Help im in a crisis (1 Viewer)

[Munti]

I am in a massive crisis. MASSIVE. Whether I should drop to general maths from 2 unit Maths. I would preferably like to make a decision asap, as I'm 3 weeks into year 12 and I don't want to waste any more time. These are my subjects for background:

- Economics (rank 2/20)
- Biology (rank 11/85)
- Ext 1 English (rank 2/9)
- Legal Studies (rank 4/55)
- Adv Math (unsure)

So I got a horrible, absolutely atrocious overall math mark for yr 11 – 48/100, rank 31/61 and I go to a public school ranked about 190 in 2017 HSC.

I know I won't be able to devote enough time to it already. Yr 12 has started and I'm already 1 chapter behind. I don't hate maths, I just find it very time consuming. Even though I got really good tutoring for it for it in yr 11, I still did horribly. While I do admit I did not devote enough time to it in yr 11, I honestly feel like I will have to concentrate so much time towards it as you know, practice makes perfect. As you can tell by my subjects, math-orientated subjects are not my forte. Whilst I love the fact that I do get a bit of a balance between my content-heavy subjects and adv math, I'm just worried it will drain so much time away from my other subjects. My logic is, if I drop to general, I can focus more on my other 9 units and smash them out.

I'm was aiming for an 80 for adv, but that seems so difficult to achieve for someone like me. my teacher has told me I am capable, but I just don't think it's worth so much effort for a lousy, realistic mark of 75 in the end. General seems way easier (I do understand that trick and wordy questions are common however), and more safe I guess. Also, I'd be able to drop ext 1 english if I do general, as the only reason i was doing it was in case i really messed up adv math in the hsc.

BUT I AM SCARED SHITLESS BECAUSE OF 4 THINGS:

- the SCALING. omg. The amount of warnings and posts I've read and heard about the extreme risk associated with general purely due to its scaling. What if I pull an 85 (even though I'll end up getting an 80 with 2x amount of work in adv anyway) and it pulls down my ATAR? my nightmare.
- Will I be able to catch up? And will I get the questions? As I've been so used to adv math type questions for so long.
-THE COHORT. While I know I can get at least into top 5 for general, the rest of the cohort of about 80 is not great either. Will they drag my mark down too?
- The new syllabus??

Wow sorry for all that info. But thanks so so so much for reading it all!! I'm so confused and everyone is just telling me different stuff. ANY ADVICE WOULD BE SO GREATLY APPRECIATED AS U PPL ON HERE ARE ALL SO SMART WOWZA.

 

[ichila101]

- Take a look at the course description of Mathematics Standard, you can then assess whether or not you will be able to do well or not and don't put yourself down. A friend of mine (although anecdotal evidence isn't an example for all cases) failed math in year 10 yet he got high b6 for general math.
- If you can do decently well in advanced, it shouldn't be too hard to catch up (you will have the holidays coming your way anyways so you can take a look and see whether you want to do what you see in general math)
- They can pull you down, this still depends on a lot of stuff but try to come first. Seeing that it seems possible that you can get an 85 in adv math I am sure you can get in the 99-100 range for general (no pressure)
- Don't worry about the new syllabus, everyone is getting exposed to something new, you aren't being singled out.


As a final note, I should remind you that if you do plan on going to USYD adv math will be required for quite a degrees so be on the look out for that. I won't encourage or discourage you to do advanced math, if you really feel that you are struggling and that advanced math is having a negative impact on your other subjects then I would agree with you on the part of dropping down but if you feel that there are more pros to keeping advanced math then I would highly recommend you keep it.

 

[Heresy]

I am in a massive crisis. MASSIVE. Whether I should drop to general maths from 2 unit Maths. I would preferably like to make a decision asap, as I'm 3 weeks into year 12 and I don't want to waste any more time. These are my subjects for background:

- Economics (rank 2/20)
- Biology (rank 11/85)
- Ext 1 English (rank 2/9)
- Legal Studies (rank 4/55)
- Adv Math (unsure)

So I got a horrible, absolutely atrocious overall math mark for yr 11 – 48/100, rank 31/61 and I go to a public school ranked about 190 in 2017 HSC.

I know I won't be able to devote enough time to it already. Yr 12 has started and I'm already 1 chapter behind. I don't hate maths, I just find it very time consuming. Even though I got really good tutoring for it for it in yr 11, I still did horribly. While I do admit I did not devote enough time to it in yr 11, I honestly feel like I will have to concentrate so much time towards it as you know, practice makes perfect. As you can tell by my subjects, math-orientated subjects are not my forte. Whilst I love the fact that I do get a bit of a balance between my content-heavy subjects and adv math, I'm just worried it will drain so much time away from my other subjects. My logic is, if I drop to general, I can focus more on my other 9 units and smash them out.

I'm was aiming for an 80 for adv, but that seems so difficult to achieve for someone like me. my teacher has told me I am capable, but I just don't think it's worth so much effort for a lousy, realistic mark of 75 in the end. General seems way easier (I do understand that trick and wordy questions are common however), and more safe I guess. Also, I'd be able to drop ext 1 english if I do general, as the only reason i was doing it was in case i really messed up adv math in the hsc.

BUT I AM SCARED SHITLESS BECAUSE OF 4 THINGS:

- the SCALING. omg. The amount of warnings and posts I've read and heard about the extreme risk associated with general purely due to its scaling. What if I pull an 85 (even though I'll end up getting an 80 with 2x amount of work in adv anyway) and it pulls down my ATAR? my nightmare.
- Will I be able to catch up? And will I get the questions? As I've been so used to adv math type questions for so long.
-THE COHORT. While I know I can get at least into top 5 for general, the rest of the cohort of about 80 is not great either. Will they drag my mark down too?
- The new syllabus??

Wow sorry for all that info. But thanks so so so much for reading it all!! I'm so confused and everyone is just telling me different stuff. ANY ADVICE WOULD BE SO GREATLY APPRECIATED AS U PPL ON HERE ARE ALL SO SMART WOWZA.

Yeah - Don't drop to general. One of my friends who was doing the HSC in 2017 did general and got like around 83 and got scaled down to the 70's apparently so keep Advanced.

Since you are already doing well in Economics and Ext 1 English that should really help your ATAR in the long run if you continue to do well.


A Tip: Before your Math Exams go through past trials, past hscs etc and use the snipping tool to crop out questions and complie a doc full of questions so when you go to study they aren't easy repetitive questions from textbooks and give you experience as to what you may face in your school's exams (same outcomes).


Best of Luck

 

[Roy G Biv]

doing well in general will still require a major time committment. better to just devote time daily to 2u adv maths imo.

you should only drop if you genuinely found 2u adv to be too hard, and you were struggling to understand the concepts.

 

[BLIT2014]

Also to do commerce at certain universities ie USYD requires you to do mathematics at the minimum.