Maths 2U vs. Maths 3U

anonhello

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Hello to whoever is reading this, I was just wondering what are the stark differences between 2U and 3U maths? Also has anyone completed both courses and found 3U to be simpler than 2U? Thanks in advance to whoever bothers with answering :)
Oh and regarding 4U maths, if you scored 95+ in 2U but failed 4U and only did 10units worth of hsc subjects, what would your final mark be, as in your alligned mark for maths overall? Would the 2U mark be completely discarded and only your 3U and 4U mark be taken? Is it possible that your 4U mark could scale you down?
Woah realised that was an overload of questions, but I'm just quite confused with a few things, cheers.
 

Sy123

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Well, 2U is simple in and of its self. And 3U tries to advance the difficulty by introducing more intimidating concepts, some of which are an extension of 2 unit topics, for instance in 2U, you only ever deal with One-Dimensional planes when it comes to motion, in 3U, you deal with 2D planes within motion, which is a more advanced than what 2U has to offer.

Moreover, 3U requires one to have a much more stronger algebraic skills in regards to manipulation mostly. Doing both HSC course however, I find 3U to be harder, and more demanding of my effort, whereas 2U is very straightforward, and its easy to score 90+ in it. 3U requires great, and deep understanding of concept otherwise you will fail to score even half the marks on Q7 (well Q14 this year). And in regards to the last question, awesome algebraic manipulation skills will grant you sucess alot of the time (and ability to think outside the obvious).

Overall I have found 3U to be more demanding of me than 2U (relative to 2U).

I cant help you with 4U Math though, I will be doing it next year though.
 

Sanjeet

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Well, 2U is simple in and of its self. And 3U tries to advance the difficulty by introducing more intimidating concepts, some of which are an extension of 2 unit topics, for instance in 2U, you only ever deal with One-Dimensional planes when it comes to motion, in 3U, you deal with 2D planes within motion, which is a more advanced than what 2U has to offer.

Moreover, 3U requires one to have a much more stronger algebraic skills in regards to manipulation mostly. Doing both HSC course however, I find 3U to be harder, and more demanding of my effort, whereas 2U is very straightforward, and its easy to score 90+ in it. 3U requires great, and deep understanding of concept otherwise you will fail to score even half the marks on Q7 (well Q14 this year). And in regards to the last question, awesome algebraic manipulation skills will grant you sucess alot of the time (and ability to think outside the obvious).

Overall I have found 3U to be more demanding of me than 2U (relative to 2U).

I cant help you with 4U Math though, I will be doing it next year though.
Pretty much this.
And if you do 4U maths, you don't do the 2U course
 
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If you do 4U, all 2U marks will be erased and not considered. Yes, even if you get 100 in 2U but decide to do 4U and get 85, only the 85 will count.

The advantage of doing 4U is that 1) it scales RIDICULOUSLY (incredibly generously) 2) It doubles the 3u mark. This in itself is amazing since 3U scales very well too - so if you do well in 3U and 4U, you are well on your way to a very good ATAR, assuming you aren't failing your other subjects.

PS: 4U never scales down. Not even the 25th percentile (lowest quarter of the entire cohort doing 4U)
 
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2U isn't gay, it's straightforward and easy. lol.
 

Johnstan

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2u- can be applied to day to day life ( superannuation, geometry, calculus etc..)
3u- extension of the above^
4u- only ever used in engineering and some actuarial studies degrees
 

anonhello

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If you do 4U, all 2U marks will be erased and not considered. Yes, even if you get 100 in 2U but decide to do 4U and get 85, only the 85 will count.

The advantage of doing 4U is that 1) it scales RIDICULOUSLY (incredibly generously) 2) It doubles the 3u mark. This in itself is amazing since 3U scales very well too - so if you do well in 3U and 4U, you are well on your way to a very good ATAR, assuming you aren't failing your other subjects.

PS: 4U never scales down. Not even the 25th percentile (lowest quarter of the entire cohort doing 4U)
Oh okay, that explained a lot thanks, but how exactly does the scaling work?
 

starryblue

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If you do 4U, all 2U marks will be erased and not considered. Yes, even if you get 100 in 2U but decide to do 4U and get 85, only the 85 will count.

The advantage of doing 4U is that 1) it scales RIDICULOUSLY (incredibly generously) 2) It doubles the 3u mark. This in itself is amazing since 3U scales very well too - so if you do well in 3U and 4U, you are well on your way to a very good ATAR, assuming you aren't failing your other subjects.

PS: 4U never scales down. Not even the 25th percentile (lowest quarter of the entire cohort doing 4U)
what do you mean by 'doubling 3u mark'...i heard, the scaling for 4u is only a little bit higher than 3u?
 

iBibah

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what do you mean by 'doubling 3u mark'...i heard, the scaling for 4u is only a little bit higher than 3u?
If you do 4U, then 3U becomes 2 units rather than one. So it will count as two units towards your ATAR (assuming it's one of your best).
 

starryblue

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If you do 4U, then 3U becomes 2 units rather than one. So it will count as two units towards your ATAR (assuming it's one of your best).
but it's not 'doubling the 3 u mark', just doubling the units right? the wording is a bit misleading
 

iBibah

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but it's not 'doubling the 3 u mark', just doubling the units right? the wording is a bit misleading
Yeh a bit misleading, but you still get double the impact of 3U maths on your ATAR, as instead of only having one unit of (example) 43/50, you can have two units of 43/50 count towards your ATAR.
 

iBibah

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Pretty much this.
And if you do 4U maths, you don't do the 2U course
Yes you do do the course, but you don't get tested on it.

It's kinda hard to do 3U and 4U if you don't know 2U. That's why ext maths becomes 2 units when you pick up 4U, because you still have to complete the 2U course.
 

Sanjeet

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Yes you do do the course, but you don't get tested on it.

It's kinda hard to do 3U and 4U if you don't know 2U. That's why ext maths becomes 2 units when you pick up 4U, because you still have to complete the 2U course.
No you don't.
 

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Just so you know, what you say "fail 4u" you need to specify what you mean.
If you mean getting <50% raw mark then many people fail 4 unit.
It is still very possible to get a high band 5 mark, say 87 while getting lower than 50% in the exam.
If by failing, you mean absolutely miserably failing, as in around 25% then you're probably better off doing 3unit.
That being said, a guy in my class only truly attempted questions 1 and 2 and other random 1 mark questions (he told me) and he definitely ended up with less than 35% for the hsc, giving him a mark of 72.
In my opinion, it would be much better to get a solid band 6 result in 2 unit, than to get a low mark in 4unit maths no matter how good the scaling is.
 

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