Maths subjects at UNSW for Science course? (1 Viewer)

[Clara_Oswald]

Hi all,
I have received guaranteed entry to the UNSW psychological science course commencing semester 1 this year.
I have a question about what maths subject I am meant to take as UNSW seems to force maths upon all of their students in the science field.

I did preliminary 2U maths (don't remember a thing) and dropped it by the end of year 11 as I was doing quite poorly (by poorly I mean failing). Since then I took up HSC General 2 Mathematics as at the time I had my heart set on a Bachelor of Arts/Education (Secondary), majoring in History or English which is why I had never really focused on math. Despite this, my parents did not want me to drop maths completely which is why I then took up general maths.

However, half way through last year I stumbled upon the psychological science course and it looked rather interesting so I went to find out a little more about it and by the time I graduated I had completely changed my mind on what course to pursue for university.

I missed out on going to the information day that was held last week as I was overseas and only got back yesterday so I was unable to ask questions about what maths subject I am to take.

tl;dr?

I dropped from 2U mathematics to general mathematics and now I am unsure of what maths subject I am supposed to enroll in at UNSW as it says assumed knowledge is 2U maths. In other words, what is the lowest level of maths available at UNSW?
I am aware that I should do a bridging course, however UNSW don't seem to offer a 2U maths bridging course, only a 3U one. I was redirected to the TAFE site for the bridging course, but it starts this Monday and have had no time to enroll.
Would it be acceptable to pursue a bridging course at a different institution such as Sydney University or UTS? Or will UNSW not recognise that I have undertaken a bridging course?

Also, has anyone on here had any experience with bridging courses? If so, where did you go and what was it like? Was it helpful?
Thank you. Sorry it's so long :s

 

[Clara_Oswald]

..did i post this in right forum?

 

[Queenroot]

You have to do stats, which you pretty much don't need any general knowledge at all (just up to yr 10 maths) I'm pretty sure. It's called MATH1041, look it up.

 

[Queenroot]

wait I just looked it up, you don't need to do that at all. There's no maths until 2nd year which is stats anyway. It's called PSYCH2001.

 

[Clara_Oswald]

wait I just looked it up, you don't need to do that at all. There's no maths until 2nd year which is stats anyway. It's called PSYCH2001.

oh really? Not till second year?
I know someone from my school who is enrolling in the same course as I am and told me there was maths and that we needed to know 2U. He obviously didn't know what he was talking about?

 

[Queenroot]

oh really? Not till second year?
I know someone from my school who is enrolling in the same course as I am and told me there was maths and that we needed to know 2U. He obviously didn't know what he was talking about?

Look through this and read the program rules and the general plan of the degree.

http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/programs/2016/3435.html

Doesn't say anything about math being compulsory. You can take it as an elective, but it is not a core to complete your course.
There's a stats subject in 2nd year PSYC2001, which falls under psychology and not maths anyway.

However, if you want to do another major in something else, you may have to take MATH1041.

 

[rawrliongirl]

I'm in a similar situation. I am gonna do Bachelor of Science at UNSW and I only did general maths so I have no idea how to do calculus or anything. The past two Yrs I thought j was gonna do animation hence not doing 2U.
I was looking through the hand book and maths is compulsory for first yr I think. Is mathematics for life sciences (MATH1031) the lowest math course they offer? It looks like I have to take math in s1 and then statistics s2.
Math1031 says that if I've taken gen maths that I won't have the level of knowledge in the course. Does that mean I need to do a bridging course? Or is it straightforward math? Idek what matrices are and I haven't even heard of half the things they cover. D:

 

[Clara_Oswald]

Look through this and read the program rules and the general plan of the degree.

http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/programs/2016/3435.html

Doesn't say anything about math being compulsory. You can take it as an elective, but it is not a core to complete your course.
There's a stats subject in 2nd year PSYC2001, which falls under psychology and not maths anyway.

However, if you want to do another major in something else, you may have to take MATH1041.

Thanks for that. I wasn't aware of the hand book.

 

[Queenroot]

I'm in a similar situation. I am gonna do Bachelor of Science at UNSW and I only did general maths so I have no idea how to do calculus or anything. The past two Yrs I thought j was gonna do animation hence not doing 2U.
I was looking through the hand book and maths is compulsory for first yr I think. Is mathematics for life sciences (MATH1031) the lowest math course they offer? It looks like I have to take math in s1 and then statistics s2.
Math1031 says that if I've taken gen maths that I won't have the level of knowledge in the course. Does that mean I need to do a bridging course? Or is it straightforward math? Idek what matrices are and I haven't even heard of half the things they cover. D:

it depends what you want to major in

What are you planning on majoring in? I'll look it up for you.

 

[rawrliongirl]

it depends what you want to major in

What are you planning on majoring in? I'll look it up for you.

Either genetics or molecular and cell biology at this stage.

 

[Queenroot]

Either genetics or molecular and cell biology at this stage.

Okay so I looked it up. If you're weak at maths, your best bet is to do MATH1031 and MATH1041. I've done MATH1041, and seriously, you'll be okay with doing it. As for MATH1031, you said:

"Math1031 says that if I've taken gen maths that I won't have the level of knowledge in the course. Does that mean I need to do a bridging course? Or is it straightforward math? Idek what matrices are and I haven't even heard of half the things they cover."

That's completely fine. Others are at a very little advantage to you. They will go through 2u math stuff that you need for the course in the first 2 weeks or so, they won't throw you in the deep end straight away. Also, uni is meant to be learning new things, things you haven't heard of before. I don't even know what matrices are and I've done 2u maths as well as higher uni maths.

 

[plutonium-238]

You are better off doing MATH1041/statistics if you want the D. Otherwise there is a stats course in 1st year 2nd semester which covers the basic components in mathematics for psychology (which is heavily based on statistics).