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toadstooltown

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Does anyone find that there's such a thing as a too small a class? I know small classes are good; my japanese one has 8 people which is nice, a lot of one on one time and people to ask. But my maths ext 2 class is me and this other girl, who looks like she's going to quit. I'm finding that I have no one to ask outside of class (teacher's often busy with other things) if I'm having a problem because the other girl's not very good at it.
Anyone else having a bit of a problem due to really tiny class sizes?
 

Bunny04

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Having been in a class size of 2 for Software Design and Development and class size of 3 in Music 2 and extension and Dance- I found it benifital. You get to collaborate with the teacher alot more. More individual tutoring. I think you should take the opportunity and use it to your advantage. Ask alot more questions in class. Ask for more work in class, ask the teacher to go through it with you. Trust me, it can be a very good thing!
 
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It depends what type of person you are.

I like the class environment and the idea of a team working for one goal, but sometimes it was better to only have a small amount of people.
 

toadstooltown

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The thing is, in my regular maths classes I find that I'm often helping others. It can get a bit repetative, but teaching others is the best way to consolidate your own knowledge, so I dunno. The thing is, the classes are mainly after school so once she's taught us the work, we just go home only having done a few examples so when I run into a problem I can't get on my own, I have to wait until my next ext2 lesson which can be up to 5 days away
 

melsc

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My classes were 3 for French, 7 for IPT and 10 for Italian, the only problem was my school cut back our periods but most schools wont, so it shouldnt affect you much, as you will be able to get more time with the teacher and u guys will learn things faster :)
 

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Most of mine are pretty medium, around 15-20. The smallest class we have in the year is 3 in the latin class. I used to be in that class back in year 9, and even then, it was small with 7 students.

I definitely agree that you are in a better learning environment and can develop a much closer relationship with your teacher when in fewer numbers. You have many more oppurtunities to ask for one-on-on help and questions.
 

Sparcod

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toadstooltown said:
Does anyone find that there's such a thing as a too small a class? I know small classes are good; my japanese one has 8 people which is nice, a lot of one on one time and people to ask. But my maths ext 2 class is me and this other girl, who looks like she's going to quit. I'm finding that I have no one to ask outside of class (teacher's often busy with other things) if I'm having a problem because the other girl's not very good at it.
Anyone else having a bit of a problem due to really tiny class sizes?
All my classes are big. All of them have at least 20.
Being alone makes you feel really lonely, at you are stuck with less motivation and less competition.
If there's two in a class: there'll be competition between you two to become the better and at least you'll have a friend there.
 

luscious-llama

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SOR1 - 4 ppl. all my lovely mates.
Art classes are best with under 15 students I think
Whereas history etc is more amusing with 15+
Most classes I have are 15-25
 

Monz

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I don't have any classes where there is 8 students let alone 2, but then again i don't do any extension subjects, and our classes are combined with year 12's (cause of double time, it's complicated...). I think that having one in a class would be beneficial to some, but could be devastating to others. In the Math extention 1 class at my school we only have 2 in the class and i think it's helped my friend a fair bit, but i think if the other girl left it wouldn't be so good.
 

pritnep

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I would also have to agree that it could be beneficial to have a small class size as you basically have the teacher to yourself, you can feel more comfortable when asking questions and can be the top priority. With that being said students that learn with the help of other students, well then that might be a problem…

All my class have between 15-25 students the smallest two classes I have is <12 and I think it helps having a smaller class easier on students and the teachers.
 

insert-username

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I find it very hard to motivate myself for 4-unit Maths, where I have a class of 3, and Economics, where I have a class of 5. However, I feel there's a distinct advantage to having smaller class sizes because of the extra time you get with the teacher (my largest class is 14). Plus, my year as a whole is tightly bonded since we're so small, which also makes for a good learning environment.


I_F
 

super_fly5

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Indeed, both small and large classes do have their pros and cons. However one should consider- competition in the end, will drive you to work harder.
 

Riviet

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Also, in smaller classes, you are able to get through the work more efficiently since there will be less students asking questions or disrupting the class. I was just wondering what it would be like to be in a class of 40+. Do you think it would affect the learning environment in large classes?
 

vg_woz_here

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small classes are good..less competition...more concentration..and the teacher can interact with you more easier...

plus u get to know a lot about your teacher
 

Sparcod

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vg_woz_here said:
small classes are good..less competition...more concentration..and the teacher can interact with you more easier...

plus u get to know a lot about your teacher
and she gets to know you better.

Less competition, more concentration. its the other way round.
 

nwatts

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History/english classes benefit from good sizes (good sizes being 10-15), because most lessons are spent in discussion. But I hated my art class being so big (10 students), and hated my histx class so small (2 students).
 

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toadstooltown said:
Does anyone find that there's such a thing as a too small a class? I know small classes are good; my japanese one has 8 people which is nice, a lot of one on one time and people to ask. But my maths ext 2 class is me and this other girl, who looks like she's going to quit. I'm finding that I have no one to ask outside of class (teacher's often busy with other things) if I'm having a problem because the other girl's not very good at it.
Anyone else having a bit of a problem due to really tiny class sizes?
My ancient history class have 6 pplz and IT rocks for the teacher can help us a-lot more personally (yeah instead of just feeding informations) and bother on actually writing out the mistakes within my essay assessing the weakness and strength of it. ALso i make some new friends too cause since our class is made of random pplz off random groups and we have fun :) and i learned a lot more too.
 

Emly

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ext english and ext history both have 2 people... which is ok, wouldnt mind havin a few more though.
when i did ext1 math it was 4 of us.. and that was really good, meant we understood concepts better.

i think for the 'discussion' subjects, like english and history, you need a bigger sized class, for more input. but having said that, its not going to be as good if you have a huge class of people who arent interested.
it depends on who is in the class with you, if they are hard workers. you just need someone to push you, and in retur you push them.
 

pritnep

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Emly said:
it depends on who is in the class with you, if they are hard workers. you just need someone to push you, and in retur you push them.
I think that's exactly right if you have a small class size of determined students who want to achieve good results then you also get the motivation to get the highest rank. With small class sizes you can have almost the full attention of the teacher but discussion in small classes don't always work the best for those discussion type subjects a larger more interested class can help.
 

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