Want to drop ext 1 maths :( (1 Viewer)

[nerdwithapurpose]

I'm in Year 11 atm and doing extension 1 maths. I really don't enjoy it, and some aspects are really challenging for me. In all honesty, I'm not a great maths student. The only reason why I'm doing maths extension is because the teachers said to choose either Ext 1 or General instead of 2U due to scaling. Having said this, I'm not terrible at maths, I usually get around the 80s (this was for my Year 10 exams)

It won't make too much of a difference in regards to my uni preferences if I drop it, (as most unis only require 2u maths for the course I want to do), but I'm really afraid that if I drop down to 2u, I will be scaled down.
As I want an atar above 95 and enjoy my other subjects, would dropping down to 2u affect my atar in any way? Have any of you achieved a 95+ atar doing 2u maths?

Thanks

 

[helloimyellow]

Plenty in my cohort got 99+ without 3u or without doing maths at all. Just as long as you do well enough in your other subjects you should be ok.

 

[iforgotmyname]

You drop extension 1 maths and your parents drop you.

I think it would be a wise idea to drop it after year 11 because you gain a lot of skills in prelim 3u that can be widely applied to 2u. The extension part of 3u will only count for 1 unit but it pulls up your aggregate significantly if you do moderately well (mid b5) despite being 1 unit.

 

[gandalfbrah]

Dont drop it. Put in the required effort and you will succeed in it, it isn't an extremely demanding course if you have moderate mathematical capability and determination to do well. Who knows you might develop an interest in maths and decide to take on 4U.


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[lilcutetricker]

Completely subjective. I know people who did better BECAUSE they dropped 3U but conversely there have been people who could have done better with 3U. If you can't bear the stress of 3U (some topics in 3U are bloody annoying e.g. binomials, projectiles) drop it. It isn't worth the extra stress load because HSCs students bear enough stress without having to worry about doing a subject they don't enjoy. HOWEVER, it really is worth it because 2U IMO is dry. You can't use a different method. In saying that however subjects are just subjects, doing one subject won't change anything if you're doing terrible but it has good scaling. So short story, a girl in my grade did 2U and all the 'normal' subjects: history, legal, etc. but she ended up with a 98 because she came top 5 in most of her subjects and did EXTREMELY WELL. Moral: do what you're good at, not what scales well.

It really does come down to your own evaluation. Is it worth dropping 3U?

 

[nerdwithapurpose]

thanks guys I've decided to drop maths extension, but only at the end of year 11, hopefully some of the content I've learnt in extension this year with help me with 2u next year!

 

[Drongoski]

I am surprised your teacher would suggest choosing either Ext 1 or General in preference to 2U in view of ATAR. What an idiotic and dangerous suggestion. If you plan to go to uni then make sure you choose subjects that will provide you with a good foundation for doing your eventual course at uni. If you are certain you'd be doing a uni course (can you be really sure?) that won't need any maths, then it makes little difference, in this regard, whether or not you do any maths. To be able to have an ATAR advantage via General I find incredible and ridiculous.

While the uni is forced to come round to specifying a maths requirement for some of their courses, the universities themselves have been dishonest and even corrupt in not spelling out clearly the true level of maths required to successfully pursue certain maths-dependent courses. Often 2U may be indicated but 3U would better prepare you for such courses.

Of course if you do not have the ability to handle 3U, then you have no choice but to drop Ext 1 and do 2U; but never, in my prejudiced view, do the Mickey-Mouse maths called Maths General 2.

 

[InteGrand]

I am surprised your teacher could suggest choosing either Ext 1 or General in preference to 2U in view of ATAR. What an idiotic and dangerous suggestion. If you plan to go to uni then make sure you choose subjects that will provide you with a good foundation for doing your eventual course at uni. If you are certain you'd be doing a uni course (can you be really sure?) that won't need any maths, then it makes little difference, in this regard, whether or not you do any maths. To be able to have an ATAR advantage via General I find incredible and ridiculous.

There seem to be many people who do General Maths 2 instead of 2U maths though (including people who want to pursue something like science or engineering), and get higher ATAR's because of it (there are lots of newspaper articles that can be found online about this).

I'm guessing the reason (or a reason) they find this advantageous for their ATAR is that they think they will easily ace General Maths 2 (it is admittedly much "easier" than 2U I think, based on the General Maths marathon and past papers), and that they would find 2U hard to do well in or extremely time-consuming. Hence they opt for General Maths, as they believe they will easily do well in it and also have more time for their other subjects (so "win-win").

 

[nerdwithapurpose]

I am surprised your teacher would suggest choosing either Ext 1 or General in preference to 2U in view of ATAR. What an idiotic and dangerous suggestion. If you plan to go to uni then make sure you choose subjects that will provide you with a good foundation for doing your eventual course at uni. If you are certain you'd be doing a uni course (can you be really sure?) that won't need any maths, then it makes little difference, in this regard, whether or not you do any maths. To be able to have an ATAR advantage via General I find incredible and ridiculous.

While the uni is forced to come round to specifying a maths requirement for some of their courses, the universities themselves have been dishonest and even corrupt in not spelling out clearly the true level of maths required to successfully pursue certain maths-dependent courses. Often 2U may be indicated but 3U would better prepare you for such courses.

Of course if you do not have the ability to handle 3U, then you have no choice but to drop Ext 1 and do 2U; but never, in my prejudiced view, do the Mickey-Mouse maths called Maths General 2.

That's what I've heard from a lot of people. Whilst doing General Maths now might get you the ATAR, it will in no way help out during uni (I mean come on, they do area and perimeter!) I have decided to do 2U because Ext 1 is just far too difficult and too much work just for that one unit. Maths is definitely my weakest subject (and I sort of detest it), and I'd be better off doing 2U and being a genuinely happier person next year!

Also, it wasn't just my maths teacher that told us to choose either general or 3U, it was the whole maths department! I believe this is what lead me to choose Maths Ext (urgh), when this year, my maths teacher (new to the school), said that 3U students generally do worse in 2U and better in 3U. So after Year 11, I'm dropping Ext and couldn't be happier about it.

 

[RyanT7]

That's what I've heard from a lot of people. Whilst doing General Maths now might get you the ATAR, it will in no way help out during uni (I mean come on, they do area and perimeter!) I have decided to do 2U because Ext 1 is just far too difficult and too much work just for that one unit. Maths is definitely my weakest subject (and I sort of detest it), and I'd be better off doing 2U and being a genuinely happier person next year!

Also, it wasn't just my maths teacher that told us to choose either general or 3U, it was the whole maths department! I believe this is what lead me to choose Maths Ext (urgh), when this year, my maths teacher (new to the school), said that 3U students generally do worse in 2U and better in 3U. So after Year 11, I'm dropping Ext and couldn't be happier about it.

That depends on the course you are doing, some courses require very minimal levels of math.