Why would one do general math?

[oasfree]

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A couple of weeks ago I went to a bookshp and happened to pick up a set of test samples for general mathematics. I was quite surprised by the content. It looked rather easy. So today I went to the BOS site and downloaded the past papers for HSC general math 2006 - 2008. I have not worked through the whole of 2008 paper but I have a feeling that a high performer at year 7 in a selective school could get a very high score on it. When I look at selective school tests for early year 6 (actually end of year 5), some of the questions are very hard and it's unlikely that a HSC student who does well in the general math HSC paper could actually score very well. There are certainly some question type in the HSC paper that a year 7 kid would not have learnt unless the kid learn ahead or from outside the school.

Anyway that makes me wonder. If primary school teachers only do general math when they were at HSC level, it would be very bad. Without math ext1 or higher, students are not allowed to study mathematics at university anyway. So it looks like primary school teachers are unlikely to have anything more than 2U HSC math.

What kind of plans for the future study that some one who does general math would want to pursuit at university? Or perhaps the person just want to stop at the HSC?

[ehtefaz.hedayet]

prolly do something in society instead, as it is quite useless in the real world.

[acemusic415]

That is not necessarily true. Mathematics alone (2 Unit) is sufficient enough to get into University. I would assume, that it is a strong recommendation in doing Extension 1 Mathematics, but I would say Mathematics is suffice. IMO, acceleration in Mathematics is absolutely fine, however, studying HSC General Maths in Years 5 and 6 - that's a bit extreme.

To be honest, if one does General Maths, I would assume that they would not pursue a Mathematics degree in university - but Science possibly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the General Mathematics Course is aimed to those who do not excel in Maths, or do not appreciate Maths to its maximum and given potential.

[annabackwards]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe you only need general maths to do accounting?

[ashie0]

General maths is sufficiently challenging for a large number of people. It's also the level of maths chosen by people who detest maths but feel they have to study it (or are forced to).

[untouchablecuz]

lol

the great mysteries of life

[rowdyroddy]

Originally Posted by oasfree

A couple of weeks ago I went to a bookshp and happened to pick up a set of test samples for general mathematics. I was quite surprised by the content. It looked rather easy. So today I went to the BOS site and downloaded the past papers for HSC general math 2006 - 2008. I have not worked through the whole of 2008 paper but I have a feeling that a high performer at year 7 in a selective school could get a very high score on it. When I look at selective school tests for early year 6 (actually end of year 5), some of the questions are very hard and it's unlikely that a HSC student who does well in the general math HSC paper could actually score very well. There are certainly some question type in the HSC paper that a year 7 kid would not have learnt unless the kid learn ahead or from outside the school.

Anyway that makes me wonder. If primary school teachers only do general math when they were at HSC level, it would be very bad. Without math ext1 or higher, students are not allowed to study mathematics at university anyway. So it looks like primary school teachers are unlikely to have anything more than 2U HSC math.

What kind of plans for the future study that some one who does general math would want to pursuit at university? Or perhaps the person just want to stop at the HSC?

hmm so year 7s have already learned about trigonometry and its formulas, how to work out annuities, aspects of probability?

[ash_bud]

Originally Posted by oasfree

A couple of weeks ago I went to a bookshp and happened to pick up a set of test samples for general mathematics. I was quite surprised by the content. It looked rather easy. So today I went to the BOS site and downloaded the past papers for HSC general math 2006 - 2008. I have not worked through the whole of 2008 paper but I have a feeling that a high performer at year 7 in a selective school could get a very high score on it. When I look at selective school tests for early year 6 (actually end of year 5), some of the questions are very hard and it's unlikely that a HSC student who does well in the general math HSC paper could actually score very well. There are certainly some question type in the HSC paper that a year 7 kid would not have learnt unless the kid learn ahead or from outside the school.

Anyway that makes me wonder. If primary school teachers only do general math when they were at HSC level, it would be very bad. Without math ext1 or higher, students are not allowed to study mathematics at university anyway. So it looks like primary school teachers are unlikely to have anything more than 2U HSC math.


What kind of plans for the future study that some one who does general math would want to pursuit at university? Or perhaps the person just want to stop at the HSC?

pretty sure your wrong

[dux&src]

If i weren't good at maths, i'd do no maths at all instead of general maths. Because general maths is pretty much useless for most uni courses.

But yeah i hear for accounting all you need is general maths at the minimum.

[naisAtoN]

Some people just don't like maths as much as you. They likely don't want to pursue it after school. Perhaps they're not after something as challenging as 2U, but they don't want to drop the subject and sever ties with mathematics altogether. Perhaps it was the only reasonable subject choice on a particular line. Why choose Music 1 instead of Music 2? Why not choose Extension English instead of just Advanced? It all comes down to ability, interest and enjoyment.

Originally Posted by oasfree

Anyway that makes me wonder. If primary school teachers only do general math when they were at HSC level, it would be very bad. Without math ext1 or higher, students are not allowed to study mathematics at university anyway. So it looks like primary school teachers are unlikely to have anything more than 2U HSC math.

The levels of knowledge needed to become a primary school maths teacher are NOT equivalent to the skills learnt in the 2U-4U courses. I highly doubt the ability to, say, find the volume of a solid of revolution or a maximum turning point is going to improve a primary teacher's ability to teach addition and long division, or even simple algebra.

Originally Posted by oasfree

What kind of plans for the future study that some one who does general math would want to pursuit at university? Or perhaps the person just want to stop at the HSC?

From my point of view, MOST of my subjects don't reflect anything I'm interested in pursuing after school. I did Ancient History - I have absolutely no desire to become an historian. I chose 2U Mathematics - I'm not pursuing a career in maths. Perhaps you're looking too far into it - it's only a HSC subject after all. Personally, I chose mine for variety because I didn't want to get bored of things. Not all people choose with the mindset of pursuing a career relative to their subjects.

[oasfree]

Originally Posted by ehtefaz.hedayet

prolly do something in society instead, as it is quite useless in the real world.

Actually I think general math is extremely useful in every day life. I had a look and it has all the stuf you need to do in every day things like working out profit, cost, interest payment, tax, simple statistical prediction, ... I would even recommend that all people who study advanced math should go through general math quickly to get a sense of how practical math can be.

It's true that the big 8 universities would not even accept 2U math in most of their courses that requires math. I don't know if it has changed, but inthe 80s and 90s math is offered as 2 strands in big universities. One strand is pure math and statistics, the other is applied math. At least one of them require 3U math as a prerequisite. Therefore general math (even lower than 2U) would probably not allow HSC students to go on to anything that requires full strength math (offered by math department) in a university.

[oasfree]

Originally Posted by naisAtoN

The levels of knowledge needed to become a primary school maths teacher are NOT equivalent to the skills learnt in the 2U-4U courses. I highly doubt the ability to, say, find the volume of a solid of revolution or a maximum turning point is going to improve a primary teacher's ability to teach addition and long division, or even simple algebra..

You don't even need all the stuff in general math to teach primary school students. However there is a difference between what you know and what you teach. I only mean that teachers should know a lot more for their own development. It affects their ability to teach. For example, when I studied math at university level, I started to understand a lot more about stuff I took for granted at HSC level. I started to look much deeper into the properties of numbers. This would help me to teach much better (if I want to be a teacher).

Stuff like statistics, set theory, number theory, predicate logic, and much more are not what the teachers would need toteach the young kids, but by having them, they are much better teachers because they see how the knowledge all integrate tightly. All this helps them to come up with efficient and elegant solutions for the difficult problems that advanced kids would need to face at primary and HS level.

[martinc]

I believe one would do general mathematics as dropping mathematics would be like throwing something you've spent a heap of time on in the last eleven years, everyone should do some form of maths, unless they absolutely despised it.

[gella]

who cares
go study or something

[lyounamu]

because it is easy. i am studying general now and it is like taking me 15 minutes to finish the preliminary course