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4U maths destroys confidence (1 Viewer)

ecstasylove

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4u is all about speed.
i remember finishing complex, finally getting the gist of it and thinking, 'this is sweet' and then starting conics which freaked the f*ck out of me. the second you get a topic you move straight into another one- well, that was how it was with my school anyway.
and i did the HSC this year, skipped all of conics and mechanics and still died trying to finish the rest of the paper.
 

ZJ NingNing

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I did the 4U maths this morning. boy it was much easier than I thought it would be. i finished like, 10 minutes early and sat there and checked my answers (found two mistakes) so I am really happy with it right now. but... when the results come out, it could be really bad... cos this happened to me before.

this test consisted the whole chapter on complex numbers and harder circle geometry, but circle geometry wasnt even hard! all along I have been saying that 4U maths is not helping with my confidence but today, its been quite a different story.
 

TrickmA

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ecstasylove said:
4u is all about speed.
i remember finishing complex, finally getting the gist of it and thinking, 'this is sweet' and then starting conics which freaked the f*ck out of me. the second you get a topic you move straight into another one- well, that was how it was with my school anyway.
Thats what Uni maths is like, it's preparing you for it.
 

YOON`

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OMG! I TOTALLY KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!
i just had my first 4U test today.............................................................................
What a killer. Couldn't even do half the questions.. skipped out so many..
and what adds onto the stress is that it only gets worse from here.
Complex numbers is meant to be the easiest topic. =(
i need desperate help.
how do people understand it? all i can do is memorise it
 

jet

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4 Unit really depends on some of your other skills too. YOu should really be organised, but creativity can really help too when solving abstract problems.

I may be biased, but im accelerated in 4 Unit/3 Unit/2Unit and i dont really have a problem. If i have trouble doing a problem once i learn the method i can just apply it afteer that no problem.

Its really hard to do tests though, coz you can never be sure you gave the right/full answer.

im doing pretty well. We use terry lee which is great

Just my 2 cents!
 

tambourine

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YOON` said:
OMG! I TOTALLY KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!
i just had my first 4U test today.............................................................................
What a killer. Couldn't even do half the questions.. skipped out so many..
and what adds onto the stress is that it only gets worse from here.
Complex numbers is meant to be the easiest topic. =(
i need desperate help.
how do people understand it? all i can do is memorise it
I had my first test too. I did really bad. I didn't get half the questions and i left some out. I need serious help.
 

Trebla

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Unless you're a genius at Maths, Extension 2 requires some serious commitment because it is meant to be a challenging course. In fact, almost half the topics in this course are revisited in first year university maths. If you intend to take some sort of science degree in uni, good knowledge in this course really gives you a head start.

There is absolutely no way you can do well in this course if you opt to memorise concepts. You have to understand the concepts back to front to do well in it. If you can do that then you're halfway there. The other half is your mathematical skills such as handling and simplifying messy algebra and knowing those manipulating "tricks".

Textbook questions can only take you so far. These only build the foundations. The exam questions hardly resemble textbook questions so you need to know how to APPLY what you know to unfamiliar questions and problems. This can only be done with an in depth understanding of the topics.

If you can seriously commit to the course in that way, it'll become a very rewarding experience rather than a confidence destroyer. I'm sure many of the past students here would agree with me...
 

YOON`

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I got my result......78%
CRAP! my class average was 83%
and the guys all got like 90~99
WHY? WHY? WHY?

i found my problem. it was because i memorised all the stuff..
just couldn't understand complex numbers. HOW do you understand?
i mean i get it how we use complex numbers to "explore" and solve problems
that have a negative number in a root.. but so?
ITS SO HARD! and NOTHING like 3unit.

what would you do.. keep it? drop it?
 

Foxodi

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YOON` said:
I got my result......78%
CRAP! my class average was 83%
and the guys all got like 90~99
WHY? WHY? WHY?

i found my problem. it was because i memorised all the stuff..
just couldn't understand complex numbers. HOW do you understand?
i mean i get it how we use complex numbers to "explore" and solve problems
that have a negative number in a root.. but so?
ITS SO HARD! and NOTHING like 3unit.

what would you do.. keep it? drop it?
Hah, its the opposite for me/my school. My teacher sets crazy abstract questions in the 3U tests, but only gave us textbook type questions for the 4U test :)
 

cloudmist

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ecstasylove said:
4u is all about speed.
i remember finishing complex, finally getting the gist of it and thinking, 'this is sweet' and then starting conics which freaked the f*ck out of me. the second you get a topic you move straight into another one- well, that was how it was with my school anyway.
and i did the HSC this year, skipped all of conics and mechanics and still died trying to finish the rest of the paper.
*high5*! I remember telling my friend that i was going to give up on 4umaths cause i had 3umaths, bio and 4umaths one after another and i didn't have enough time to study for 4u. In the end i basically only concentrated on integration, complex numbers, polynomials and graphing, didn't touch mechanics, conics and harder3u at all.

I ended up skipping half the paper but still managed to get 88/100. Love the scaling, lol.
 

ssglain

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I've always enjoyed learning maths but my enjoyment has been overshadowed by the marks I've received for MX2 through the year. I remember one or two assessments during which I just felt like ripping up the paper and walking out. The best result I've ever got from a internal assessment for MX2 was 79%. People from other schools (and even people from my own school who don't do MX2) used look at this and mockingly ask what I reckoned I was going to get in the HSC. Even though I was ranked 2nd out of 22 students, I couldn't help but wonder whether I've prepared myself well enough to get a half-decent result in the HSC. A final raw assessment mark of 74/100 did not give me any security nor confidence. Prior to the HSC, from the small discussions my classmates and I had amongst ourselves, I could tell that everybody was extremely worried and nobody had any confidence whatsoever about the HSC.

However, as I began to revise and practice by doing past HSC exam papers, I realised that it was the lack of confidence itself that has held me back. For the first few past papers I did, I was getting marks in the range of 92-96/120. When I read the solution and marked my work, I found that I had actually thought of the correction solutions to a number of the questions that I hadn't attempted. Whilst doing the practice exam, I would see a quetion that looked difficult and think "Yes, maybe I should try to solve it this way" but then I'd either tell myself "No that can't work" without trying it or try once and easily give up. As I began to notice this, I made myself stop doubting my own abilities and started to make hearty progress. I did 16 years' worth of past exam papers from 1990-2006 and by the end of it I was consistently getting 115+/120

I found the confidence to just let go, do it and enjoy it. It has paid off extremely well. I got 99/100 as my HSC exam mark for MX2 - and marginally missed out on a state rank because I had a lower assessment mark. I guess the only regret here is having not done so early enough to pocket the top rank and securing control over my own assessment mark. I won't complain though.

So I guess the moral of this story is that MX2 can't destroy your confidence as long as you remain headstrong. In this case, stubbornness is not a bad quality to have. We all recognise that MX2 is a challenging course and not everybody will come out on top of it, but still give it your best shot anyway because the results will always be better than what you would otherwise get without doing so.

Good luck to you all. Work hard, but more importantly - work smart.
 
Last edited:

tommykins

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From your results, I'm assuming you'd get 99.5+. Congratulations, may I ask what school do you attend?
 

ssglain

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tommykins said:
From your results, I'm assuming you'd get 99.5+. Congratulations, may I ask what school do you attend?
Lol just checked.... 99.95, lol. Damn school assessment marks dragging me down! I'm still very happy about my UAI though.

Burwood Girls High School.
 
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Here's a tip: Don't discuss it with your classmates.

If they want to fail, let them fail - but don't let them make you drop, hence eliminating one person to compete with.
 

Kujah

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ssglain said:
I've always enjoyed learning maths but my enjoyment has been overshadowed by the marks I've received for MX2 through the year. I remember one or two assessments during which I just felt like ripping up the paper and walking out. The best result I've ever got from a internal assessment for MX2 was 79%. People from other schools (and even people from my own school who don't do MX2) used look at this and mockingly ask what I reckoned I was going to get in the HSC. Even though I was ranked 2nd out of 22 students, I couldn't help but wonder whether I've prepared myself well enough to get a half-decent result in the HSC. A final raw assessment mark of 74/100 did not give me any security nor confidence. Prior to the HSC, from the small discussions my classmates and I had amongst ourselves, I could tell that everybody was extremely worried and nobody had any confidence whatsoever about the HSC.

However, as I began to revise and practice by doing past HSC exam papers, I realised that it was the lack of confidence itself that has held me back. For the first few past papers I did, I was getting marks in the range of 92-96/120. When I read the solution and marked my work, I found that I had actually thought of the correction solutions to a number of the questions that I hadn't attempted. Whilst doing the practice exam, I would see a quetion that looked difficult and think "Yes, maybe I should try to solve it this way" but then I'd either tell myself "No that can't work" without trying it or try once and easily give up. As I began to notice this, I made myself stop doubting my own abilities and started to make hearty progress. I did 26 years' worth of past exam papers from 1990-2006 and by the end of it I was consistently getting 115+/120

I found the confidence to just let go, do it and enjoy it. It has paid off extremely well. I got 99/100 as my HSC exam mark for MX2 - and marginally missed out on a state rank because I had a lower assessment mark. I guess the only regret here is having not done so early enough to pocket the top rank and securing control over my own assessment mark. I won't complain though.

So I guess the moral of this story is that MX2 can't destroy your confidence as long as you remain headstrong. In this case, stubbornness is not a bad quality to have. We all recognise that MX2 is a challenging course and not everybody will come out on top of it, but still give it your best shot anyway because the results will always be better than what you would otherwise get without doing so.

Good luck to you all. Work hard, but more importantly - work smart.
Congratulations!
 

o.bi.sess

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Don't stress too much over 4u marks. Like Trebla said, unless you're one of those people who are naturally tuned into how maths works and its concepts, 4u will be challenging. I was one of those people who would never get top marks in 4u, but I could make up for some it with hard work.

If you're a natural, then great. Being a natural doesn't necessarily mean that you're certified genius at maths, but rather you can see how it works and understand without too many problems.

If you're not a natural, do practice questions and lots of them. Don't be discouraged when you don't understand a concept or how to solve a problem. Some questions are just like that. Certainly, I couldn't wrap my head around a lot of questions no matter how hard I tried (or how effortlessly Airie explained them). You don't need to get 90+ in 4u to do really well on your HSC. A raw mark above 75 will be very good. Ask your teacher about anything you don't understand.

Most of all, if you have trouble, do practise questions. The one thing I regret about 4u is that I know I could've gotten a higher mark if only I had done more questions.

Either way, chances are, your classmates are in the same boat as you. And for the majority of students, their raw mark will be crap, but raw marks mean nothing once it's scaled.
 

loser101

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4u maths is damm simple, if u can get more than 90 in 2u then do 4unit. its a no brainer.


wait till u get to 1st year uni maths. man that is bloody hard. content is as hard as 4u maths, but you have to do it in a faster pace.
 

Undermyskin

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Which one is Terry Lee text book? We don't have it at school

Of course 4u maths can't destroy your life! HSC does, in general. lolz. Joking. If you find it too hard, think again if you want to do it! Why torturing yourself then?

Believe me, after you study one chapter and do a test on it, you just feel it: Shit, this is bloody cool. I mean 4u is GREAT GREAT GREAT! Woo hoo...

My teachers are emphasizing on how important our team-works can help us. They mean we should help each other in the tests and all the other stuff. That sounds right. I see someone says st like isolating your study from the others and let them fail...that sounds right esp when you want to be ranked 1st in your school. What...what should I do then? Ranking 1st is such a temptation and unfortunately I agree with it! (Oh shit. I'm evil. Noooo) I don't want to lost my friends anyway. This prob is not only in 4u, it's in all subjects. It's like 'to be or not to be', is it not?

To loser101: what did you get for 4u?
 

kwng

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4U maths is definitely challenging but can be fun if you get into it =)
i failed my first assesment but still managed a band 6 in the end

terry lee is quite a hard textbook to work from
cambridge is great
excel 4u maths is quite good too

all the best guys!

______________
UAI: 99.65
 

SoulSearcher

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Undermyskin said:
My teachers are emphasizing on how important our team-works can help us. They mean we should help each other in the tests and all the other stuff. That sounds right. I see someone says st like isolating your study from the others and let them fail...that sounds right esp when you want to be ranked 1st in your school. What...what should I do then? Ranking 1st is such a temptation and unfortunately I agree with it! (Oh shit. I'm evil. Noooo) I don't want to lost my friends anyway. This prob is not only in 4u, it's in all subjects. It's like 'to be or not to be', is it not?
Help the others after you have guranteed yourself 1st rank.
 

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