Methods & Further Vs Methods & Specialist Maths

[QuantumJG]

I really want to understand this trend. The trend where people are taking further & methods over methods & specialist Maths.

By doing 2 Maths subjects you already show yourself to have an aptitude with Maths and by doing specialist Maths your career prospects increase. Specialist Maths is recommended if you want to become an:

- Engineer
- Actuary
- Economist
- mathematician (obviously)
- Physicist

etc.

The point is that if you want to do a job requiring high level Maths then you should do specialist Maths.

[pi]

one word: 'lazy'


I personally know people who have decided to take Further after doing GMA, I think it is because they believe it is a free 50 (which we all know it definitely isn't) and it involves much less work (not sure about the validity of this point). Those are main reasons I have found in my school anyway.

+Not everyone wants a job requiring high level maths (eg. med, law, commerce, teaching, etc.)

[iNerd]

Am I the only kid who thinks Further is hard?
All that statistics and shiz just doesn't sit right on me.
Also I'd die with modules such as networks and matrices...more a trig/graphs guy
The point is...Spesh seems like a safer option in terms of SS and alongisde the benefits the OP has listed, why wouldn't you pursue it?

[pi]

Am I the only kid who thinks Further is hard?
All that statistics and shiz just doesn't sit right on me.
Also I'd die with modules such as networks and matrices...more a trig/graphs guy
The point is...Spesh seems like a safer option in terms of SS and alongisde the benefits the OP has listed, why wouldn't you pursue it?

Answer: see my post, 'lazy'

+some people love stats and stuff, and after GMA, realise trig proofs and vectors isn't exactly what they like

[eeps]

I personally know people who have decided to take Further after doing GMA, I think it is because they believe it is a free 50 (which we all know it definitely isn't) and it involves much less work (not sure about the validity of this point). Those are main reasons I have found in my school anyway.

That's true at my school as well. About 80% of students doing GMA this year are a) dropping it altogether OR b) dropping GMA and taking up Further. Also at my school, the Methods 3/4 students (in Year 11) beat basically all other students in the year level in GMA, considering they have done some of the concepts before - which deters other students from continuing into Specialist Maths.

Most students at my school consider it an easy subject - which isn't the case. As with any subject, you have to work hard to get a good score - it's not as if, doing Further will guarantee a high score. IMO I think it would be more rewarding to do Specialist Maths, then it would be doing Further.

[luken93]

I believe that for some reason, people think that Further is relatively easy to get 45, as opposed to to getting an equivalent of ~38 for Spesh.
However, although I can't comment on Further's difficulty, kids can think that they can just cruise through further and get 45+ with little to no work, however most don't know that you can only really drop about 5 marks to get this score, but they don't realise this until it's too late!

[iamtom]

Am I the only kid who thinks Further is hard?
All that statistics and shiz just doesn't sit right on me.
Also I'd die with modules such as networks and matrices...more a trig/graphs guy
The point is...Spesh seems like a safer option in terms of SS and alongisde the benefits the OP has listed, why wouldn't you pursue it?

You're going to love probability.

[ech_93]

My school doesn't even offer spesh, coz not enough people choose it.

[Darren]

You can't really call people who do further lazy. Some people don't even need specialist or methods... why must people associate 'laziness' with a subject?  People have varying dreams, sorry but not everyone wants to be an engineer.

[ech_93]

I don't think he was saying that EVERYONE who does further is lazy...

[Truck]

After 1 month of GMA, I must say further looks appealing right now. This is more because my teacher is this freak of maths Russian guy who sets work MUCH harder than the textbook standard or any other teacher, with a class avg. of like below 50% on his first test. That's just personal experience though .

[pi]

After 1 month of GMA, I must say further looks appealing right now. This is more because my teacher is this freak of maths Russian guy who sets work MUCH harder than the textbook standard or any other teacher, with a class avg. of like below 50% on his first test. That's just personal experience though .

Yarrussky is awesome... Better than Dr G. in my opinion. Had him in year 10 and now in yr12 spesh. His tests are great prep for exams, don't lose confidence with your scores (if they are poor). Wish I had him for GMA too

[Truck]

After 1 month of GMA, I must say further looks appealing right now. This is more because my teacher is this freak of maths Russian guy who sets work MUCH harder than the textbook standard or any other teacher, with a class avg. of like below 50% on his first test. That's just personal experience though .

Yarrussky is awesome... Better than Dr G. in my opinion. Had him in year 10 and now in yr12 spesh. His tests are great prep for exams, don't lose confidence with your scores (if they are poor). Wish I had him for GMA too

Heh, I got Dr G for Methods as well .

I'ma see my results on the Unit 1 exam and just base my decision to drop or not on that.

[FatnessFirst]

one word: 'lazy'


I personally know people who have decided to take Further after doing GMA, I think it is because they believe it is a free 50 (which we all know it definitely isn't) and it involves much less work (not sure about the validity of this point). Those are main reasons I have found in my school anyway.

+Not everyone wants a job requiring high level maths (eg. med, law, commerce, teaching, etc.)

This. Specialist is "doable" but the amount of work that you have to put in it is not worth it when you can do spesh at uni.  Also, it's pretty fun going back to year 9/10 Maths.

[Readinya]

This. Specialist is "doable" but the amount of work that you have to put in it is not worth it when you can do spesh at uni.  Also, it's pretty fun going back to year 9/10 Maths.

That may be true, but VCE Spesh at uni is covered in 3/4 of one semester... around 8-12 weeks.

one word: 'lazy'


I personally know people who have decided to take Further after doing GMA, I think it is because they believe it is a free 50 (which we all know it definitely isn't) and it involves much less work (not sure about the validity of this point). Those are main reasons I have found in my school anyway.

+Not everyone wants a job requiring high level maths (eg. med, law, commerce, teaching, etc.)

True. But i'm just a person who understood those concepts pretty easily; i really didn't do much work in class for Further. However, my friends struggled with some of the concepts, and looked to me to help them, even though i haven't done most of the work.


I must admit though, the amount of Spesh work i've done so far is nearly as much as what i've done for Further all last year; but i find it a heck lot more rewarding.