• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Maths vs. English (2 Viewers)

luscious-llama

Ára bátur
Joined
Nov 5, 2004
Messages
1,064
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Eating> History Extension > Visual Arts> English Ext 2> English Ext 1> English Adv> Maths

English Advanced bores me to deaths doorknob.
EE1+EE2 are loads better
I'm best at eating actually :)
 

Mountain.Dew

Magician, and Lawyer.
Joined
Nov 6, 2005
Messages
825
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
luscious-llama said:
Eating> History Extension > Visual Arts> English Ext 2> English Ext 1> English Adv> Maths

English Advanced bores me to deaths doorknob.
EE1+EE2 are loads better
I'm best at eating actually :)
i like your eating bit. i love eating :)

in yr 12, i hated english, you dont know if your right or wrong, very very subjective. another reason is that i am left-handed. the pen actually has to be 'forced' across the page from left to right, while for right handers (the majority of ppl i presume) the pen's movement is natural. everytime i write an essay i get cramps and the pain OH THE PAIN! its always write write write, non-stop pretty much.

and all these memorisations as well! golly! u think about it...its quite amazing how many quotes, ideas, texts and nice 'phrases' we can cram into our brains. For the HSC Advanced Paper 1 and 2, we do 4-5 essays stuffed with 9+ different texts and average about 6-8 quotes each, about 60 quotes in total!

with maths its a little bit easier. not THAT much to write, and you know if ur gonna be right or not. also, in terms of logic, mathematical logic is much easier to follow than the logic of arguments written in essays. and maths can get reptitive as well, especially when you do lots and lots of past papers. i suppose this is the downside of maths. its tedious work.

each and every subject offers its own challenges.

now for my personal opinion: maths > english. ;)
 

^CoSMic DoRiS^^

makes the woosh noises
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Messages
5,274
Location
middle of nowhere
Gender
Female
HSC
2006
maths is awful, i can't stand it and quite frankly think it's a bloody waste of time. it's so boring! plus i suck at it...but the thing i hate the most is theres no room to interpret the question or form your own response, you have to just stick with the method and you're either right or wrong (and i am usually wrong :s). ugh. i could go on for years about how much i hate it :chainsaw:

English is great because there's much more room to move, if you like. you're given the opportunity to think about a question in depth and form your own thesis and explore it. also the creative side of english is great fun too. I dont do EE2 but i would have liked to (damn timetabling!). EE1 is actually really good, i love it. Advanced is a little bit meh sometimes but it's generally fine, and i always do well at it which is a bonus. in a perfect world they would set the extension course as the compulsory one and any freaks who desperately want to do the Adv course can go ahead in their own time instead of the other way around. English is much more interesting in maths because it encourages you to think. Maths just doesnt do that for me. it's just doing question after boring question on autopilot.
 

Riviet

.
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
5,593
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Well, what can I say? I prefer maths over english anyday, doing an extra maths assessment instead of an english essay.
 

acullen

Povo postgrad
Joined
Aug 28, 2004
Messages
180
Location
Sutherland, Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
I agree that one good point about English is that even if you have no clue, you can bullshit and still obtain reasonably good marks if you're good at it. As stated, in maths you are either right or wrong; there are no alternative meanings to that alliteration in the third stanza, nor metaphorical allusions to some ideal.

To be honest, I never enjoyed maths until I went to uni. I used to dread both English and Maths with the same level of apprehension. I think it is the fact that in high school, there appears to be little purpose to the mathematics learnt in 2 Unit and above; however, with English on the other hand, it can be seen as an immediate life skill. Perhaps it is the fact that I now can see a definite use for my mathematics, a foresight I never could lay claim to whilst slowly watching time dwindle away with anticipation, slowly the maths period would draw ever closer to an end.
 

Captain Gh3y

Rhinorhondothackasaurus
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
4,153
Location
falling from grace with god
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Ellie_Belly said:
I love english because you actually have to think about things yourself and apply what you believe to them. There's also the creativity thing. I love EE2 because there's so much freedom, it's the best!

Maths is set in concrete, it's black or it's white, it's right or wrong. I was also terrible at it for the years that I was doing it at school. I hate it...

But what does everyone else think?
I think that being a 17 year old girl your beliefs and ideas probably suck and you'd be better off learning to apply some logical thinking...


acullen said:
I agree that one good point about English is that even if you have no clue, you can bullshit and still obtain reasonably good marks if you're good at it. As stated, in maths you are either right or wrong; there are no alternative meanings to that alliteration in the third stanza, nor metaphorical allusions to some ideal.

To be honest, I never enjoyed maths until I went to uni. I used to dread both English and Maths with the same level of apprehension. I think it is the fact that in high school, there appears to be little purpose to the mathematics learnt in 2 Unit and above; however, with English on the other hand, it can be seen as an immediate life skill. Perhaps it is the fact that I now can see a definite use for my mathematics, a foresight I never could lay claim to whilst slowly watching time dwindle away with anticipation, slowly the maths period would draw ever closer to an end.
I can't come up with any life skills from what was in advanced english :confused: plus first year uni maths (and physics) doesn't appear to be that far beyond what was in 3 and 4 unit high school maths anyway, just less over-simplified.
 

acullen

Povo postgrad
Joined
Aug 28, 2004
Messages
180
Location
Sutherland, Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
Captain Gh3y said:
I can't come up with any life skills from what was in advanced english :confused: plus first year uni maths (and physics) doesn't appear to be that far beyond what was in 3 and 4 unit high school maths anyway, just less over-simplified.
I was simply saying that in high school, there is no usage of calculus whatsoever in any subject apart from maths. However, at uni, calculus is obviously regularly used in the derivation of calculations for Physics. High school Physics in my opinion is extremely basic compared to even the relatively basic first year Physics. If anything, it was a history lesson with a few equations thrown in. I can't recall HSC maths including any linear algebra (ie matrices, etc.), vector geometry, multivariate differentiation, and it only had very basic differential equations regarding exponential growth/decay.
 

melaniemelanie

New Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2006
Messages
23
Gender
Female
HSC
2006
Sparcod said:
Long live Maths Ext1 (and 2)

DIE extension english DIE!!
Yesss...worship Maths ext!!! Praise the lord for all who invented the lovely theorems and fomulae to create such spiffing problems. How can someone not love a brilliant question that takes three pages of work to eventually cancel down to 1? *grinz* Maths is brilliant....you learn the formula you get it right like you said its black and white. your right or wrong.
none of this english business where youve got no idea whats right, wrong, up, down, sideways etc etc. and whether youll go up a band for including this or adding in a few more quotes... blah it just doesnt work!

Sure enough, I can do english quite well, and am in the top 5% out of 210 advanced students......but i just had to drop ext after a month because i just couldn't physical handle going to 6 periods a week of bullshit!

oh it was pain!

so in summary...maths is far far far > > > > > > than english which is mooshed into a puddle of fungus on the ground...point made.
 

melaniemelanie

New Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2006
Messages
23
Gender
Female
HSC
2006
melaniemelanie said:
Yesss...worship Maths ext!!! Praise the lord for all who invented the lovely theorems and fomulae to create such spiffing problems. How can someone not love a brilliant question that takes three pages of work to eventually cancel down to 1? *grinz* Maths is brilliant....you learn the formula you get it right like you said its black and white. your right or wrong.
none of this english business where youve got no idea whats right, wrong, up, down, sideways etc etc. and whether youll go up a band for including this or adding in a few more quotes... blah it just doesnt work!

Sure enough, I can do english quite well, and am in the top 5% out of 210 advanced students......but i just had to drop ext after a month because i just couldn't physical handle going to 6 periods a week of bullshit!

oh it was pain!

so in summary...maths is far far far > > > > > > than english which is mooshed into a puddle of fungus on the ground...point made.
and i shall add in a favourite picture as well...(though you probably have seen it before...but that's great! english rotting in hell should be publicised!
 

YBK

w00t! custom status!! :D
Joined
Aug 22, 2004
Messages
1,240
Location
47 |)35|< !!!
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
acullen said:
I was simply saying that in high school, there is no usage of calculus whatsoever in any subject apart from maths. However, at uni, calculus is obviously regularly used in the derivation of calculations for Physics. High school Physics in my opinion is extremely basic compared to even the relatively basic first year Physics. If anything, it was a history lesson with a few equations thrown in. I can't recall HSC maths including any linear algebra (ie matrices, etc.), vector geometry, multivariate differentiation, and it only had very basic differential equations regarding exponential growth/decay.
vectors, isn't that present in the complex numbers topic in 4 unit..?

oh and maths is much better than english.
 

acullen

Povo postgrad
Joined
Aug 28, 2004
Messages
180
Location
Sutherland, Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
YBK said:
vectors, isn't that present in the complex numbers topic in 4 unit..?

oh and maths is much better than english.
Vectors in complex numbers? Vector geometry is typically 3D geometry done with matrices. Are you sure you don't mean complex polar forms?
 

A l

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2004
Messages
625
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
I'm a Mathematics type of person. I guess that's because my school is very effective in teaching Mathematics Extension courses.
English, on the other hand, would have been better if there was more room for creativity skills rather than in depth analytical skills.
 

Boxxxhead

Local hairy ethnic man
Joined
May 6, 2005
Messages
512
Location
Fairfield
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
melaniemelanie said:
Yesss...worship Maths ext!!! Praise the lord for all who invented the lovely theorems and fomulae to create such spiffing problems. How can someone not love a brilliant question that takes three pages of work to eventually cancel down to 1? *grinz* Maths is brilliant....you learn the formula you get it right like you said its black and white. your right or wrong.
none of this english business where youve got no idea whats right, wrong, up, down, sideways etc etc. and whether youll go up a band for including this or adding in a few more quotes... blah it just doesnt work!

Sure enough, I can do english quite well, and am in the top 5% out of 210 advanced students......but i just had to drop ext after a month because i just couldn't physical handle going to 6 periods a week of bullshit!

oh it was pain!

so in summary...maths is far far far > > > > > > than english which is mooshed into a puddle of fungus on the ground...point made.

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol
 

Lallorona

New Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2006
Messages
3
Location
Nowra
Gender
Female
HSC
2006
I think a lot of the maths that is taught in schools in innappropriate and useless unless student wants to become mathematician
 

Mongke

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
268
Location
the bustle in your hedgerow
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
i dont know where i read it, so dont ask me to quote it but they did a survey of Maths and English and various other subjects a few years ago (cant remeber the specifics) and Australian Maths was ranked in 10 worst Maths teaching countries in the survey. bit shocking so if youre struggling with Maths it may be because our system sucks! thats reasuring :) any one else heard of this?
 

melaniemelanie

New Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2006
Messages
23
Gender
Female
HSC
2006
Mongke said:
i dont know where i read it, so dont ask me to quote it but they did a survey of Maths and English and various other subjects a few years ago (cant remeber the specifics) and Australian Maths was ranked in 10 worst Maths teaching countries in the survey. bit shocking so if youre struggling with Maths it may be because our system sucks! thats reasuring :) any one else heard of this?
I dont think the system sucks...its great for people that actually want to do maths and enjoy it...as when you do the higher level maths it actually gets good...fair enough general maths is the most filthy shit of a subject on the planet with the stuff they come up with to put in that course...but still a lot of the reasons why they would rank the maths in highschools as a bad system through surveys is because of the preconceived aura that maths is boring and crap etc. etc. etc. with people just not caring or even bothering to try...you can't like maths if you don't try, so no wonder people vote it as such a shit system. but yeah thats just my view :)
 

^CoSMic DoRiS^^

makes the woosh noises
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Messages
5,274
Location
middle of nowhere
Gender
Female
HSC
2006
Lallorona said:
I think a lot of the maths that is taught in schools in innappropriate and useless unless student wants to become mathematician
yep. :cool: not so much in general maths i guess (we just did a prac on surveying so i guess that's kinda useful) but from 2u upwards they do do a lot of quite useless stuff, from my point of view. i can remember back in the beginning of yr 12 doing 2u (before i dropped) and wondering how in hell differentiation/calculus was going to help me in the future. all it did was give me a headache. they ought to stick to what students really need to know, and if you wanna do all the funky stuff, stick it in the extension course instead.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 2)

Top