• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

How hard is MX1? (1 Viewer)

Feynman

Active Member
Joined
May 12, 2014
Messages
216
Gender
Male
HSC
2016
In comparison to 2 unit. People at my school say its really hard but they haven't even done it.

Also if I already learnt circle geo, polynomials and logs, would that help much
 
Last edited:

rumbleroar

Survivor of the HSC
Joined
Nov 30, 2011
Messages
2,271
Gender
Female
HSC
2014
Personally, I didn't find the leap from 2 to 3 unit that bad. I didn't really feel a difference between the two, just saw all of it as maths haha

and as long as you understand the topics taught, difficulty shouldn't be a big issue.
 

lolitaaa

Active Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
258
Location
QVB
Gender
Female
HSC
2014
actually is hard. I've spent ~200 hours on mx1 and am only scraping a b6 equivalent score in my exams\
OK Ok I know you people think quantity < quality but 'm giving an approx. value
 

emilios

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2013
Messages
667
Gender
Male
HSC
2014
Actually not at all that hard, just time consuming. Great subject though. Exam questions tend to be similar, unlike 4U where there is a larger scope of questions. So if you are willing to put in the time, a B6 is very achievable.

And yes, familiarizing yourself with the circle geo theorems is a pain in the ass so if you have a head start then all the better. Dude honestly I was in the same position as you 2 years ago, nervously asking everyone for advice. Just do it. I guarantee you'll be fine. Worst case scenario you drop it after year 11.
 

matchalolz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
1,179
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2015
I honestly don't get what all the fuss is about, 3U is not extremely hard. 2U is basically a repeat of year 10 so it's not hard. Just do your homework and you'll be fine :)

For the topics that you've already learnt, whether it's helpful or not depends on whether your school does that topic first or not. For example, I had already learnt circle geometry in year 10 but this year we haven't even got to that topic and I've forgotten most it :p
 

Crisium

Pew Pew
Joined
Feb 17, 2014
Messages
2,009
Location
Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2015
Mathematics Extension 1 (3 Unit) isn't that hard in comparison to just Mathematics (2 Unit)

There's no harm in giving it a go because you can always drop when you feel as if you can't keep up, it's too hard, etc. :D
 

cub3root

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
577
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
actually is hard. I've spent ~200 hours on mx1 and am only scraping a b6 equivalent score in my exams\
OK Ok I know you people think quantity < quality but 'm giving an approx. value
but you're not asian?
 

Joshmosh2

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Messages
181
Gender
Male
HSC
2015
MX1 gave me a wake up call as it was really intense for me in the first couple months. You will get used to it and 2U becomes an absolute breeze
 

macrazy

Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
87
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
I don't find 3U to be that hard, you just have to make a commitment to stay on top of practice questions and to make sure you understand everything as you learn it, because if you fall behind it's very hard to catch up because it's quite fast paced.. but yeah, not too much harder for the most part :)
 

wagig

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
152
Gender
Male
HSC
2015
If you are able to understand the 2 unit content thoroughly (this includes the entirety of trigonometry), extension 1 is not much more of a stretch
 

Drongoski

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Messages
4,255
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Whether one find MX1 hard or not depends on one. Those who are good at maths find it easy. Those who find 2U Advanced manageable, but not too easy, will find MX1 hard just as those who can only manage Maths General 2 may find 2U advanced challenging. So it all depends.
 
Last edited:

lilcutetricker

Active Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
481
Gender
Male
HSC
2015
Uni Grad
2015
I think it really is subjective on whether someone finds 3u maths easy or hard. For example: my mate who does 2u and 3u; he did awful in his 2u lets be honest, 101/162 - yeah not happening mate. But since the 3u exam was pretty challenging, i didnt know if he was lucky or prepared since he has similar habits of studying towards every subject but he came 42/81 (not bad) whilst I came 21st for 2u with the same amount of effort prepared for 3u which i came 58/81 in.

It really comes down to your approach and how you grasp the subject, so i can't say there's a massive gap with 2u and 3u but there really is an obvious gap.
 

Axio

=o
Joined
Mar 20, 2014
Messages
484
Gender
Male
HSC
2015
In comparison to 2 unit. People at my school say its really hard but they haven't even done it.

Also if I already learnt circle geo, polynomials and logs, would that help much
I learnt these things in year 10 and I found that it made covering them in 3U way easier. Circle geo questions use all of the yr10 rules + a few more but there are also proof questions instead of just 'find' questions. Polynomials in 3U is almost exactly the same as what we covered in yr10. No logs in yr11 3U as far as I know.
 

rumbleroar

Survivor of the HSC
Joined
Nov 30, 2011
Messages
2,271
Gender
Female
HSC
2014
I learnt these things in year 10 and I found that it made covering them in 3U way easier. Circle geo questions use all of the yr10 rules + a few more but there are also proof questions instead of just 'find' questions. Polynomials in 3U is almost exactly the same as what we covered in yr10. No logs in yr11 3U as far as I know.
schools teach topics in different orders so you're going to be doing logs in year 12 if you haven't done so in year 11. but its just revision of all the laws + graphing + "harder" equation solving
 

rawrliongirl

Active Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2014
Messages
971
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
Its really fast Paced so sometimes you'll be learning a new concept but then the next day youve moved onto something else and youre still trying to get your head around what you learnt yesterday. For me it was hell. I did it for a term then dropped.
I even did 5.3 maths in year 9&10 but still understood nothing in Ext. Im now dying in mathematics and considering dropping to general..even though everyone is saying im very capable of mathematics and shouldnt drop.
 
Last edited:

photastic

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2013
Messages
1,848
Gender
Male
HSC
2014
Both preliminary 3u and 2u felt cramped where there were/are so many topics to learn within 3 terms. However for the hsc, it feels much slower, less topics hence more time to comprehensively understand them, which is why I think prelims was harder than the HSC year. You have more time to understand the topics, which is why 3u sometimes feels easier than 2u because there is so little to be tested and the difficulty is roughly the same as 2u, except projectiles, probability, binomials and calculus
 

nerdasdasd

Dont.msg.me.about.english
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
5,353
Location
A, A
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2017
Its really fast Paced so sometimes you'll be learning a new concept but then the next day youve moved onto something else and youre still trying to get your head around what you learnt yesterday. For me it was hell. I did it for a term then dropped.
I even did 5.3 maths in year 9&10 but still understood nothing in Ext. Im now dying in mathematics and considering dropping to general..even though everyone is saying im very capable of mathematics and shouldnt drop.
How well are you doing though?
 

ebbygoo

Active Member
Joined
May 12, 2012
Messages
605
Location
Look Up.
Gender
Male
HSC
2014
If you are able to understand the 2 unit content thoroughly (this includes the entirety of trigonometry), extension 1 is not much more of a stretch

I'd like to emphasise UNDERSTAND. Otherwise I'd agree with Wagig.
 

nivans

New Member
Joined
May 6, 2013
Messages
6
Gender
Female
HSC
2014
For me 3u was hard in year 11, but became easy in year 12. It's just a matter of getting used to it. If you do it and plan to drop at the end of year 11, don't drop it until you've done a term of year 12.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top