grr at chucknthem made me register hehe. I don't want anyone saying I brag or show-off please, I was just told by chuck to post here about what I did.
Well I'm chuck's friend from uni, and I'm in second year this year, and I'm 15. I started school when I was 5, accelerated to year 1 half way through '98, then did a month in year 2, then accelerated to year 4. From there I went on normally, and most of my friends from back at school are now 18-19
. When I was in high school, I was accelerated in maths, chemistry and biology. In year 10 I finished 2/3 unit maths HSC, and in year 11 I finished 4 unit maths, bio and chem (all band 6, so I was quite happy). When I was in year 10, UNSW sent around a letter to schools with this "Early Entry Admission Program" thing, you can see it here:
http://www.unsw.edu.au/futureStudents/undergrad/sad/earlyentry.html
It consists of 3 stages:
1. application (just fill in a form and chuck in all your academic records, quite a lot actually)
2. interview
3. SAT test
I applied back when I was in year 10, and I was 12 then, and thinking back, it wasn't a great idea, I'll explain why later. I stuffed up the interview, and they said "come back next year" which was exaclty what I did. If I stayed in year 12 last year, I would only be doing English and Music (extra 2 units). By the time I was applied again, a 12 year old kid and a 13 year old kid seemed to have a big difference, and they told me to do the SAT test. I forgot what I scored for it
but it was in the 1900's, just under 2000. The test was out of 2400. It was a 4 hour test of pure multiple choice english and maths questions, though 20 minutes is an essay. They were happy with my mark, and I "passed" their admission thing. Through that scheme, you can only do Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts, and of course I chose Science
. Right now I'm happily doing anatomy and computing
.
So, why am I happy that they didn't let me in when I was 12? Firstly, I gotta admit I was too young then. Secondly, many courses in uni require you to have basic knowledge on HSC subjects, and since I only did 2/3 unit maths, I would have been really stuffed even if I made it in. I was in year 11 when I got in, and had finished 8 units of HSC stuff, so it wasn't too big a deal, since I didn't want to do many english related subjects in uni anyway hehe
For kurt, I'd suggest that you just finish as you are, or you could try the early entry program for UNSW. Remember that if you do that, you can only do B Sci or B Arts, so if you were thinking of something different, I'd just do it the normal way. Accelerated 1 year in just maths would be too hard on your other subjects, and from what I know, you can't do just purely maths for a degree in uni
EDIT* oh, I just read some posts in page 2, was too lazy to do it at first, i'm that "kid"
So yeah, I kinda liked maths in high school cos it was easier than heaps of other subjects, but after doing 2 maths subjects last year, I give up, takes too much brain power
might be different for you. I eventually want to get into med, either undergrad or postgrad, but I still like computing........
