Whoever's Failing General Maths or Gettin Shit Marks This is the Place 4 U (1 Viewer)

shady145

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Also there are some stuff that General people do that 2/3U students don't touch on (eg. area of an ellipse - πab).
yea but all they have to do is apply the formula which they get given.
 

oasfree

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yea but all they have to do is apply the formula which they get given.
This is the bit that I hate about streaming the math so that people can pick easy things, did not learn the basics and forget it all by the time they get out of schools. At University some students keep pestering others, friends, ... to get help on the basics that they should have had. Psychology students are full of people who did not do proper math then suddenly asked to learn statistics. Some giggling girls actually find a boy friend who is good at what they need to help them scrape through (then probably dump the boyfriend later). I could not believe that real teachers still teach multiply of fraction the way it was taught 50 years ago! They teach kids something like this

2/3 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CDAO%7E1.OYS%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]-->÷ 3/4 = 2/3 x 4/3

Then they simply say 4/3 is the reciprocal of 3/4 and stop at that. So, why is it so? Why just time with the reciprocal? If ask "what is the reciprocal?", they just say "It is what you time with the original fraction, you get the result of 1". What the hell is that kind of teaching? It's full of holes. I used to spend many hours thinking about this when I was young and worked out all by myself why it worked that way. I recently watch some video clips on this (by professional teachers), and they still do same thing.

Any one out there can confirm this? I wonder if teachers still taught you guys out there this same thing without proving why it worked? They gave you formula to use but did not bother prove the formula to be correct.
 

lyounamu

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General cannot be that easy...

Normal 2 unit wouldn't easily get 100...I doubt I will get 100.
 

shady145

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^ no it wouldnt be that easy, but some parts are. u could get 100 if u did the course and learnt the stuff they do.
 

Schoey93

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I don't know if you could get 100 - I think General Math has capped marks. I know what you mean, though.

I'm not sure if many people know this ... but new Stage 6 mathematics syllabi are being introduced (I believe they are being introduced in 2010 for the 2011 HSC). There's a new course, Mathematics General 1 (Mathematics General 2 is based on the existing General Mathematics course) ...any idea how it would scale?
It seems like quite an interesting course (I had a look at the draft syllabus) - there's four focus studies in the HSC course that look at real applications of mathematics - "Mathematics and the Human Body" interests me most - the skills acquired by completing this focus study would be useful for aspiring nurses or paramedics.
 
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shady145

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yea i heard about this course by my english teacher she also said they were thinking of bringing 1 in like that 4 english.
i dunno how it would scale but it has the essential math skills you need in life. financial stuff n i dun no what else. its for thoses ppl who say maths is useless and atleast gives them basic knowledege
 

studentcheese

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Hey, I reckon that some people are naturally good at math. But I also do not believe that it's all in the genes. A lot of it is in how you learn math when you were very young. That's the time you learn the basics. If you did not have a good teacher at that time or you did not like math at that time, it's not good down the track. It's not about what you learn. It's about how well you learn at the basic level that will support your learning later. It's funny to see that some year 6 kids can beat year 10 kids in mathematics. There are many things to it including good memory, speed of mental computation and self-lead problem solving.

Anyway I know a way to remedy problems like your case. It's quite simple. You just quickly relearn mathematics properly without or without a tutor. It's actually best done without a tutor. You can use a tutor for a short time just for learning strategies (it's hard to get a tutor who know a lot about strategies!). Slef-learning is the key. You just go back to very very basic math at grade 1 and work your way rapidly to what you are now. It sounds silly that I would suggest grade 1, but I am not kidding. At grade 1, and you pretend to be a teacher and that you are teaching grade 1 kids, you will suddenly find that there are so much that you have missed. All these insights will help retain your mind to think mathematically and think how the mind works with numbers and mathematical concepts. You keep imagining that you are teaching very young kids and work your way up rapidly. This will help you remaster your basics and give you a lot more insight. Eventually you will find that math is not hard as it seems when you have a strong basics.

The hardest thing is finding the time and energy to retrace your learning from the ground up. I am not kidding. Go back as far as you need to. Some people only need to go back to grade 5. But I suggest grade 1. Even if you spend only 2 days on grade 1, 4 days on grade 2, 8 days on grade 3, ... you will find that helps enormously later.

Good luck!
Agreed. It is all about how you tackled maths when you were young. Usually students good at Maths, have been good at Maths since they were little.

Firstly, find out what is bothering you in Maths. Is it because you cannot memorise formulas? or is it because you don't know your basics well?
Find out what is causing your low marks, and then try to work on these.
 

studentcheese

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Don't look down on the General people. General Maths can be quite hard. I think I would score lower in General Maths than Extension 1. I have the tendency to fail in easy subjects. For example, I got much higher marks in my Mathematics 5.3 school exams (averaging 95%) than the School Certificate (low 90s).
 

LobbSACS

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well, i was worried, i am very bad at algebra.

however, i got a new graphics calculator (my school does not teach us them, so i am diy'in that shit) and now im very happy, my first HSC gen math assesment is on wednesday, and im going to rape it up thanks to my little friend. :)
 

phosphorescent

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Not to be nitpicky, but you just said:
General Maths can be quite hard.
And then,
I have the tendency to fail in easy subjects.
But yeah, General and Advanced Maths are actually very different - an Advanced Maths student might do poorer than a General Maths student on a Gen. Maths paper, mainly because Adv. involves calculus-based maths whilst General focuses on statistics-based maths.
 

studentcheese

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Not to be nitpicky, but you just said:


And then,

But yeah, General and Advanced Maths are actually very different - an Advanced Maths student might do poorer than a General Maths student on a Gen. Maths paper, mainly because Adv. involves calculus-based maths whilst General focuses on statistics-based maths.
oh, soz.. i meant that I usually fail subjects that everyone names 'easy'. Everyone says General Maths is easy, sooo...
 

mitch daggy

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hi all,

i am in year 11 and i have only just started General Maths. this is because i have dropped down from Advanced Maths a term into yr 11. can someone help me with catching up on the first term of the Prelim course?

thanks.

and by the way, it is not that bad if you are failing...

mitch
 

kara42

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same here. hate it. i have trials tomorrow and i see little point in studying.
i had to pick it up at the end of year 11. worst thing ever.
Did it ever occur to you that perhaps the point of studying is so that you don't fail?
 

fjnpenguin

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I don't know if you could get 100 - I think General Math has capped marks. I know what you mean, though.

I'm not sure if many people know this ... but new Stage 6 mathematics syllabi are being introduced (I believe they are being introduced in 2010 for the 2011 HSC). There's a new course, Mathematics General 1 (Mathematics General 2 is based on the existing General Mathematics course) ...any idea how it would scale?
It seems like quite an interesting course (I had a look at the draft syllabus) - there's four focus studies in the HSC course that look at real applications of mathematics - "Mathematics and the Human Body" interests me most - the skills acquired by completing this focus study would be useful for aspiring nurses or paramedics.
theres no such thing as capped marks.
 

Pigro

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theres no such thing as capped marks.
I think there is. Obviously you can get a reported mark of 100 in any subject. However, aligned marks aren't what go toward your UAI. Apparently General Maths and a few other subjects, e.g. Senior Science, cannot contribute 100 points to your scaled aggregate, i.e. x/500.

:)
 

random-1005

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express ur feelings here pplz i'm getting like 40's n 50's for Gen Maths

haha ive had a look at past general maths papers and they are easy as crap, it is an insulting level of maths, if you cant get gen. math you may as well kill yourself. ive even heard people refer to 2 unit maths as "advanced", yeh advanced for preschoolers, only the last two questions Q9 and 10 are hard and challenging, the rest is baby stuff
 

Freddie09

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haha ive had a look at past general maths papers and they are easy as crap, it is an insulting level of maths, if you cant get gen. math you may as well kill yourself. ive even heard people refer to 2 unit maths as "advanced", yeh advanced for preschoolers, only the last two questions Q9 and 10 are hard and challenging, the rest is baby stuff
aye leave the kids alone, i for one dropped to general because i don't need a high level of maths for the uni course i wanna do and didn't see the point in wasting energy on something i didn't fuckin need so yeah the course is easy, but at least we aren't wasting time on something we know we're shit at and you end up having more time for the subjects that actually matter "genius".
 

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