Need some advice on 2/3U maths (1 Viewer)

[LC14199]

Ok so here's the situation.

We've just completed preliminary half yearly exams, and I've failed 2U maths by 0.5 marks. However a number of people in my class got a lot lower than this, and we're talking in the 30s of %s. I'm rather worried about my mx1 mark now because I didn't go that well in 2U. The teacher is also the school admin coordinator, and so she has very little free time whatsoever, the only time being a Monday afternoon. I do have a tutor, and she has helped bring my marks up, but the problem is that I don't enjoy doing the maths work at all. There's a lot of effort for (apologies for the language here: ) piss all reward. Students can put in a ridiculous amount of effort with 3U maths and I just don't see the rewards for doing it in the short term.

The teacher burns through content like no tomorrow, so much so that I've occasionally had to audibly tell her to slow down so I can finish writing the rest of the equation or working down that she's done on the board (Mainly answers to the exams we got back). Am I the only one that agrees that the admin coordinator should not be teaching 2 and 3 unit maths? She just seems to have so little time to help during lunchtimes, etc.

I don't think the issue is me not understanding the content, it's more me getting confused with 2 and 3 unit content. I mixed up Further Inequations with regular Inequations and so I forgot how to do the basic stuff. Geometry is just a pain in the rear, lost a lot of marks in 2 unit because of geometry (and apparently many people did too!). If the cohort aren't doing that well, does that indicate perhaps there's something going wrong on the teachers end?

Cheers,
LC

PS: I'm quite good at sensing when someone is becoming irritated or frustrated, and I notice that when I'm not getting something that "should" be basic, the teacher in question seems to get quite frustrated with me. I can see it in her facial expressions, though she doesn't actually say anything.

I have the capability to do the work, but sometimes it just takes someone to sit down and explain it a little more in-depth than skipping everything that she considers basic, and as mentioned above, lunch time help is out of the question.

I may consider asking another teacher for assistance in this matter.

 

[enigma_1]

do you use maths in focus?

it seems like you're forgetting the previous content that you learnt. And lol I think most people don't bother with distinguishing 2 and 3 unit but after you do several past papers it becomes obvious which topics are 2 and 3 unit so you can distinguish them yourself. Do you have pastpapersfor yr 11? but I don't think that's why you're losing marks - simply because you cant distinguish between 2 and 3 unit. I think it's something like either learning from a shit textbook like mif where the questions are rote learn worthy and really easy so the concept is not embedded into your brain, OR you're not understanding the content well enough by your teach, or both.

 

[LC14199]

We are using Maths in Focus, and as for enjoying maths, it's a complicated answer. I'm what some would call a computer guru. Anything involving computers I am ALL over. (Been trying to self-teach batch programming, that hasn't been going too well haha). I don't enjoy the aspects of maths that I know won't be used in what I'm going to do. eg: Geometry. However when it comes to algebra I am usually pretty good as long as it's been explained thoroughly to me.

I'd say you're correct, the text book questions can be quite stupid. But sometimes, the text book asks questions that I know for a fact would not be in an exam because they just take ridiculous amounts of time to solve. As for understanding the content from the teacher, she just goes through things very quickly, to the point where I've been expected to do an exercise that can have anywhere from 40-60 questions in a night. (including sub questions). It's just a ridiculous amount of effort as I said.

 

[enigma_1]

Use a better textbook like cambridge and get your tutor to go through questions from cambridge/fitzpatrick if they aren't already. This year is good to evaluate and see what works best with you so experiment with different things. Have you tried wootube and khan academy? Both are very good resources to use for maths.

So I think the probliem lies in the way the content is being taught to you. Self learning maths is not ideal. So do more past papers. Don't really know your situation or anything but I hink you should find a way of being taught maths ina better way, because it sinks in better if you've been taught it well. Also, get rid of maths in focus lol

 

[LC14199]

Unfortunately MIF is the textbook the teacher is using to teach the content. I don't really have a choice in which textbook I use at school, but I could look into getting one to use for the tutoring and/or homework questions. As for past papers, I'll look into getting a few of those.

Thanks for the help, my study period is almost up and I have to go to maths now haha. More answers to our failed exam Anyways, I'll be back on later this afternoon (after 2 pm) and I'll monitor this thread.

Cheers,
LC

 

[enigma_1]

Yeah I agree. Does your teacher check your work? If not then just do the questions up to the point where you are confident and just stick to cambridge. Because mif are repetitive and no point doing them because they decrease your IQ.

So yeah the pace of being taught is an issue here. Perhaps ask your teacher to slow down in person?

 

[enigma_1]

Unfortunately MIF is the textbook the teacher is using to teach the content. I don't really have a choice in which textbook I use at school, but I could look into getting one to use for the tutoring and/or homework questions.

If your teacher doesnt check your work then you can get away with using cambridge. And yeah use cambridge for tutoring.

 

[enigma_1]

Is tutoring helping? If not you can consider other tutoring options. After all, you need to find what's best for you.

 

[integral95]

Ok so here's the situation.

We've just completed preliminary half yearly exams, and I've failed 2U maths by 0.5 marks. However a number of people in my class got a lot lower than this, and we're talking in the 30s of %s. I'm rather worried about my mx1 mark now because I didn't go that well in 2U. The teacher is also the school admin coordinator, and so she has very little free time whatsoever, the only time being a Monday afternoon. I do have a tutor, and she has helped bring my marks up, but the problem is that I don't enjoy doing the maths work at all. There's a lot of effort for (apologies for the language here: ) piss all reward. Students can put in a ridiculous amount of effort with 3U maths and I just don't see the rewards for doing it in the short term.

The teacher burns through content like no tomorrow, so much so that I've occasionally had to audibly tell her to slow down so I can finish writing the rest of the equation or working down that she's done on the board (Mainly answers to the exams we got back). Am I the only one that agrees that the admin coordinator should not be teaching 2 and 3 unit maths? She just seems to have so little time to help during lunchtimes, etc.

I don't think the issue is me not understanding the content, it's more me getting confused with 2 and 3 unit content. I mixed up Further Inequations with regular Inequations and so I forgot how to do the basic stuff. Geometry is just a pain in the rear, lost a lot of marks in 2 unit because of geometry (and apparently many people did too!). If the cohort aren't doing that well, does that indicate perhaps there's something going wrong on the teachers end?

Cheers,
LC

PS: I'm quite good at sensing when someone is becoming irritated or frustrated, and I notice that when I'm not getting something that "should" be basic, the teacher in question seems to get quite frustrated with me. I can see it in her facial expressions, though she doesn't actually say anything.

I have the capability to do the work, but sometimes it just takes someone to sit down and explain it a little more in-depth than skipping everything that she considers basic, and as mentioned above, lunch time help is out of the question.

I may consider asking another teacher for assistance in this matter.

Probably because the math problems given are just tedious as mentioned previously, I would get bored as hell if I only got exposed with your MIF questions.
Yeah look for past exam papers and harder textbook as enigma mentioned to expand your problem solving skills (if you enjoy that then maths is the right subject for you )

If you really struggle or make minimal progress with the math after months of work, then unfortunately you might need to consider dropping as it could potentially waste your time with your other subjects and cause them to suffer.

In maths, everything builds up from the basics, your teacher's suppose to go through those (and it doesn't need to take up a whole lesson) in proper detail and not skip it completely,then you can start spamming those harder exam type questions, most people get lost because of lack of basic knowledge essentially.

 

[LC14199]

The other main problem I've been having is that I had a really bad teacher last year, and a lot of people failed the exams we were given. I was passing, but only getting 60%ish. (year 10 extension maths). So the things I was supposed to be taught, didn't get taught for whatever reason he came up with, whether it was we were running out of time, or whatever else. At the start of this year I had to completely learn quadratics all over again because he didn't teach me at all last year.

This gap in the knowledge ladder is certainly not helping my case, and I have to deal with these lack of knowledge problems on a case by case basis.

As for enjoying problem solving, I love fixing computer problems, and I enjoy trying to find the best way to write a program. I would class these as problem solving activities? Would you? haha

 

[integral95]

The other main problem I've been having is that I had a really bad teacher last year, and a lot of people failed the exams we were given. I was passing, but only getting 60%ish. (year 10 extension maths). So the things I was supposed to be taught, didn't get taught for whatever reason he came up with, whether it was we were running out of time, or whatever else. At the start of this year I had to completely learn quadratics all over again because he didn't teach me at all last year.

This gap in the knowledge ladder is certainly not helping my case, and I have to deal with these lack of knowledge problems on a case by case basis.

As for enjoying problem solving, I love fixing computer problems, and I enjoy trying to find the best way to write a program. I would class these as problem solving activities? Would you? haha

Maths would also be very enjoyable if you could do that too , you'd also save a lot of time in exams.

But yeah then get your tutor the run through the basics in depth (wait is this a private or a class tutor?) before you start tackling the questions, otherwise you would just remember the methods without knowing why (I'm personally against rote learning in maths) . The exam could give the question on the same topic but with a few twist, which would basically mess up your marks for not knowing the content.

 

[Flop21]

The other main problem I've been having is that I had a really bad teacher last year, and a lot of people failed the exams we were given. I was passing, but only getting 60%ish. (year 10 extension maths). So the things I was supposed to be taught, didn't get taught for whatever reason he came up with, whether it was we were running out of time, or whatever else. At the start of this year I had to completely learn quadratics all over again because he didn't teach me at all last year.

This gap in the knowledge ladder is certainly not helping my case, and I have to deal with these lack of knowledge problems on a case by case basis.

As for enjoying problem solving, I love fixing computer problems, and I enjoy trying to find the best way to write a program. I would class these as problem solving activities? Would you? haha

If you plan on doing computer science or software engineering in uni, stick with maths and 3u maths. You'll need it then.

 

[integral95]

If you only plan to do Commerce, then 2U is sufficient

 

[LC14199]

I'm planning to do computer sciences at Uni, most likely ANU if possible. So I'm stuck with 2/3 Unit maths. The tutoring is private, but progress can be slow depending on how much I know about something or not. (Mainly because of the lack of year 10 learning)

 

[Sien]

What's your ranking tho? Ranking is more important than marks, maybe your school has set high standards in your tests?

 

[photastic]

What's your ranking tho? Ranking is more important than marks, maybe your school has set high standards in your tests?

Agreed, the exam may have been hard possibly, don't give up, got 30s in my prelim 3u exam and still ended up with High Band 6 for HSC.

 

[LC14199]

I'm not sure of my, or the schools ranking. Last year the school was in the 200s for ranking, 240 if memory serves for its HSC cohort. As for my individual ranking, I haven't been told that. I will enquire, but I'm guessing I'm on the lower end of the spectrum for 2U. In MX1 I'm probably last.

 

[Sien]

I'm not sure of my, or the schools ranking. Last year the school was in the 200s for ranking, 240 if memory serves for its HSC cohort. As for my individual ranking, I haven't been told that. I will enquire, but I'm guessing I'm on the lower end of the spectrum for 2U. In MX1 I'm probably last.

Hey don't be so pessimistic, i thought i did pretty shit in one of my test and i actually did ok. You never know until you get it back Even if you didn't do well, just wait till the end of yr 11 and see how you go. I barely passed all my prelim tests for 2u lol

 

[LC14199]

Well I got 40% in Extension maths, and I got 32/65 for the 2U which is something like 49. something% ? Not that good tbh...