How much 4u is required in Engineering? (1 Viewer)

[DaisyMeRolling]

I plan to drop my 4u just because I can't understand much (currently in complex numbers) from an earlier thread I am doing 4u in yr 11 at my tutor only not at school. I wanted to pursue engineering but online says that if I can't hand 4u math then I can't handle engineering.

I feel like I've also been slacking off and not working hard to understand the lessons.

Although it's not a prerequisite or assumed knowledge how handy is 4U in Uni for engineering or should I give up on pursuing engineering given I'm struggling in 4U

 

[synthesisFR]

i also did 4u in y11 in tutoring
its difficult at the start but later it gets comfortable like complex numbers is eeeezzz unlike some other topics tho
I would say just keep going if u have the money and try to do it and don't slack off
I regret not trying hard in y11 bc everyone else in my class improved a lot and i had to catch up

 

[gazzaboy]

I teach first year maths at UNSW, and MATH1131/MATH1141 (which is the first maths course that engineering students have to do) covers almost all of the 4U content, including complex numbers, proofs, vectors and integration. Mechanics is not directly covered. Then, second year maths courses cover content that's probably a bit harder than 4U content. So it is handy to know 4U.

At the same time, I wouldn't give up on engineering if you're struggling in 4U. At uni, you will have more time to learn the concepts you need to know (your degree might be up to 5 years!). Most people who don't do 4U end up catching up. And then once you pick a major and move to a higher year level in engineering, you would rarely do maths for the sake of maths - you'll just recall and apply specific maths when you need it.

 

[gazzaboy]

Probably only a bit further, but we spend more time working on the foundations (e.g. understanding how integration actually works through taking a limit of the sum of areas of rectangles). I don't think complex numbers is much harder than 4U. With vectors, we go further than 4U, going past 3 dimensions, looking at planes instead of just lines, and then introducing matrices.

MATH1231/MATH1241 is where there is more content that 4U won't cover. Probably more than half of it would be unrecognisable (particularly vector spaces, linear transformations, eigenvectors, functions of several variables and Taylor series). Stuff you still might recognise in MATH1231/MATH1241 would be: harder integration techniques, ordinary differential equations, probability and stats.

 

[Eagle Mum]

From my daughter’s HSC class of 2015, there are two engineering graduates who did not study 4U maths at all, but they got through engineering at Uni. Another student did study the whole 4U curriculum (attended all the classes & completed all assessments) but chose to sit the 2U paper on the day of the HSC maths exams - he topped his engineering course (and that was with working as a kitchen hand 20 hours a week). My son finished 4U in Yr 11 and informally tutored his classmates for 4U in Yr 12 - he is now studying engineering and breezing through both advanced maths and advanced physics on a strong foundation of both from high school. In summary, 4U maths isn’t essential for engineering, but it does make the uni course so much easier.

 

[Eagle Mum]

I plan to drop my 4u just because I can't understand much (currently in complex numbers) from an earlier thread I am doing 4u in yr 11 at my tutor only not at school. I wanted to pursue engineering but online says that if I can't hand 4u math then I can't handle engineering.

Have you completed the preliminary extension and 2U courses? If you are studying them concurrently, then that might explain your difficulties with 4U at this stage. My son studied preliminary HSC in Yr 8, 2U in Yr 9 and 3U in Yr 10, so when he did 4U in Yr 11, he already had the full foundation to build on.

I understand that complex numbers are studied as a standalone topic and mostly requires strong algebra skills, but the polar coordinate geometry section requires trigonometry and Cartesian geometry knowledge & skills as well, so 4U should be easier if/when you’ve mastered these sections of the syllabus.

 

[chilli 412]

My son studied preliminary HSC in Yr 8, 2U in Yr 9 and 3U in Yr 10, so when he did 4U in Yr 11, he already had the full foundation to build on.

not related to the thread but your son must be a beast at math lol