Am I better off dropping down to Standard Maths? (2 Viewers)

[unistudentpreparing]

Advanced actually covers challenging algebra and introductory calculus, as well as calculus based mathematical modelling and calculus based statistics, standard does not cover or even begin to get close to anything like this in any meaningful way. A student having seen calculus before is more likely to successfully complete continued courses on calculus. From a university perspective, lecturers in quantitative faculties will often be surprised if a student from standard2 is in their class, as it is assumed standard1/2 students will not be pursuing quantitative professions or careers. At UNSW/USYD the lecturers in quant subjects might even be surprised if students have not completed extension, as extension is a step even higher in terms of rigor.

this is the problem with uni teachers blah blah blah etc as well
you have zero experience in any industry yet u are dictating what industry wants?
Unis should have a separate research degree or a 'practical apply to industry skills degree' because to be honest when tf is a software eng gonna use any unsw math crap when he is programming and the only ext 2 they will use is for the crappy unsw comp sci degree

shows the disparity between the actual business and unis and their teaching why u teaching unrelated unpractical skills to students who will just be academically smart but know nothing when it comes to experience

 

[unistudentpreparing]

whats the point of that anyways

they teach you maths in some degrees

a lot very irrelevant to actual jobs tho but @ZakaryJayNicholls doesnt understand and hasnt even stepped in any business doing finance etc

ZAKARY LISTEN TO THE BUSINESSES

 

[Luukas.2]

Advanced actually covers challenging algebra and introductory calculus, as well as calculus based mathematical modelling and calculus based statistics, standard does not cover or even begin to get close to anything like this in any meaningful way. A student having seen calculus before is more likely to successfully complete continued courses on calculus. From a university perspective, lecturers in quantitative faculties will often be surprised if a student from standard2 is in their class, as it is assumed standard1/2 students will not be pursuing quantitative professions or careers. At UNSW/USYD the lecturers in quant subjects might even be surprised if students have not completed extension, as extension is a step even higher in terms of rigor.

ZJN is correct that there is a substantial difference in the level of the content in Std2 v. Advanced. The lack of any calculus in Std2 makes it a poor preparation for studies in most sciences and in other disciplines where maths is an essential tool, even beyond the STEM grouping.

For a bridging course to be sufficient, it needs to cover much of the material that is missing. There is no way that the calculus in Advanced can be quickly covered to the necessary level in a short period of time, unless the Std2 student is remarkably mathematically capable. Anyone who completed Std2, even at B6 level, who wants / needs at least Advanced for their future studies has a substantial challenge to overcome, one that will likely take months of hard work.

 

[Luukas.2]

Just to clear things up Standard math is roughly scaled to AQF level 3, advanced math is scaled to AQF level 4, and Extension math is scaled to AQF 5 [AQF 5 being the approximate level of first year university math courses]. For a student who completed year 9/10 in the 5.3 or 5.3+ streams [which are approximately scaled to AQF 3], they should find standard to be of a similar level of difficulty with slightly different topic coverage. Lower marks in higher courses are almost always more mathematically meaningful than higher marks in lower courses, except where the differential is particularly egregious, e.g. 10 in advanced math suggests the student is less competent at math than 90 in standard2, but a 50 in advanced is almost certainly more meaningful than a 90 in standard2. For students who do not need much math in a future career, any math course with any mark is acceptable, as employers in non-math fields really don't care about your marks.

Are these alignments to AQF levels based on some published reference or your own thoughts / estimates? The AQF has kept away from stating an AQF level that matches any Senior Secondary Certificate of Education (like the HSC), and its alignments are based on completed courses rather than individual units within them, so I am curious where these are from. Thanks.

 

[Cute-Duckie]

Hi everyone, I'm coming into the conversation quite late but this is getting all very complex so I'm going to ignore and not comment on all previous advice and simply give my opinion and story.

I did 5.3 maths all the way through Years 9 and 10, and my results were quite mixed. However one thing stayed the same - I did not do very well, consistently getting report marks either in the high C range or low B range (normally between 60-75%). I received tutoring for maths and despite having almost straight A's in my other 7-8 subjects, my maths work is what I was putting 25% of my study time into. I was just not receiving results.

I go to a selective school, so my ranking was also quite poor in my cohort. I decided that for year 11 I would drop down to doing Standard 2 maths, a course which I have to do via distance education as my school does not offer it.

My decision was based off of two factors:
1. What maths I would need in my life and for my future
2. How much time I would need to invest into my maths.

I am very humanities and CAPA focused, and have always planned on following similar paths into university. I was certain I would not need any level of maths for my degree, and simply needed maths for life skills. If this is what you are looking for, I absolutely recommend the Standard 2 course. It focuses a lot more on financial maths and being able to correctly interpret and calculate data in the real world, with lots of wordy problem solving. As this is what I wanted from a maths course, this made me pick Standard 2.

In addition, I did not want to put as much time into my maths to keep up a low B grade as I have been needing to do so far. While I believe I could do the Advanced Maths course, the time and energy was not worth it for me.

Now this is just my story, but I suggest you take a similar approach as I did when figuring out whether to drop down. A few questions I would ask yourself are:

1. Will I need the information I learn in this course for my university degree?
2. Are the skills I will learn in this course necessary for the future life I want to live?
3. Is the amount of time and effort I am putting into this course in comparison to my other subjects worth the results I am getting out of it?
4. Is it possible and/or would it be sustainable for me to lift my marks in this course? How could I go about doing that?

These guiding questions will help you weigh up the pros and cons of undertaking this course, and hopefully after you answer these it will give you a clearer idea of the course you want to do.

Ultimately the HSC is meant to guide you into your future, so keep that as a key factor when making this choice.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do wonderfully in whatever course you choose

 

[Cute-Duckie]

(Also yes I know this discussion is pretty old but it keeps coming up on my recent conversations whatever whatever page and I keep getting frustrated by it so I thought I'd finally write something lol)

 

[hafsah_]

It's pretty common for scaling to be capped for math standard
View attachment 42000
Personally I think 97 raw in standard is a lot harder to get than a 90 ish raw in advanced.
A 90 raw in advanced aligns to around 95 which has a decently higher atar contribution of 98.7 which is not necessarily the best but quite a decent bit better than standard.
View attachment 42001View attachment 42002
Edit: this is 2023 data

Hey,
Can I ask where you got that table thing from?

 

[hafsah_]

Isnt half of maths standard just a revision of year 10 work?

It's basically 5.3 Maths, just a few new concepts tbh

 

[WeiWeiMan]

Hey,
Can I ask where you got that table thing from?

No

Spoiler: .

it's somewhere on **********