What makes specialist maths difficult?

[lacoste]

What makes specialist maths difficult?


I'm either going to do Specialist with not much background info (didn't do gen. math adv) or further!



Or why is specialist math easy?



cheers!! 

[Toothpaste]

It's easy in the sense that there's some sort of 'direction' in most questions.

It's hard because teachers keep saying it is. lol. The level of difficulty would depends on personal interest and perserverance ... the effort you put in is what you get out. If you fall behind on any work (applies to numerous subjects) you'll feel like giving up, so stay on top of it = makes spesh seem a lot more managable.

[brendan]

depends on the person, but it requires a higher level of abstract thinking than most subjects

[lacoste]

so it wouldn't be possible to learn specialist by the book and without the teacher with no gen. math Adv knowledge?



edit:

i went through a couple of vcaa spesh exam papers and they look SO difficult!! i also looked at the threads with some questions and they look very scary!!

[vce01]

you can't learn it by the book that's for sure. i couldn't do that with general maths anyway..

but with further, you could skip all your classes and still manage a 40+ score

[Toothpaste]

You might need a tutor to cover some knowledge gaps? Again it depends on the person.

I'd suggest to get one if you're not overly confident with maths.

[Pandemonium]

the syllabus is ok. the hard part is to OMG OMG OMG OMG THERE ARE LIZARDS COMING AFTER ME.

[Collin Li]

the syllabus is ok. the hard part is to OMG OMG OMG OMG THERE ARE LIZARDS COMING AFTER ME.

lol?

From that, I infer that lack of sleep, perhaps, is the hard part.

[Mao]

the syllabus is ok. the hard part is to OMG OMG OMG OMG THERE ARE LIZARDS COMING AFTER ME.

lol?

From that, I infer that lack of sleep, perhaps, is the hard part.

[cara.mel]

My school doesn't even run general maths that leads on to spec and I turned out alright

[Pandemonium]

Hmm.. I think you turned out pretty well.
Why'd you choose BSc at Monash though?

[midas_touch]

In order to do well, Specialist Maths requires you to work consistenly throughout the year, even if you have a good level of proficiency in maths.

[cara.mel]

Hmm.. I think you turned out pretty well.
Why'd you choose BSc at Monash though?

Mainly because it was close (20-30 mins vs 1.5-2 hours) and because I liked open day better there. (answering the monash component, in other words I didn't exactly research my uni choices)
BSc - because I eliminated any other potential degrees and there is nothing better

[Mao]

Hmm.. I think you turned out pretty well.
Why'd you choose BSc at Monash though?

not any generic BSc
its the Science Scholars Program

[Pandemonium]

what the difference? tell me.

anyway, back to the topic.
i suppose there's much more application of specialist, thus the different scenarios that they give us challenge the depth of our knowledge to what we consider as a large extent.

eg. there are countless times when you look at an analysis question blankly and then flip to the answer section and they give you the working out to which you call yourself a loser because you know the shit, just didn't know how to apply it.