MATHS for PSYCHOLOGY?!?! :S (1 Viewer)

3Lachlan2

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One of my friends is doing a Science degree, with an assumed "Mathematics" having done General Maths for the HSC, and I'm doing one Psych subject as a part of my degree (assumed "Mathematics") with 2 unit Maths HSC. Because the General course is based a lot more on Statistics than the theoretical stuff we cover in 2 unit, she's finding the Maths easier to understand and figure out straight away.

2c inserted.
what are you saying? sorry i cant really get what u mean... u did 2 U advanced but found it easysince the general course was.... huh? please repeat more simply, sorry lol
 

3Lachlan2

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yeah you still have to do Statistics and Research Methods for Psychology as a subject in second year which is a stats subject. hence lots of statistical equations and such.
does general meet that? and does 2 unit even deal with data?
 

em_516

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what are you saying? sorry i cant really get what u mean... u did 2 U advanced but found it easysince the general course was.... huh? please repeat more simply, sorry lol
Laura's saying she did 2 unit maths and her friend did general maths in high school. Now they're both doing a maths course in degrees that assume they've done 2 unit maths. The girl who did general maths is finding her maths course easier because a big component of general maths is stats. In 2 unit maths, not so much.

I found this as well. One of my friends in high school often came and asked me for help with stats despite the fact she was in 2 unit and I was in general. Tbh I find this a bit ridiculous though..

As I said before though, you get out what you put in.
 

LauraHLH

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^ What Em said.

She and I are doing basically equivelent subjects, and even though she did General (not 2 Unit as was "assumed" for her course) she finds the stats a lot easier to work with since that is what the General course is.
 

3Lachlan2

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^ What Em said.

She and I are doing basically equivelent subjects, and even though she did General (not 2 Unit as was "assumed" for her course) she finds the stats a lot easier to work with since that is what the General course is.
which is what i am concerned with. i see that stuff like standard deviation are required knowledge, and appear only in general, as oposed to 2 unit which basically has zero stats in it. if i am to go into a psych degree wouldn't it be beneficial to have a good grounding in the required maths?! forget the fact that i am capable of advanced, the question of applicability must take precedent, shouldn't it????
 

em_516

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Don't make your decision solely on what's been said here, but to add my personal two cents, I did advanced mathematics all through high school - wasn't always great at it but I did well enough, but I wasn't really enjoying it. So I chose general mathematics for my senior years (rather than start advanced and drop) because I knew I just wanted to enjoy my final years, but still have a bit of maths in the mix *loser*.

Came first the entire two years - obviously I put in effort, but it was never any real strain and I continued to enjoy maths. As I mentioned earlier, I was able to relax with my own maths and helped out my mate who did advanced and struggled with more simple concepts.

I think there's always that fear that general maths is scaled down, and I'm not sure how true that is, but I ended up with awesome general maths scores which I would never have gotten close to if I had done advanced, and got a pretty epic uai considering I had a pretty cruisy year and watched others crumble around me.

So basically, the point of my long-winded bullshit, is that general maths doesn't have to be a bad thing, as long as you have a go. That said, I think I'd rather suggest you try out advanced maths before bailing to general maths. I'd hate to fuck up your future. :)

EDIT: I should probably also add, there's never been any maths in my degree. So I can't comment on how I would've fared if my maths had been tested at a tertiary level.
 
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supercalamari

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Surely Lachlan it would be sensible to consult the careers teacher at your school before making any subject changes.
 

jumb

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Surely Lachlan it would be sensible to consult the careers teacher at your school before making any subject changes.
Don't ever switch highschool subjects for a uni-degree, unless it is 100% required to be accepted into the course it's stupid. Highschool is about doing whatever you're best at, so as to give you a good chance of a high UAI.

Screwing up your UAI to learn something that would take 10 mins to learn through wikipedia is just dumb.
 

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General will do you fine. Dont stress. Please, do not change subjects if its just assumed knowledge. Do what you are comfortable with in the HSC, unless ofcourse its a prerequisite (i doubt it would be, im pretty 99.9% sure its not) then you should probably change to mathematics.
 

supercalamari

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Don't ever switch highschool subjects for a uni-degree, unless it is 100% required to be accepted into the course it's stupid. Highschool is about doing whatever you're best at, so as to give you a good chance of a high UAI.

Screwing up your UAI to learn something that would take 10 mins to learn through wikipedia is just dumb.
Sounds right :)
 

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