Mathematics vs. General Maths (1 Viewer)

[georgia-ellen]

Hey, atm I'm going Mathematics, and I haven't failed or anything, I think in prelim I was about 70%ish, ..but I don't really do much homework, and can't be fucked to.. I just feel like the possibility of me doing well will take a lot of time, whereas general I could do well easily. I don't have heaps of time to dedicate to Mathematics because of my other subjects:
Eng Adv (haven't got the assessment back yet.. in the top 20 or less I'd suspect)
Eng Ext 1 (haven't had an assessment yet)
History Ext (2nd)
Textiles (1st)
Modern (not sure yet.. probably between 10th cos I did bad in the first assessment)
Ancient (1st)
and Maths atm (haven't had an assessment yet)

So with 12 units and 2 majors, I'm not sure if I can work at mathematics. I was wondering, do you think with my subjects it would be possible to get over 95? I put my current ranks next to the subject. What sort of marks and ranks would I need to be getting?

With these subjects, would it be really bad to drop to general?.. I was wondering what the comparison between the two subjects are with scaling? Like say I got 90 in general in the HSC, what sort of mathematics mark would that be equivalent to. That's my main question.




[edit]
I just got sent some information which could be useful to anyone else who is look at this thread for similar reasons as I was:
These are the scalings of raw HSC maths marks. Hope it helps!

Gen. Maths
99 --> 90.6 scaled
94 --> 81.4 scaled
86 --> 69.6 scaled
79 --> 58.0 scaled
71 --> 41.8 scaled
62 --> 26.4 scaled

Advanced Maths
100 --> 100.0 scaled
97 --> 94.0 scaled
92 --> 84.4 scaled
86 --> 75.4 scaled
77 --> 62.8 scaled
68 --> 48.4 scaled

That's the scaling *for your HSC mark only*. (Taken from the 2009 ATAR table released by UAC)

 

[Tofuu]

i'd say not to drop it and put a little more effort in, it doesn't require too much time, just make sure you do your hw
and even though you did 2u, it doesn't mean that you'll do good at gen (since your not used to the question type...etc)

with those subjects and rankings, 95 seems doable, just make sure you don't bomb out in any assesments and keep/improve your rankings

 

[duckcowhybrid]

70% in 2U is more than enough to warrant keeping it. 90 in Gen = 80 in 2U (roughly). You can't be fucked to isn't an excuse. You probably aren't doing enough work a night (I'm expecting 1-2 hours tops). If you feel maths won't count, just drop it. Otherwise actually do 3 hours of homework a night, and if you can't be fucked, well I'm sorry 95 isn't for a lazy person (showing a lot of restraint here) like you.

 

[kcqn93]

Well... if you "can't be fucked"..... fuck it and drop 2unit, just make sure you do well in your histories.

 

[NewiJapper]

i think it would be better to prove to your self that you can be fuked doing something instead of just having the mind-set that if you "cant be fucked" you wont do something.

 

[smasherX21]

70% in 2U is more than enough to warrant keeping it. 90 in Gen = 80 in 2U (roughly). You can't be fucked to isn't an excuse. You probably aren't doing enough work a night (I'm expecting 1-2 hours tops). If you feel maths won't count, just drop it. Otherwise actually do 3 hours of homework a night, and if you can't be fucked, well I'm sorry 95 isn't for a lazy person (showing a lot of restraint here) like you.

sheltered james ruse nerd detected

 

[Jepotle_]

id stick with 2U...

i kinda of regret dropping to general... the teacher was really annoying

 

[Klutsov]

Just up your workload fir maths and you'll be fine

 

[georgia-ellen]

70% in 2U is more than enough to warrant keeping it. 90 in Gen = 80 in 2U (roughly). You can't be fucked to isn't an excuse. You probably aren't doing enough work a night (I'm expecting 1-2 hours tops). If you feel maths won't count, just drop it. Otherwise actually do 3 hours of homework a night, and if you can't be fucked, well I'm sorry 95 isn't for a lazy person (showing a lot of restraint here) like you.

hahaha, i dont mean 'i cant be fucked' as in i expect to facebook my way through the hsc and get 99.5, i mean i would like to maintain my sanity and social life and keep the whole hsc in perspective. i more meant that i dont want to spend too much time on maths just to keep up, when i could be spending time on subjects that i enjoy more and will find useful in the future (i have a feeling that i will NEVER need to differentiate or find the locus of a parabola..just an inkling).

and no, i am certainly not doing 3 hours a night, i rarely open my text book.. so yes, it is fair to understand that i wont be getting 100%, but it just doesnt seem worth it to me in maths.
please stop being pretentious, i am simply looking for some advice to weigh up both sides of the decision.

thank you everyone else for useful feedback!! goodluck in hsc. feel free to continue posting on this, because i havent made up my mind

 

[duckcowhybrid]

sheltered james ruse nerd detected

Hardly sheltered, hardly nerd. If you don't do the work you don't get the marks.

hahaha, i dont mean 'i cant be fucked' as in i expect to facebook my way through the hsc and get 99.5, i mean i would like to maintain my sanity and social life and keep the whole hsc in perspective. i more meant that i dont want to spend too much time on maths just to keep up, when i could be spending time on subjects that i enjoy more and will find useful in the future (i have a feeling that i will NEVER need to differentiate or find the locus of a parabola..just an inkling).

and no, i am certainly not doing 3 hours a night, i rarely open my text book.. so yes, it is fair to understand that i wont be getting 100%, but it just doesnt seem worth it to me in maths.
please stop being pretentious, i am simply looking for some advice to weigh up both sides of the decision.

thank you everyone else for useful feedback!! goodluck in hsc. feel free to continue posting on this, because i havent made up my mind

I meant 3 hours a night of overall homework. 3 hours for just 2U maths is ridiculous (I do about 2 hours for 4U). It really is not that hard to maintain a social life provided you restrict the going out with friends down to once a month. Plenty of time in school for social life, + MSN, FB etc.

Look all my point is if you can't be fucked to do it don't do it. And differentiation is a fairly low brow exercise that has many uses in life, just probably not for your degree.

Keeping the HSC in perspective is fairly easy. Just realise that the HSC is piss easy compared to real life and that you'll have to work hard and can't bludge any more. It's hard to understand I know, but Uni will be much harder, and the real world again. So trying now means that you know that you'll have toslog hard so might as well do it now and lighten it later.

 

[Shadowdude]

Oi, that edit is my post - where's the credit? =P

Anyway, I'd advise you STRONGLY to keep Mathematics - really, 95 ATAR is possible with Maths, if you drop it, it gets a helluva lot harder with General. Besides, if you don't have the initiative to do your work - then you aren't 95 ATAR material, I agree with duckcow, you do the work, you get the marks.

Never, ever think that "Oh, I'll get a better mark in General", perhaps a better NUMBER, but NOT a better SCALED MARK - which is used in the ATAR calculations. Think of this:

A P90 in General Maths is equivalent in scaling to a P50 in Mathematics. Lull that over.

 

[Stormey]

A P90 in General Maths is equivalent in scaling to a P50 in Mathematics. Lull that over.

Source?

 

[georgia-ellen]

Oi, that edit is my post - where's the credit? =P

quote]

I didn't get that edit from your post? As I stated somebody messaged that information to you... perhaps they got it from there.. I didn't know.. Sorry?

Yes, I will probably keep 2U. I'm capable, and willing, but its more the fact that I would PREFER to spend my time on my other 10 units.

I appreciate all of your feedback, but to be honest, I think some of you need to get your priorities back into perspective... you think that the HSC will really make your life easier? Perhaps.. but at what cost?

Life isn't about working so hard that you become whatever society deems acceptable and earn enough money to continue working at what you hate. It's about doing what you enjoy, having new experiences, meeting new people. If working hard is what you enjoy, then all the power to you - but by the sounds of it duckcow, you seem fairly resentful about the work that you have to do for the rest of your life, and I'd just say before you cement that attitude to consider what that is costing you.. uni shouldn't make the HSC look like fun.., uni should be some of the best days of your life. I disagree with you completely (for my own circumstances) with what you said, because I refuse to hate what I study at uni and what I do with my life and be someones bitch. Even if I get 85> in the HSC, I can always end up doing whatever I want, it will just take longer and I may find something better along the way. I'd just take it all as an experience. But.. as I said, all of this is just my own opinion and I don't want any of you to take offence.

Peace

 

[apple pancake]

I was in your same situation a year ago, i didn't know whether to drop down to general. I didn't, and ended up getting a score of 80 for my HSC. If i were you, i would keep it because it will help with some of your other subjects, it helped me with physics and even biology to a degree. You're still getting good marks in it, even though you don't put that much effort it, so i would keep it if i were you. If you still don't know, have a chat to your teacher about it.
Lol and goodluck for the future.

Subjects:
Advanced English - 83
Mathematics -80
Ancient History- 89
Biology -91
Physics - 83
2009 ATAR: 90.15
P.S Doing bachelor of nursing at CSU in a year after saving up some money for the course.

 

[kyokaku92]

Your marks aren't too bad for 2U. Since term 1 has started and really there are only 9 months of HSC left, I doubt you will be able to catch up on all the work missed in General. I also do 12 units and I have a major performance for Music this year so if I were you, just stick with it. Maths is not considered my highest priority subject.

 

[Schoey93]

Hey, atm I'm going Mathematics, and I haven't failed or anything, I think in prelim I was about 70%ish, ..but I don't really do much homework, and can't be fucked to.. I just feel like the possibility of me doing well will take a lot of time, whereas general I could do well easily. I don't have heaps of time to dedicate to Mathematics because of my other subjects:
Eng Adv (haven't got the assessment back yet.. in the top 20 or less I'd suspect)
Eng Ext 1 (haven't had an assessment yet)
History Ext (2nd)
Textiles (1st)
Modern (not sure yet.. probably between 10th cos I did bad in the first assessment)
Ancient (1st)
and Maths atm (haven't had an assessment yet)

So with 12 units and 2 majors, I'm not sure if I can work at mathematics. I was wondering, do you think with my subjects it would be possible to get over 95? I put my current ranks next to the subject. What sort of marks and ranks would I need to be getting?

With these subjects, would it be really bad to drop to general?.. I was wondering what the comparison between the two subjects are with scaling? Like say I got 90 in general in the HSC, what sort of mathematics mark would that be equivalent to. That's my main question.




[edit]
I just got sent some information which could be useful to anyone else who is look at this thread for similar reasons as I was:
These are the scalings of raw HSC maths marks. Hope it helps!

Gen. Maths
99 --> 90.6 scaled
94 --> 81.4 scaled
86 --> 69.6 scaled
79 --> 58.0 scaled
71 --> 41.8 scaled
62 --> 26.4 scaled

Advanced Maths
100 --> 100.0 scaled
97 --> 94.0 scaled
92 --> 84.4 scaled
86 --> 75.4 scaled
77 --> 62.8 scaled
68 --> 48.4 scaled

That's the scaling *for your HSC mark only*. (Taken from the 2009 ATAR table released by UAC)

Does "HSC mark" in UAC's A3 table mean "aligned overall HSC mark" (an average of the moderated assessment mark and aligned HSC exam mark) or "raw HSC examination mark"?

70% in 2U is more than enough to warrant keeping it. 90 in Gen = 80 in 2U (roughly). You can't be fucked to isn't an excuse. You probably aren't doing enough work a night (I'm expecting 1-2 hours tops). If you feel maths won't count, just drop it. Otherwise actually do 3 hours of homework a night, and if you can't be fucked, well I'm sorry 95 isn't for a lazy person (showing a lot of restraint here) like you.

Isn't three hours of homework and/or study a night for the Mathematics course alone a tad excessive? Maybe if you take 3 units or 4 units of maths that might be appropriate, but my Mathematics teacher said she expected that we do 1 hour of maths homework a night, not three.

 

[Aerath]

Isn't three hours of homework and/or study a night for the Mathematics course alone a tad excessive? Maybe if you take 3 units or 4 units of maths that might be appropriate, but my Mathematics teacher said she expected that we do 1 hour of maths homework a night, not three.

Well, you just started Year 11. Duckcowhybrid is a term into Year 12. Slight difference.

 

[Schoey93]

Well, you just started Year 11. Duckcowhybrid is a term into Year 12. Slight difference.

True, but he also goes to Ruse and takes 4 units of maths. To him: did you mean 3 hours for Maths alone, or 3 hours including Extension Maths? 3 hours a night is a lot of work to put it given how people on BoS have suggested 'anyone can do 2U'.

 

[duckcowhybrid]

True, but he also goes to Ruse and takes 4 units of maths. To him: did you mean 3 hours for Maths alone, or 3 hours including Extension Maths? 3 hours a night is a lot of work to put it given how people on BoS have suggested 'anyone can do 2U'.

No. You might want to read the entire thread. I clarfied that I meant 3 hours for homework OVERALL. I do only 2 for maths (overall I do 3-4).

 

[Shadowdude]

HSC Mark I believe is the raw exam mark and whatever the UAC has BEFORE scaling.

And for whoever asked me about the percentiles... I got it wrong (somehow), so I'll re-edit it to:

A P25 in Mathematics whoops P50 in General. So you might as well keep Maths.

http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2009_table_A3.pdf