Assumed knowledge of maths ext 1 / bridging courses for computer science in uni (1 Viewer)

[timelesss]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering about the difficulty of university-level maths within the computer science course, and what your experiences were with bridging courses.

I am hoping to study B law/B computer science at UNSW, as one of my main interests is the tech-related legal sphere. The UNSW website mentions that assumed knowledge for the computer science degree is 3u maths, and I am currently only studying 2u (advanced). In general, I find 2u to be one of my favourite subjects and I consistently achieve marks in the 90s in exams, however, I don't do 3u and have barely any knowledge of the content excluding anything that has helped me study for 2u. I'm worried that not choosing 3u when I had the chance will put me at a disadvantage once I enter uni - I am fine with the idea of self studying to catch up, but as I want to do a double degree with law (another workload heavy subject), I don't know if I will have the motivation or time to do so..

I am not against taking a bridging course after HSC as I know UNSW offer these, but I don't know about the value of this as I've heard mixed accounts about whether this actually helped people or not...

Any advice/experience with the application of maths in computer science courses or with bridging courses would be highly appreciated! thank you

 

[Drdusk]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering about the difficulty of university-level maths within the computer science course, and what your experiences were with bridging courses.

I am hoping to study B law/B computer science at UNSW, as one of my main interests is the tech-related legal sphere. The UNSW website mentions that assumed knowledge for the computer science degree is 3u maths, and I am currently only studying 2u (advanced). In general, I find 2u to be one of my favourite subjects and I consistently achieve marks in the 90s in exams, however, I don't do 3u and have barely any knowledge of the content excluding anything that has helped me study for 2u. I'm worried that not choosing 3u when I had the chance will put me at a disadvantage once I enter uni - I am fine with the idea of self studying to catch up, but as I want to do a double degree with law (another workload heavy subject), I don't know if I will have the motivation or time to do so..

I am not against taking a bridging course after HSC as I know UNSW offer these, but I don't know about the value of this as I've heard mixed accounts about whether this actually helped people or not...

Any advice/experience with the application of maths in computer science courses or with bridging courses would be highly appreciated! thank you

CS requires you to take first year Math classes, all of which are basically 4U level in terms of content.

Your going to have to work extra hard to learn the content because unlike high school they fly through things at like three times the speed.

With that being said I’m not trying to scare you here but it’s the truth of Uni life and maybe a bridging course could help with that. It’s very short iirc so it won’t put you on par with someone that did 3U or 4U in year 12 but atleast it’s something.

 

[jazz519]

Yeah adding to the above I’m not doing computer science, but I’ve done a lot of the math courses that they take.

Passing at uni isn’t that difficult since you can get most marks before the final, but with only a 2 unit knowledge you are likely going to struggle to get in the distinction/high distinction range. It’s not to say the content is insanely hard but not having a solid foundation in 3 unit concepts and trying to catch up on that while learning the other stuff is going to be very difficult. At unsw because of the trimester as well they go really fast through the content.

You want to be prepared before you start if you are only doing 2 unit in high school. Aside from the bridging course you should probably self learn 3 unit content in the time period between hsc finishing and uni starting. Best approach is probably buy a textbook for 3 unit and there’s channels on YouTube that cover concepts as well. This probably won’t fully compare to someone who did 3 unit over two years or 4 unit maths but it will prepare you much better than just doing a bridging course alone.

 

[jazz519]

One other thing you do have a slight advantage if you go down that degree path. What you could do is potentially delay your computer science part of the double degree and start with the law subjects only. In the meantime you could have more time to self-learn stuff as well