How much harder is 4 units compared to 3 units? (2 Viewers)

[Zuroy]

Hi,

Sorry if this was answered before but i did use the search function first and found random results so I thought i should just post this instead of continuously looking around.

My question is: Just how much harder is 4U maths compared to 3U?

I am currently in Year 11 studying 3U and I'm considering 4U in Year 12 since I don't seem to be struggling the tiniest bit. In fact I'm not even studying, I'm just using class time to do work. And no, I don't have a tutor. However, we've only done the first 3 topics, since its still February. I'm guessing it'll get harder towards the end of the year, but I skimmed through the 4U book and the questions are very similar to the 3U book.

When I asked my friends about 4U maths, they were talking about it like it was rocket science. They said it was "EXTREMELY" hard, nothing like 3U difficulty and they had to spend more than half the weekends studying for it. They also said in their two hour tutor sessions they could only go through TWO questions and still only grasp the basics of the questions.

Is it really that serious/intense?

 

[mirakon]

They may be exaggerating ever so slightly, but yes it is significantly more difficult than 3 unit. If you find 3 unit very hard than definitely don't do 4 unit.

 

[Aquawhite]

Okay, two points:

If you've only done the first few chapters, don't really judge it from that - they are rather simple, 2U kids should grasp these. However, in saying that, don't let this deter you either... if you think you love maths and are rather good at Extension 1 I encourage you to take MX2.

Secondly, I don't know what 4U book you were looking at, but 3U is totally different to 4U in many ways altogether. 4U has 8 distinct topics whereas 3U has all jumbled in and has a lot of small ideas which aren't explored very far.
Your friends would be right in saying it is like rocket science. It's hard compared to just about every other subject in terms of difficulty and workload. However, practice and skill does allow you to prevail over the course! hehe

Take some time to adjust to the 3U course and see if you like it. It will get harder but at the same time you will improve as you progress. If you are getting 80%+ in 3U I would recommend that you will handle 4U rather well.

 

[MetroMattums]

Unfortunately, you have to do work for 4U.

Lots of it. Don't underestimate it or it'll tear you a new one. Found out the hard way myself... <_<

 

[mirakon]

Hi,

but I skimmed through the 4U book and the questions are very similar to the 3U book.

Except far more challenging. Did you just read the questions or did you actually attempt them as well?

 

[fullonoob]

4u isnt as difficult as everyone says, except for the later questions. If you use cambridge questions 1-3 only require a few steps working out, whilst further on it may take up to a page. If you were only looking at the questions and it was a few words, dont expect it to be no. of words = no. of working out xD
For 3U, i presume you haven't been tested yet. When my results came back i was like :jaw:, when i was rather seemingly confident. Circle geo was a killer
If you are willing to do a lot of exercises and enjoy maths i would recommend you to do it, boosts your atar like a rocket :L
For 3U our teacher was giving 7 exercises per weekend, and i barely managed to complete them all, especially the questions close to the end (were hard and time consuming). I dno how you can finish an ex in class with 20+ questions, you must be some god xD
The minimum requirement was probably 2ex per day for 3U, and it is nothing like 2U. For 4U i practically did all the ex before tests, and killed as much as i could in holidays
Like my essay?! ^^

 

[ninetypercent]

4u is an extension of 3u work
so it is harder, but not by much as long as you can grasp the concepts

and i agree with some of the above posts. dont judge 3u now. Everything you do now is practically revision from the junior years. the 3u work you are doing now rarely gets tested. wait until you do the first 8 topics, and then talk about 4u.

 

[Trebla]

What makes Ext2 challenging to most people is the fact that there is a huge emphasis on application compared to Ext1 which has more emphasis on knowledge. Textbook questions hardly resemble any of the harder exam questions because you are expected to APPLY what you know in unfamiliar contexts (i.e. non-typical textbook questions).

Those who choose to rote learn mathematics with little understanding of why and how it works will find Ext2 very difficult. You need to approach mathematics in a way such that you understand it to the core and from first principles to know exactly how it works so that you can manipulate it in creative ways.

 

[Shadowdude]

If you love maths, 4u shall become a tad bit easier as you have the drive.

I was doing awesome in 3u until we went to... polynomial roots. Now that's a bitch. Plus combine that with my 39% in the final exam, you'd think I'm not 4u material.

However, with enough drive, I'm finding 4u quite nice so far. And if you install the mindset of: "Yes this is hard, but if I can do it - I am super awesome" for questions you get stuck on, it's an added bonus to celebrate a completed question.

But from what it looks like, it's pretty hard - although I haven't done the hard stuff yet <_<

The two other 4u students cut out during Complex Numbers.

 

[kaz1]

I found 4 unit a lot harder than 3 unit probably cause I was epic fail on Q7s and Q8s on 4 unit papers.

 

[clintmyster]

if you want to get 90+ in exams, you have to be able to do parts of questions 7 and 8 otherwise be incredibly accurate. These questions can be insane even if you had an hour to do them. You need to be pretty confident in maths in general if you want to achieve 90+ in 4u. I mean even 88+ is not bad either but anything lower than that and you're not doing yourself any favours

 

[stampede]

from my experience, 3unit was pretty easy, all u need is speed

4u on the other hand requires lots of thought, it isnt infinitely harder than 3unit as ur friends have told you, but it does require discipline and dedication, that means lots of patience and work

take it up if your confident with maths, its worth it

 

[bubbrubb]

If you like Maths, then yes 4 Unit is a good path. However, do not base your judgments of 3 unit on your limited experiences...

1. You have only just started and these early stages are simply revision and very basic applications of new topics (i.e. calculus in yr 11). Year 12 3 unit maths is much much harder than yr 11 3unit maths but they are both pretty straight foward imo.

2. However, (for me anyways) 4 unit is wayyyy harder than 3 unit. I can't tell you how much i struggled to understand topics and questions in 4 unit... Maybe I was stupid but i found i struggled to wrap my head around even supposedly simple topics like volumes :| I actually enjoyed 3 unit maths alot in year 12 simply because it felt like a break in comparison to studying 4 unit maths.

if you want to get 90+ in exams, you have to be able to do parts of questions 7 and 8 otherwise be incredibly accurate. These questions can be insane even if you had an hour to do them. You need to be pretty confident in maths in general if you want to achieve 90+ in 4u. I mean even 88+ is not bad either but anything lower than that and you're not doing yourself any favours

Not necessarily. I can't comment on school exams because obviously each school sets tests with varying degrees of difficulty (i.e. catholic schools and ruse :O)... but for HSC you don't NEED to be able to do question 7 and 8. When i tried practise exams last year for 4 unit i could never do questions 7 and 8 (on several rare occasions i would get lucky and grind out a random part of q7 or 8) and even 6 was damn near impossible. And i'm not exactly precise or mistake free... In fact i almost stabbed myself when I looked at Terri Lee's solutions the day after the HSC exam. I still managed 94 tho. why? because 4 unit scales so very very well. Oh and as for confidence... i think when I did 4U maths i lost all confidence in my abilities... and i think most people would have felt the same way!

Anyways, even tho maths 4 unit is hard, as long as you find maths interesting, you will be rewarded for it (especially when your atar comes around)!

 

[mioumiou]

If you like Maths, then yes 4 Unit is a good path. However, do not base your judgments of 3 unit on your limited experiences...

Anyways, even tho maths 4 unit is hard, as long as you find maths interesting, you will be rewarded for it (especially when your atar comes around)!

You will only work hard when you find a specific topics interesting or a really bad teacher which motivate you doing extra work because you don't want to fail. I've got a extremely bad geography teacher last year who does not teach a thing at all, I have to learn all the stuff in my own. =S

But since we're talking about Extension 2 maths, you must have a really good teacher + you're interested in the subject + working hard by yourself.

And good luck with your studies!

 

[clintmyster]

Not necessarily. I can't comment on school exams because obviously each school sets tests with varying degrees of difficulty (i.e. catholic schools and ruse :O)... but for HSC you don't NEED to be able to do question 7 and 8. When i tried practise exams last year for 4 unit i could never do questions 7 and 8 (on several rare occasions i would get lucky and grind out a random part of q7 or 8) and even 6 was damn near impossible. And i'm not exactly precise or mistake free... In fact i almost stabbed myself when I looked at Terri Lee's solutions the day after the HSC exam. I still managed 94 tho. why? because 4 unit scales so very very well. Oh and as for confidence... i think when I did 4U maths i lost all confidence in my abilities... and i think most people would have felt the same way!

Anyways, even tho maths 4 unit is hard, as long as you find maths interesting, you will be rewarded for it (especially when your atar comes around)!

that being said, at school if you go to the ones with high calibre students like selective schools, you're going to need to be able to finish papers and get out some of question 7 and 8 when it comes to trials if you ant a competitive internal rank. I mean our 90 cut-off for the 09 hsc paper was like 70/120 which is incredibly low.

Also, for hsc you got to be smart. They threw lots of weird things in our paper that threw me and probably a lot of the state off like not guiding you through an intergration that involves partial fractions. There were some easy marks in q7/8 that you need to take when you get doozies earlier on. So i disagree, you need to be able to do parts of questions 7 and 8 (which you probably did) if you want to get 90+. If you go into the exam with that mindset and you get an easier exam, you will def score a lot lower then you'd like.

 

[stampede]

that being said, at school if you go to the ones with high calibre students like selective schools, you're going to need to be able to finish papers and get out some of question 7 and 8 when it comes to trials if you ant a competitive internal rank. I mean our 90 cut-off for the 09 hsc paper was like 70/120 which is incredibly low.

Also, for hsc you got to be smart. They threw lots of weird things in our paper that threw me and probably a lot of the state off like not guiding you through an intergration that involves partial fractions. There were some easy marks in q7/8 that you need to take when you get doozies earlier on. So i disagree, you need to be able to do parts of questions 7 and 8 (which you probably did) if you want to get 90+. If you go into the exam with that mindset and you get an easier exam, you will def score a lot lower then you'd like.

watd you get in ext 2 clintmyster?

 

[shaon0]

4unit's only a little harder than 3unit. Some 3unit questions can be really hard or tedious and for me personally, i would only make little algebraic or arithmetic errors in 3unit which would screw up my final answer. On the other hand, in 4unit, you really have to study opposed to 3unit and be algebraically competent so that you don't make silly mistakes or skip parts of logic like I did in my HSC exam. Or you'll end up with a crappy mark but if ur doing 4unit, remember your 3unit work as it's another 2units of ur HSC.

 

[Trebla]

I personally liked Ext2 much better than Ext1 because of the challenge factor and that some questions produce interesting results. What I call tedious would be 2 unit lol....

 

[shaon0]

I personally liked Ext2 much better than Ext1 because of the challenge factor and that some questions produce interesting results. What I call tedious would be 2 unit lol....

Yeah, same here. I found 4unit more fun than 3u as it was more challenging.

 

[clintmyster]

watd you get in ext 2 clintmyster?

93 exam, 92 overall