sense.

[Mc47]

I narrowed my last subject down to either a maths subject or economics. I figured I could learn about economics in my own time/at my own pace, so that left maths. And I knew I wouldn't learn much doing further (in comparison to spesh), so spesh it was. Would've had to get ~ 47 in further to match my scaled spesh score, so it worked out well in the end 

[keltingmeith]

Complex numbers seemed pretty cool. I needed another subject, so I thought, why not?