Hi!
Just wondering about the difference between MATH1131 and MATH1141? I received...mediocre maths and maths extension 1 results of just over 125/150 and I've started doing MATH1141 which recommends a combined score of 145/150. Initially I thought I was in way over my head but have heard the content of MATH1131 is quite similar to the course I'm already in so postponed switching into 1131. So would it be better to go worse in the higher course or better in the lower course? Rumours floating around are that near perfect 1131 scores scale DOWN to a 90 whilst 1141 scores scale up A LOT? At this point I'm looking for a WAM booster. Any advice would be much appreciated as deadlines to switch are on Thursday
It's not really 'scaling' per se - the thing is, UNSW maths wants to reward people who do 1141 in comparison to 1131 (and other ordinary vs higher courses). So they put a 'cap' on the ordinary version, at around 89 or 90. But this doesn't really affect anyone else. As far as I know of, people who deserve to get 87 will actually get 87. In this way, they reward the people that really should be doing 1141 (they can push beyond marks of 90) and don't detriment the people doing 1131 either.
That's how they encourage the people that really should be doing 1141 to do it. High school marks may OR may not influence whether or not you should be doing 1141, because in general a student's work ethic changes between Year 12 and first year uni. Your suitability to 1141 is best determined by your ability to cope with what actually makes 1141 and 1131 different.
1131 and 1141 teach the exact same topics, AND sit the exact same assessments UNTIL the final exam. Then, 1/2 of the 1141 exam will be different to 1/2 of the 1131 exam, and the other half is common to both. 1141 is designed to be
a lot more theoretical than the more simply computational 1131 counterpart. 1141 focuses on bringing out what makes someone a mathematician, instead of just the ability to do number crunching and battle with algebra. It begins to test you on whether you know why and how mathematics
actually works, instead of just follow some routine procedure. As such, whilst the computational stuff might be similar over both courses, you should expect a lot more proving in 1141.
That should be the basis of your decision making process.