General or 2 Unit maths. (1 Viewer)

[Adrian.]

Hi my subjects at the moment are Std. English, Modern History, 2 Unit Maths, Physics, and IT. I'm aiming for a UAI of 90. I slacked off a lot in school from years 8 - 11, this has really affected my maths marks (the rest of my subjects seem fine as you don't need previous knowledge, IMO). I did one General Maths test in year 11 and got 91% with no study. My 2 Unit marks (with a bit of study) are around 60%.
At the moment I'm doing 2 Unit and Physics via distance ed, if I did General I would have a teacher and this would obviously make the subject easier. Would getting 90 (or greater) in General be better than getting 65 - 70 in 2 Unit?

Thank you for any help.

 

[Captain pi]

In fact:
You must remember that in school assessments may not accurately reflect the HSC mark you would receive with the same ability. A mark of 90% in a General paper may not imply an HSC mark of 90 / 100 for General Mathematics. (The same is true for all courses.)

I suggest you should talk to your teacher and discuss it with them. We have no idea what the standard of your school is, or the standard between General Mathematics and Mathematics (15240), at your school.

Your Mathematics mark will pick up if you are not doing it via Distance Ed, for sure.

In my opinion, you should always do Mathematics over General Mathematics if you have any inclination towards changing. Of course, I am a maths enthusiast, so take this advice with caution.

If you assume your HSC marks will be 90 in General compared with 70 in Mathematics, the General Mathematics will, it is likely, have a scaled mark higher than the Mathematics mark (difference of about 15). But, again, your in-school marks may not represent accurately the HSC mark of that ability.

Hope that helps;

Love,

Captain pi.

 

[Adrian.]

Thanks very much Cap'. I might get a past paper and see how I go in that. Having seen the textbook in year 11 I'm quite confident that I will be able to do will in General (~90) with about the same effort it would take me to just catch up in 2 Unit (could be done but I need time for other subjects too.) I'll speak to my teacher and then go form there. Thank you for the advice.

 

[wrong_turn]

can you still change from general to advanced maths? my suggestion would be to keep advanced if you can. if you're aiming for a course with maths, they usualy suggest amths, but as in advnaced 2 unit. keep that in mind before you're off doing something stupid. look at the uac, and check that particular course for each uni. check what band of math you require.

 

[Trev]

go for 2u!

 

[Purp|e]

hmm well i guess it just depends on the amount of work you're willing to put in. if you think you can do enough work to improve your 2u marks alot, then thats prolli the best option ... but if you'd rather not bother, just do general - but make sure you fucking own that shit

lol ... i was in the same kinda situation and chose to stay with 2u after a whole yr of not doing anything in 3u yr11... and then it happened again in yr 12 2u lol only getting 78 in maths didnt help my uai at all .. hehe but i expected worse considering 2-3days before hsc i hadnt ever really looked at 2 topics (oh it wasnt all lazyness ... *brings up the missing 8weeks of school excuse*) [/rant]

 

[Danoz The Great]

I slacked off in year 10. Did advanced maths, hated it, did no homework WHATSOEVER and ended up getting a low D/high e in my school certificate.

I'm doing General maths and loving it! A lot of people that drop from 2unit down to General have no regrets. One guy dropped down to General late term 2 or early term 3 in year 11, and yet still managed to become first or second (I was third).

A lot of people also say they regret doing General maths. I don't at all. I want to study B Science (Zoology) at Uni, so I'll just do a bridging course to catch up (that is, if I need 2 unit mathematics. I'm not sure yet.)

I say drop to General if you find you're stuck with Mathematics. But the time to drop would be by the end of this term. You don't want to leave it too late.

 

[Danoz The Great]

hmm well i guess it just depends on the amount of work you're willing to put in. if you think you can do enough work to improve your 2u marks alot, then thats prolli the best option ... but if you'd rather not bother, just do general - but make sure you fucking own that shit

lol ... i was in the same kinda situation and chose to stay with 2u after a whole yr of not doing anything in 3u yr11... and then it happened again in yr 12 2u lol only getting 78 in maths didnt help my uai at all .. hehe but i expected worse considering 2-3days before hsc i hadnt ever really looked at 2 topics (oh it wasnt all lazyness ... *brings up the missing 8weeks of school excuse*) [/rant]

But you don't want to find yourself working too hard in one subject, with the rest of your subjects being "forgotten" if you know what I mean.

 

[Estel]

General maths is a redundant course. Don't do maths at all if you're going to do it...

 

[Danoz The Great]

General maths is a redundant course. Don't do maths at all if you're going to do it...

What?!? No way, General maths is great for everyday situations. It involves more than you think. Check out the syllabus.

 

[goan_crazy]

2 unit maths is a challenge
im struggling at it

 

[fakingtheday]

People still yell at me for dropping it. But i have no regrets at all. I am top of the year at the moment and find that it is so much better for my self esteem and workload knowing that i don't have to work as hard and still struggle. I suggest go to general but don't get cocky. Worst thing that can happen. I bodged a 10 mark question (carried errors etc) and 1 multiple choice (as i didn't do prelim maths) and one other thing. Got 88. Just don't get cocky.

 

[Estel]

What?!? No way, General maths is great for everyday situations. It involves more than you think. Check out the syllabus.

I'll concede that if people haven't developed such skills by Yr 11 it may be useful... but with a view to tertiary study I maintain it's a completely useless course.

As for the 88 mark mentioned above, good for you. 97 UAI requires a half-decent result in most your subjects, and if you were so bad at maths you couldn't handle 2/3u, I personally believe you should've played to your strengths and avoided maths. But ahh well.

 

[Danoz The Great]

It may be irrelavent to tertiary study, but let's face it, not everyone goes to uni, and not everybody that DOES go to uni will require maths for their course/s.

 

[goan_crazy]

It may be irrelavent to tertiary study, but let's face it, not everyone goes to uni, and not everybody that DOES go to uni will require maths for their course/s.

yep thats true...
you dont need maths for everything

 

[wrong_turn]

who pays for your taxes. how do you know you have enough money to buy your wants and needs? its used in the natural world as well.

but most importantly, how do you know centrelink has given you enough moeny when you are on the dole. you might be getting ripped off, and you might know it

 

[Pierotte]

general general general genereal general!!!!!!!!!!!! best decision of my life!!! i dropped a week ago and im loving it! If you get under 75 in advanced its scaled down anyway!!!!! much better to get the 85+ inn general i say!!!!

 

[mishka]

if you're still unsure, compare past papers and look at both syllabus thingys. that might help you decide what level is going to be most helpful/relevant to you in the future (depending on job, uni study etc.)

 

[Mandy101]

Actually, general maths is a lot more relevant to life than 2 Unit is. I'm fantastic at all my subjects, but I was struggling with 2unit maths. Going to a selective school, if you're not tutored in maths and doing at least an hour every night, there's no way you can catch up to those at the top. I was going to drop maths completely, but decided that having 10units was too risky. I love general maths, it can be applied to real life situations which is what makes it so interesting and enjoyable.

It's up to you what you do, but be honest with yourself - if you're not going to put that much into it, you're better off doing general maths. If you're prepared to do the hour or so each night learning and understanding all the concepts in 2unit then do that, because it will scale you better. Only you know what you're good at, but I thought I'd defend general maths against those who think it's a 'redundant' course - it's not.

 

[DanielleM]

dont do maths at all
i dont and i love it!