MQ or Essentials?

[Andiio]

Hey guys!

My school is using Maths Quest for both Methods and Spesh, but I've heard a lot from other people (TrueTears etc) that the questions in Essentials completely dominate that of MQ.. so I am contemplating to do the Essentials course for both MM and Spesh instead of my school's MQ? (Am planning to finish both in the hols)

Not sure though.. like what would happen with my schools coursework etc :S

Also, if I were to do the Essentials questions/course, would it be recommended to follow my own school's MM/Spesh syllabus topics and do each corresponding chapter in that order? As in, if my school's syllabus was: Topic 1 = Circ Fns, Topic 2 = Vectors etc, should I do the Essentials chapters according to that order?

Thank you very much!

[stonecold]

Hey guys!

My school is using Maths Quest for both Methods and Spesh, but I've heard a lot from other people (TrueTears etc) that the questions in Essentials completely dominate that of MQ.. so I am contemplating to do the Essentials course for both MM and Spesh instead of my school's MQ? (Am planning to finish both in the hols)

Not sure though.. like what would happen with my schools coursework etc :S

Also, if I were to do the Essentials questions/course, would it be recommended to follow my own school's MM/Spesh syllabus topics and do each corresponding chapter in that order? As in, if my school's syllabus was: Topic 1 = Circ Fns, Topic 2 = Vectors etc, should I do the Essentials chapters according to that order?

Thank you very much!

Personally,  I would get through all of Methods and Spesh during the holidays, with the help of TT's summer program.  (wish I had known about this)  Do it once and do it properly with the essentials book.  It doesn't leave stuff out.

Then just constantly revise throughout the year, do loads of prac exams, and yeah constantly go over stuff to reinforce it.  When the teacher is teaching you want to know exactly what they are doing.  I hate learning stuff for the first time in the classroom.

[Andiio]

Hey guys!

My school is using Maths Quest for both Methods and Spesh, but I've heard a lot from other people (TrueTears etc) that the questions in Essentials completely dominate that of MQ.. so I am contemplating to do the Essentials course for both MM and Spesh instead of my school's MQ? (Am planning to finish both in the hols)

Not sure though.. like what would happen with my schools coursework etc :S

Also, if I were to do the Essentials questions/course, would it be recommended to follow my own school's MM/Spesh syllabus topics and do each corresponding chapter in that order? As in, if my school's syllabus was: Topic 1 = Circ Fns, Topic 2 = Vectors etc, should I do the Essentials chapters according to that order?

Thank you very much!

Personally,  I would get through all of Methods and Spesh during the holidays, with the help of TT's summer program.  (wish I had known about this)  Do it once and do it properly with the essentials book.  It doesn't leave stuff out.

Then just constantly revise throughout the year, do loads of prac exams, and yeah constantly go over stuff to reinforce it.  When the teacher is teaching you want to know exactly what they are doing.  I hate learning stuff for the first time in the classroom.

I'm pretty interested in TT's program but am really not sure because my parents have already arranged for a maths tutor and arghhh :S :S

[m@tty]

Maths Quest turned me off completing questions.

In the end though, it worked out fine - in my opinion you don't really need to do a lot of questions for maths; as long as you understand the concepts and don't make stupid errors, you're set.

[Tan]

I did both Essentials and MQ units 1&2 during this year. Essentials at tutor and MQ at school. I find that Essentials offer much more challenging questions which will prepare you better for the exams But this is just for Year 11 even though I'm sure its the same for year 12.

[HERculina]

Maths Quest turned me off completing questions.

In the end though, it worked out fine - in my opinion you don't really need to do a lot of questions for maths; as long as you understand the concepts and don't make stupid errors, you're set.

BUT isnt maths all about practice practice?
someone who isnt really mathy would find it extremely hard to do hard q.s even though they know all the concepts. i often find that the ones who do heaps of q.s and practice are the ones that do good in maths tests.

[iNerd]

I would essentially die without practice.
Sure I know the concept, but I have to be exposed to a variety of questions for any hope of smashing exams.
I know that if something brand-new pops up such as that 'cone of death' on this year's Methods exam...I would have failed to
Of course this is only relevant to ME however I still feel that practice is the way to go for maths.

[TrueTears]

Maths Quest turned me off completing questions.

In the end though, it worked out fine - in my opinion you don't really need to do a lot of questions for maths; as long as you understand the concepts and don't make stupid errors, you're set.

BUT isnt maths all about practice practice?
someone who isnt really mathy would find it extremely hard to do hard q.s even though they know all the concepts. i often find that the ones who do heaps of q.s and practice are the ones that do good in maths tests.

Sure at VCE level, you probs might want to do lots of questions since maths isn't taught as real maths, the concepts you learn are mostly "fake", you don't learn beyond what the book and study design teaches.

At a higher level, maths is all about learning rather than doing, I didn't do a SINGLE exercise (except for exam papers) for my number theory unit this semester, and I think I 100'ed the exam since I knew exactly how to prove questions because my fundamental concepts were quite strong.

quote from terry tao's blog:

However, as you transition to graduate school you will see that there is a higher level of learning (and more importantly, doing) mathematics, which requires more of your intellectual faculties than merely the ability to memorise and study, or to copy an existing argument or worked example. This often necessitates that one discards (or at least revises) many undergraduate study habits; there is a much greater need for self-motivated study and experimentation to advance your own understanding, than to simply focus on artificial benchmarks such as examinations.

[pi]

Maths Quest turned me off completing questions.

In the end though, it worked out fine - in my opinion you don't really need to do a lot of questions for maths; as long as you understand the concepts and don't make stupid errors, you're set.

BUT isnt maths all about practice practice?
someone who isnt really mathy would find it extremely hard to do hard q.s even though they know all the concepts. i often find that the ones who do heaps of q.s and practice are the ones that do good in maths tests.

practice, practice... but difficulty must also increase, hence, MQ fails and Essentials wins

[TrueTears]

i often find that the ones who do heaps of q.s and practice are the ones that do good in maths tests.

LOL hmm...

LOL, haha definitely not true

Since learning maths with more freedom at uni, I haven't done any exercises at all, in fact all I've done is read shitloads and maybe look a few examples to see how things are applied, that's it

[TrueTears]

^^^ hahaha

[HERculina]

o well i was referring to a weaker level. i just think that for them practicing would be more beneficial then just looking at example/explanations and going, oh yea, i know this, without actually testing it out by doing a tone of q.s  :angel:

[nacho]

Maths Quest turned me off completing questions.

In the end though, it worked out fine - in my opinion you don't really need to do a lot of questions for maths; as long as you understand the concepts and don't make stupid errors, you're set.

Well you need to practice maths, but you definitely should not 'memorise memorise memorise'. Learning concepts and building your foundations will allow you to do very basic to very tough questions you have not seen before. But yea, you need to practice practice practice, just not memorise! In my class, the bottom half are the people who memorise memorise memorise...
BUT isnt maths all about practice practice?
someone who isnt really mathy would find it extremely hard to do hard q.s even though they know all the concepts. i often find that the ones who do heaps of q.s and practice are the ones that do good in maths tests.

[onur369]

MQ explains the concept really well but if you want to go beyond the book Essentials is the way to go.

[98.40_for_sure]

Essentials hands down... i used both and maths quest was just horrible