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Maths help (1 Viewer)

KingKong^

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Hey ya'll, So I'm currently doing advanced maths in year 11, starting Term 2 next week, and my plan is to study medicine hopefully. Last week my teacher gave students who he thought were incapable of advanced a test, including me. No one passed the exam, and I flunked it too, that's on me. The thing is I'm doing standard English, bio, chem, pdhpe and studies of religion, and my teacher as well as the head of math are pushing me to drop to standard as it is supposedly better for my ATAR. They think that the effort I'm putting into advanced is better off being distributed towards my other subjects, which I should focus on equally and try to get a high mark for all subjects, since medicine is not easy. Thing is as well, I'm a lazy student. I did well in beginning of high school, aced year 7 then slacked off through till year 9. Year 10 my maths began to improve again. Now my maths has gone down a little. And now I'm on the fence If I should go down or continue. Help??
 

Salad Man

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Hey ya'll, So I'm currently doing advanced maths in year 11, starting Term 2 next week, and my plan is to study medicine hopefully. Last week my teacher gave students who he thought were incapable of advanced a test, including me. No one passed the exam, and I flunked it too, that's on me. The thing is I'm doing standard English, bio, chem, pdhpe and studies of religion, and my teacher as well as the head of math are pushing me to drop to standard as it is supposedly better for my ATAR. They think that the effort I'm putting into advanced is better off being distributed towards my other subjects, which I should focus on equally and try to get a high mark for all subjects, since medicine is not easy. Thing is as well, I'm a lazy student. I did well in beginning of high school, aced year 7 then slacked off through till year 9. Year 10 my maths began to improve again. Now my maths has gone down a little. And now I'm on the fence If I should go down or continue. Help??
Not sure if this would be useful in helping you decide, but some of my friends that dropped 3u to std and adv to std all found classes to be a bludge to the point of them calling maths a free period lol. The maths (from their personal encounters with the difficuilty of 3u, adv and std) varies quite a bit, with the differences in 3u and adv being noticeably easier in adv, and the difference between adv and standard being the most drastic. Now, I cant say for sure how valid this is, as I myself dont do standard. But from what I can tell from their experiences with dropping, I noticed they became much more happier and relaxed when they do homework with me during my frees. So I reckon if you have somewhat an interest in maths, why not stick with it for the rest of the year, and see what results you get in the yearlies. These results will more than help you decide if you're competent enough to sticking with advance.


Edit: I just realised, I got this one guy in my bio class who does the exact same subjects with u and standard maths, excluding sor. He's also tryna get into med.
 
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KingKong^

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Not sure if this would be useful in helping you decide, but some of my friends that dropped 3u to std and adv to std all found classes to be a bludge to the point of them calling maths a free period lol. The maths (from their personal encounters with the difficuilty of 3u, adv and std) varies quite a bit, with the differences in 3u and adv being noticeably easier in adv, and the difference between adv and standard being the most drastic. Now, I cant say for sure how valid this is, as I myself dont do standard. But from what I can tell from their experiences with dropping, I noticed they became much more happier and relaxed when they do homework with me during my frees. So I reckon if you have somewhat an interest in maths, why not stick with it for the rest of the year, and see what results you get in the yearlies. These results will more than help you decide if you're competent enough to sticking with advance.


Edit: I just realised, I got this one guy in my bio class who does the exact same subjects with u and standard maths, excluding sor. He's also tryna get into med.
Oh wow haha. That's cool. Yeah I'm asking to stay right now, I'll see how I go. My teacher kept saying that adv. math isnt needed for med, but I've got a feeling it'll help in the selection.
 

dasfas

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Oh wow haha. That's cool. Yeah I'm asking to stay right now, I'll see how I go. My teacher kept saying that adv. math isnt needed for med, but I've got a feeling it'll help in the selection.
The skills taught are actually quite important, I'd recommend sticking with advanced. If you don't get into medicine, any science degree you do will need maths as core units. Chemistry will also require a fair bit of maths at uni.
 

KingKong^

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The skills taught are actually quite important, I'd recommend sticking with advanced. If you don't get into medicine, any science degree you do will need maths as core units. Chemistry will also require a fair bit of maths at uni.
Alright, but let's say I wasn't capable of doing advanced after all after the half yearlies. Would it take a while to catch up on standard content or is it not a big issue?
 

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Alright, but let's say I wasn't capable of doing advanced after all after the half yearlies. Would it take a while to catch up on standard content or is it not a big issue?
Not really, there isn't much to Year 11 Standard content other than Year 8 revision work, you should be good if you have to drop back down.
 

quickoats

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Oh wow haha. That's cool. Yeah I'm asking to stay right now, I'll see how I go. My teacher kept saying that adv. math isnt needed for med, but I've got a feeling it'll help in the selection.
Doing advanced maths won’t have any impact on the selection unless it has been imposed as a prerequisite (USyd requires a band 4 min). The admissions officers won’t be like “yah he does 2U math lets give it to him”, rather, the subjective comparisons would be made on the basis on how your interview went.

Do the level of maths that you feel you could maximise your marks. If you’re numerically proficient, but concepts such as calculus confuse you, you most likely would be better of in standard maths. If you struggle a bit with numbers, and maths doesn’t get to you, it might be more beneficial to drop rather than struggle.

Scaling shouldn’t really be a big part of your decision (high marks are always good marks whatever the course), but if you think you could pull off a solid band 6 in advanced, there is no reason (apart from time management and balance) for you to drop to standard and achieve a similar mark that would scale marginally less.
 

Time&moretime

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Hey ya'll, So I'm currently doing advanced maths in year 11, starting Term 2 next week, and my plan is to study medicine hopefully. Last week my teacher gave students who he thought were incapable of advanced a test, including me. No one passed the exam, and I flunked it too, that's on me. The thing is I'm doing standard English, bio, chem, pdhpe and studies of religion, and my teacher as well as the head of math are pushing me to drop to standard as it is supposedly better for my ATAR. They think that the effort I'm putting into advanced is better off being distributed towards my other subjects, which I should focus on equally and try to get a high mark for all subjects, since medicine is not easy. Thing is as well, I'm a lazy student. I did well in beginning of high school, aced year 7 then slacked off through till year 9. Year 10 my maths began to improve again. Now my maths has gone down a little. And now I'm on the fence If I should go down or continue. Help??
If you can retain your spot in Adv Maths, I suggest that you do. Get help from tutors if you can. Also are you a SORII student?
This subject scales better than most people think. Also, I take my 'hat off to you' for doing Bio, Chem & PDHPE.
The thing about trying out for Med is that different medical schools have their own unique process of selection. The basics are an ATAR of 96, 90percentile UCAT but there are applicants who get in who don't necessarily reach those standards & some who score much higher & fail to secure a place. And some schools like James Cook that doesn't require a UCAT score and USYD that requires an ATAR of 99.95 or 99.05EAS. You need to check these out for yourself. The advice given so far in regards to your quandary is pretty good, so consider it.:)
 

KingKong^

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If you can retain your spot in Adv Maths, I suggest that you do. Get help from tutors if you can. Also are you a SORII student?
This subject scales better than most people think. Also, I take my 'hat off to you' for doing Bio, Chem & PDHPE.
The thing about trying out for Med is that different medical schools have their own unique process of selection. The basics are an ATAR of 96, 90percentile UCAT but there are applicants who get in who don't necessarily reach those standards & some who score much higher & fail to secure a place. And some schools like James Cook that doesn't require a UCAT score and USYD that requires an ATAR of 99.95 or 99.05EAS. You need to check these out for yourself. The advice given so far in regards to your quandary is pretty good, so consider it.:)
Yep, thanks for the help everyone. I am just waiting for my teacher's response on my message for staying in adv. Just hoping he accepts. Yes I am an SORII student. I was planning on dropping SOR to be honest because I thought PDHPE's scaling was better, and it's kind of related to medical practice anyways.
 

KingKong^

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Yep, thanks for the help everyone. I am just waiting for my teacher's response on my message for staying in adv. Just hoping he accepts. Yes I am an SORII student. I was planning on dropping SOR to be honest because I thought PDHPE's scaling was better, and it's kind of related to medical practice anyways.
Just an update, my teacher said that I will not be continuing in the advanced maths, and that's the final decision. I'm now supposedly in the standard course.
 

boombaboom

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Just an update, my teacher said that I will not be continuing in the advanced maths, and that's the final decision. I'm now supposedly in the standard course.
Damn, that's rough. What uni you aiming for medicine?
 

KingKong^

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Damn, that's rough. What uni you aiming for medicine?
Yeah. Wanted USYD but doesn't look possible anymore lol. Are there any unis that will take a standard maths student into medicine?
 
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