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How hard does General Maths get? (1 Viewer)

kitchentable

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I am finding the preliminary general course painfully easy. I am good at maths, but I don't enjoy it, which is why I didn't choose Mathematics.
My problem is I am finding the course so boring and simple, it is almost embarrassing sitting there learning things I remember learning in primary school.
I am thinking of dropping next year, and taking up extension history.
I am just wondering how much harder the course gets in HSC year?
 

Shadowdude

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It's General Maths. It's not hard at all if you're good at maths.

You should've just taken Mathematics.
 

kitchentable

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If I don't like maths, it would be pretty stupid for me to take Mathematics. When I don't like something, I have zero motivation, and I doubt you can just breeze through Mathematics without putting in effort.
 

zombies

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If I don't like maths, it would be pretty stupid for me to take Mathematics. When I don't like something, I have zero motivation, and I doubt you can just breeze through Mathematics without putting in effort.
If you are good at it, then yes, you can.. it wouldnt be too hard
 

soloooooo

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It can't be hard really. Compound interest repayments would probably be the hardest.
 

Shadowdude

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If I don't like maths, it would be pretty stupid for me to take Mathematics. When I don't like something, I have zero motivation, and I doubt you can just breeze through Mathematics without putting in effort.
Yes, but the fact that you chose General Maths shows something at least.

You'd be surprised how tricky it can get sometimes...
I'd wager those are more trick questions, rather than genuinely difficult questions where you have to ponder over the answer.
 

madharris

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I looked at my friends general maths question, and in my opinion, I think the hardest questions are just the wordy questions.
Like in mathematics, they ask you short questions that get to the point, but in general there is alot of useless information in the question that can put you off.
 

lucifersguard

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Dude, if a subject is easy and you don't have to do shit to get high marks, wtf are you complaining about. I just go to class and we run a muck every time. So fun/no studying + high marks = perfection. Why complain
 

Spiritual Being

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It's easy unless you have the mathematical capability of my commerce teacher I had last year (he needed to use a calculator for 5x3 and he inputted it wrong 3 times)
 

Shadowdude

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It's easy unless you have the mathematical capability of my commerce teacher I had last year (he needed to use a calculator for 5x3 and he inputted it wrong 3 times)
Reminds me of those Facebook groups which go something like "we have calculators and computers - why can't maths solve its own problems?"

But then you have to remember to use calculators and computers to do maths, you need the right inputs so it can do the work for you.
 

Spiritual Being

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Reminds me of those Facebook groups which go something like "we have calculators and computers - why can't maths solve its own problems?"

But then you have to remember to use calculators and computers to do maths, you need the right inputs so it can do the work for you.
Seems legit...
 

dakotah

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Financial Maths would be the hardest topic. It's mostly the annuities that got a lot of my classmates. It's getting the right formula most of the time, but all you need to do is pick out what information you have and what you need to find.

I am finding the probability and linear equations the hardest. My mind doesn't work with it very well.
 

qwerty44

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I would bet that a Mathematics student couldn't do all the questions in a general maths exam.
 

Aysce

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I would bet that a Mathematics student couldn't do all the questions in a general maths exam.
Of course, general maths is different to the usual 2u student. There are obviously different concepts plus I have heard general is more wordy.
 

deswa1

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I would bet that a Mathematics student couldn't do all the questions in a general maths exam.
To be honest, I think I would score a higher raw mark in 3/4U than in general maths. I just looked through the 2011 paper and there are some things I've never heard of like correlation coefficient (though obviously you'd learn that if you did the course), as well as the fact that there are randomly worded questions + a much greater potential for silly mistakes.
 

dakotah

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A girl who was in 2u and came down from Mathematics after the prelim course (I came down about a week and a half before the yearlys for prelim) only scored a 67% on her half yearly for this year. Her rank as 3rd has gone down.

Mind you, there are four of us who came down to general, we make up the top five plus the person who was first before we moved down. It really depends on how hard you work to understand what you missed (like we don't do surds in general maths... bummer.).
 

Shadowdude

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Of course a Mathematics student wouldn't get 100% in a General Maths exam if they just did it straight off. General Maths covers topics like z-scores that Mathematics students don't cover at all.

However if a Mathematics student took the time to study the stuff they don't learn in the normal 2u course, then I'd expect a very high mark from them.
 

Aysce

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Depends on the calibre. I know my friend who was failing 2u dropped to general and is ranked near the bottom now :S
 

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