Which Do You Think Is Harder? (2 Viewers)

[kami]

Like I said, there are heaps of people who are good at the course but are not necessarily interested in all of it. Such people choose the course because they are able to gain good marks in it.

This has nothing to do with what I said - you originally raised the issue that MX2 was more difficult because the topics were fixed and thus students would be affected by their lack of interest. Making the argument that many are good at it anyway is self defeating - why raise the point of interest in the first place if you disagree with it?

Inversely, there are those who are very interested in the course but are hopeless at it. Even for those who are interested in Mathematics, there will be a few aspects of the course which do not interest them. They still take the course because the majority of the course is do-able and perhaps interesting. I mean, who would disregard a course if there was only a topic or two that didn't interest them? Just because you're interested in a course, doesn't mean you'll be good at it. Just because you're good at a course doesn't mean that you'll be interested in it.

If the majority of the course is interesting enough to students that they take it, then obviously the 'boringness' of the topics that you earlier cited would not be an issue.

The reason for that is because the vast majority of students who take the course tend to perform poorly across other courses.

Indeed. Doesn't change the fact that the majority of people would do poorly in Arabic - its an example to show that scaling is not an exact accounting of difficulty.

Scaling is dependent on the performance of the candidature and how they compare to a common statewide scale. In a course containing very talented students who perform well across other courses, the scaling would be high. In a course containing less able students who score poorly across other courses, the scaling would be low.

As you are most probably aware, scaling isn't an exact measure of difficulty. You are also no doubt aware that Extension courses aren't scaled that way at all. They are scaled as to how their candidates compare in the examination for the preceding course. To use Ext 2 English as an example, it is only scaled as compared to how its students perform in Ext 1 English opposed to those who only take 3 units of english, thus its 'lower' scaling only indicates that the performance levels of both 3 and 4 unit students in the Ext 1 English exam is rather similar. You'll find MusX undergoes the same process with an extremely similar scaling to Music 2.

 

[Trebla]

you originally raised the issue that MX2 was more difficult because the topics were fixed and thus students would be affected by their lack of interest. Making the argument that many are good at it anyway is self defeating - why raise the point of interest in the first place if you disagree with it?

I did not say that I disagreed with that. What I raised originally was my view that not all of Mathematics Extension 2 course would be interesting. Obviously interest varies from person to person. What I said about them being good at the course is an objective point of view. What I meant was while some people are limited by their lack of interest in the course they may still choose to take the course because of their ability (or they think they will do well) in the subject. Anyway, just because one is good at a course does not mean that this person will find the course easy especially if there is some lack of interest. Their hard work and commitment to do well makes them good at the subject whether they like it or not.
I did not say that this was the case for all people taking the course either. There would obviously be some who both enjoy and are good at the course and it would be safe to say this is the case in a minority of the candidature. Interest is not the only factor in the difficulty of the course. Not all students doing Mathematics Extension 2 would be good at the course. Not all students doing the Mathematics Extension 2 would be interested in the course. Some people will find the course difficult because they have a lack of interest in some topics while others will find it difficult because they have lower level Mathematical skill.

If the majority of the course is interesting enough to students that they take it, then obviously the 'boringness' of the topics that you earlier cited would not be an issue.

I did not say that was the case for all students. Only SOME would find a select few topics interesting while for others those few topics will bore the crap of them. Not all students are attracted to the course because of an interest in the course. Many do it for scaling. I'm not arguing whether this is a good or bad thing but as you mentioned the difficulty would arise. Many do it because they're only good at it. The difficulty would arise in a lack of interest (if they do lack interest). Many do it because they are only interested in it. The difficulty would arise in a lack of advanced Mathematical skill (if that is the case). Some do it because of both their abilities and complete interest, but still the workload involved gives some sense of difficulty.

 

[kami]

I did not say that I disagreed with that. What I raised originally was my view that not all of Mathematics Extension 2 course would be interesting. Obviously interest varies from person to person. What I said about them being good at the course is an objective point of view. What I meant was while some people are limited by their lack of interest in the course they may still choose to take the course because of their ability (or they think they will do well) in the subject. Anyway, just because one is good at a course does not mean that this person will find the course easy especially if there is some lack of interest. Their hard work and commitment to do well makes them good at the subject whether they like it or not.

I did not say that this was the case for all people taking the course either. There would obviously be some who both enjoy and are good at the course and it would be safe to say this is the case in a minority of the candidature. Interest is not the only factor in the difficulty of the course. Not all students doing Mathematics Extension 2 would be good at the course. Not all students doing the Mathematics Extension 2 would be interested in the course. Some people will find the course difficult because they have a lack of interest in some topics while others will find it difficult because they have lower level Mathematical skill.

I did not say that was the case for all students. Only SOME would find a select few topics interesting while for others those few topics will bore the crap of them. Not all students are attracted to the course because of an interest in the course. Many do it for scaling. I'm not arguing whether this is a good or bad thing but as you mentioned the difficulty would arise. Many do it because they're only good at it. The difficulty would arise in a lack of interest (if they do lack interest). Many do it because they are only interested in it. The difficulty would arise in a lack of advanced Mathematical skill (if that is the case). Some do it because of both their abilities and complete interest, but still the workload involved gives some sense of difficulty.

Performance in the courses is something you originally felt was hampered in MX2, but furthered in EE2 due to interest. However your recent posts indicate that performance and interest are almost independent of each other.

I'm actually not attacking the viewpoint that MX2 is hard, but my stance is and always has been that you can't compare any of the different course streams and say one is harder.

However, I think we've really been beating a dead horse since obviously we aren't going to agree - so perhaps its best that we stop cluttering this thread.