Should I Do Spesh/ Methods or Further/Methods for Software Engineering

[WonkyN]

Hi, my subject selections for year 11 start in about 2 weeks time and I don't know whether to choose Spesh/ Methods or Further/ Methods. In Year 11, I will be completing my 3/4 Further if I do choose Further/Methods.
Should I get rid of Further to do Spesh/Methods as I heard Spesh is important for engineering in general but I do not know if this is true for Software engineering.
I excel in Maths and right now I am top of the co-hort for General Maths Unit 1/2.
The subjects I want to do that is confirmed is Chemistry, Physics, Methods and English or English Laungage.
I heard that at uni, there is a bridge problem for those who didn't do spesh for engineering but I don't know if it is as strong as 2 years of Spesh.
I look at Further as an ATAR booster while I look at Spesh at something that is a criteria for engineering (software).
Furthermore, i'm leaning towards going to RMIT, Monash or MelbUni.

[Joseph41]

Hey WonkyN! Welcome to the forums.

I didn't do Engineering and don't know that much about it, so take what I say here with a grain of salt. I'd probably be leaning toward Spesh on the assumption you feel comfortable enough with it - you can always change to Further if you're struggling with Spesh when Year 12 comes around.

If you went with the Spesh option, would you be completing a 3/4 subject in Year 11?

[WonkyN]

Hey WonkyN! Welcome to the forums.

I didn't do Engineering and don't know that much about it, so take what I say here with a grain of salt. I'd probably be leaning toward Spesh on the assumption you feel comfortable enough with it - you can always change to Further if you're struggling with Spesh when Year 12 comes around.

If you went with the Spesh option, would you be completing a 3/4 subject in Year 11?

Is it possible to delay Further to 3/4 to year 12 if I finished it General 1/2 in year 10 and want to try out Spesh and Methods. If spesh doesn't work out, i'll have the option to go back to Further in 3/4.

[Joseph41]

Is it possible to delay Further to 3/4 to year 12 if I finished it General 1/2 in year 10 and want to try out Spesh and Methods. If spesh doesn't work out, i'll have the option to go back to Further in 3/4.

Probably something to speak to your school about just to make sure. But like, picking up Further 3/4 in Year 12 without having done General 1/2 at all is pretty common. For example, I did Methods 1/2 in Year 11, but then Further Maths 3/4 in Year 12, and it was totally fine.

[Bell9565]

If you want, you can do all 3!!  I did further 3/4 and methods 1/2 in year 11 and am currently doing spesh 3/4 and methods 3/4. It may seem scary picking up spesh at 3/4 but based on what I can tell, the kids who did 1/2 are no further ahead than the rest of us as the cross over isn't that much and all the relevant 1/2 is retaught in the 3/4 course.

It depends on if your school lets you of course, but if not then I really am no help. I love spesh because I literally didn't have to do any methods work until probability as its all in the spesh course, and scaling wow. But further was great as long as you can try and cut back on stupid mistakes, you can get a reasonably high score with a LOT less effort than you'd need to put into spesh.

Also an fyi, if you do all 3 they can't all count in your top 3 subjects but most peoples spesh and further are their highest scaled score so up to you really
If you have any questions about further and spesh (eg workload, what they each entail ect) let me know!

[Aaron]

Definitely for something like computer or software eng, i'd be leaning towards spesh/methods.

[WonkyN]

If you want, you can do all 3!!  I did further 3/4 and methods 1/2 in year 11 and am currently doing spesh 3/4 and methods 3/4. It may seem scary picking up spesh at 3/4 but based on what I can tell, the kids who did 1/2 are no further ahead than the rest of us as the cross over isn't that much and all the relevant 1/2 is retaught in the 3/4 course.

It depends on if your school lets you of course, but if not then I really am no help. I love spesh because I literally didn't have to do any methods work until probability as its all in the spesh course, and scaling wow. But further was great as long as you can try and cut back on stupid mistakes, you can get a reasonably high score with a LOT less effort than you'd need to put into spesh.

Also an fyi, if you do all 3 they can't all count in your top 3 subjects but most peoples spesh and further are their highest scaled score so up to you really
If you have any questions about further and spesh (eg workload, what they each entail ect) let me know!

Hi, Thank you for the reply!
1) How long did you study each night in year 12?
2) Hows the overlap between Spesh and Methods?
3) Do you think Spesh, Physics, Methods, Chem and English is too much?
4) How many practise exams do you do for each of your subjects and do you do it near SAC/ Exam period?

[WonkyN]

Definitely for something like computer or software eng, i'd be leaning towards spesh/methods.

Hi, Thanks for the reply!
1) If I do Further Mathematics/ Methods, how far behind would I be when I comes to the maths component of the software engineering (engineering) course?
2) Does the bridge program for people who didn't do spesh in year 12 help?
3) What University would you recommend when it comes to Software Engineering in Melbourne? (I live 2 hours away from Monash, RMIT and MelbUni are 45 min)

[Bell9565]

Hi, Thank you for the reply!
1) How long did you study each night in year 12?
2) Hows the overlap between Spesh and Methods?
3) Do you think Spesh, Physics, Methods, Chem and English is too much?
4) How many practise exams do you do for each of your subjects and do you do it near SAC/ Exam period?

1) Ah well I'm currently in year 12 so I'll let you know what I'm doing currently. I have 2 hours of spares most days at school so I use those to study plus another 1 after school. I will start ramping it up over the next few months though obviously.
2) Pretty much methods is broken into 3 components (Algebra, Calculus and probability) and Spesh into quite a few more but pretty much all the stuff you do in algebra and calculus in methods (minus a couple of things) is all in spesh. I'm not sure about the probability as we haven't started it in spesh yet but its a little different from what I can gather. But yeah in summary its enough overlap that when I was studying for spesh sacs I just used that study as methods prep.
3) Nah like I do all that minus physics (but I did the umat) and its not too bad at all, I know a few kids doing the asian 5 (those subject's nickname hehe) and they're doing okay and so will you as long as you enjoy it all!
4) last year I did 36/37 for further but I was getting through them in 45/50 mins by the end so its not as many as it sounds, and 8-10 for biol (but they're 2.5 hours so once again its more than it sounds). I didn't do any until our teacher gave us some and then close to exam I sourced some more!

[exit]

I would do Spesh 100% in your situation. All my friends I know doing Engineering learn Spesh content in their course anyway. If you put in work in Spesh, it will also be your highest scaled maths score. (only need a 38 for a 50 scalrd)

In my opinion, you can also do Further but it’s better to focus on Methods and Spesh in your top 4 as there are many people who ‘have a bad day’ and end up with a further score far lower than expected, as Further punishes mistakes harshly.

[WonkyN]

I would do Spesh 100% in your situation. All my friends I know doing Engineering learn Spesh content in their course anyway. If you put in work in Spesh, it will also be your highest scaled maths score. (only need a 38 for a 50 scalrd)

In my opinion, you can also do Further but it’s better to focus on Methods and Spesh in your top 4 as there are many people who ‘have a bad day’ and end up with a further score far lower than expected, as Further punishes mistakes harshly.

1) I see that you have done Eng Lang aswell as Spesh, how much hard work do you have to put in for Eng Lang?
2) How much study time would Spesh take up (in a percentage) when doing year 12?
3) Would you say the bridging problem for people who haven't done Spesh is a viable option?

[exit]

1) I see that you have done Eng Lang aswell as Spesh, how much hard work do you have to put in for Eng Lang?
2) How much study time would Spesh take up (in a percentage) when doing year 12?
3) Would you say the bridging problem for people who haven't done Spesh is a viable option?

1) This is a reply I gave to someone else who asked me

Lots and lots of effort was required.

Writing fluency: practicing consistently is key - even if teacher may not be able to mark it. Full exams by the end of year - consistently. Tap on old study design exams for sac practice

Structure: can't go wrong with constantly reading high scoring essays and memorising a specific but flexible structure you can apply to all your acs or essays (either one)

Analytical commentary: I looked for certain features in every text once I figured out its formality and nature (spoken/written) etc.. Minimal/no annotations needed. With so many features and where I could talk about them in an AC ingrained in my head, I got really efficient and fast.

Metalanguage: Constantly read this. I think I tried to read on all the metalanguage prior to school starting. Write up a document with all the vcaa study design metalanguage and write examples, definitions and possible functions of these.

Teacher correction: Attempt to submit as much of your essays for correction as possible. Maybe through a tutor if teacher not available. Take the corrections seriously and perfect essays through this.

Personally I don't think I was really an A+ level student for most of the year but I gamed the SACs. ACs: took advantage of the fact that we were told the formality and mode of the text prior to sac. Essay: teacher gave out 4 essay topics for each sac and the sac topic was one of these. So wrote essays for EVERY SINGLE on of the prompts (no life approach)

Examples: get good examples and (you can try) memorise (parts of) your explanation of these (but make it not look memorised). but dont memorise your essay

I remain consistent with the above advice (edited the examples advice a bit)

2) It's not about the study time but what you achieve. Towards the end of the year I would be doing one practice exam a day except when I had a SAC for another subject.

3) Sure you can take extra maths subjects in uni but engineering is already a pretty maths heavy (and difficult) course. I don't think it would matter much tbh although doing specialist might make it a tad easier.