Are you good/so so/bad???

[/0]

Remember that 45+ is still the top 2% or so (I forget), and the overall cohort strength is never a good indicator of the top 2%. The top 2% in every subject will always be tough to beat, so if you're aiming for a 45+ in maths, it is much easier to get into the top 10% of the spesh cohort, even though overall it is tougher

[kenhung123]

But other factors include: there are more people doing further than spesh and in addition to that there are most likely more duds in further than in spesh. Therefore getting into the top 2% of a small group of high achieving mathematics students is very hard.

[NE2000]

But other factors include: there are more people doing further than spesh and in addition to that there are most likely more duds in further than in spesh. Therefore getting into the top 2% of a small group of high achieving mathematics students is very hard.

Yes but 50 is 0.2% I think, and getting top 0.2% of any cohort is difficult

[m@tty]

The top 2% in every subject will always be tough to beat

Including further, when considering 45+ you can disregard all duds. No duds get 45+

EDIT [What I was going to post 1 hour ago]

Specialist certainly does require much more study[learning material] than Further, I haven't done Specialist yet but I looked over the further book in 1 night... [just got spesh book today , though it is mathquest ]

Like all maths subjects the main effort is in spent in completing practice questions in order to solidify conceptual understanding and eliminate errors. However no matter what you do you will still make silly errors. As you should know in Further little errors count much more than in specialist

[Ilovemathsmeth]

Whattt 0.2% get 50? OMG!

[Ahmad]

Specialist is easier to guarantee a high score in than further is for someone good at maths, in my opinion. Further depends too much on accuracy, which I dislike.

[kenhung123]

But it requires more effort?

[kyzoo]

Maybe same effort but in different areas? 100% Accuracy for Further, against developing (or concocting) a comprehensive comprehension of Specialist concepts.

[kenhung123]

Some people who do all the maths and science say specialist requires most study (meth, spesh, physics, chem)

[Ilovemathsmeth]

Damn, I really feel I should have done Specialist because Further, whilst easy to understand does depend a lot on accuracy. I prefer understanding to accuracy.

[NE2000]

Some people who do all the maths and science say specialist requires most study (meth, spesh, physics, chem)

Yeah I did all of them and I agree that I studied most for spesh out of all of them. But some notes:

- studying that much for spesh and doing methods in the same year meant that I really didn't have to put much time into methods. Apart from probability, most of it was almost assumed knowledge in spesh.
- finishing the course early and focussing on understanding everything and having a good teacher meant that most of the study was just finding tougher questions to try and doing trial exams.
- again if it was further a larger amount of time would have been spent trying to find out how to stop making careless errors, which is far more time consuming and difficult imo

But that's just my experience.

The question you have to ask yourself is 'am I good at maths?' Obviously the question is very subjective, so rephrase it to be 'am I finding methods fairly straightforward?' If so, then spesh is a good option to get a high SS after scaling. In addition you will be taking a subject that is quite interesting. If methods is being a bit challenging then maybe you should just go further. The reason is that if you are good at maths and find methods straightforward then you probably will eventually (you've got a year) understand all of the concepts in specialist maths. Depending on your aims you could then begin looking at 40+ which scales to 48+. If you do further when you are a spesh-capable student then you may aim for 48+, but that'll just come down to your luck and concentration on the day of the exam.

[QuantumJG]

Specialist is easier to guarantee a high score in than further is for someone good at maths, in my opinion. Further depends too much on accuracy, which I dislike.

Specialist maths is the maths needed to pursue: physics, maths, engineering or actuarial studies. It also is a much more interesting maths to study than further maths.

[kenhung123]

What about if you are fairly capable but lazy and want to spend more time on science subjects? Is further a good option or still specialist?

[stonecold]

Further is very easy to learn.  You can coast through most of the year, and you just have to make sure you nail the exams.  As others have said, the concepts are very easy to grasp, but it is your ability to be super accurate and eradicate careless reading errors and calculations that really matters.  If you have gone through maths in the past and have on many occasions gotten full marks/very close to full marks, then I would say Further is for you, otherwise if you're looking for a 40+ SS, it may be wiser to do specialist, particularly if you are looking at doing an engineering course in Uni.

[kyzoo]

Further is very easy to learn.  You can coast through most of the year, and you just have to make sure you nail the exams.  As others have said, the concepts are very easy to grasp, but it is your ability to be super accurate and eradicate careless reading errors and calculations that really matters.  If you have gone through maths in the past and have on many occasions gotten full marks/very close to full marks, then I would say Further is for you, otherwise if you're looking for a 40+ SS, it may be wiser to do specialist, particularly if you are looking at doing an engineering course in Uni.

If you've gotten full marks/very close to full marks in past maths tests, then shouldn't that mean you should do Specialist because it indicates you're good at Maths? Especially if the maths tests weren't easy.