• 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

doing higher phys 1131 without HSC phys? (2 Viewers)

Timothy.Siu

Prophet 9
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
3,449
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2009

Dragonmaster262

Unorthodox top student
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
1,386
Location
Planet Earth
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
I can't comment since I haven't done it but a BOSer called Omium told me that Uni Physics was very different from HSC Physics. He only picked up HSC Physics a month before the HSC (from what he told me) and is majoring Physics in University.
 
Last edited:

Azamakumar

bannèd
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
2,748
Location
the gun show
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
is this a bad idea? what are you peoples thoughts on this because i asked some unsw staff and they said i shudn't do it but the course outline for last year didn't seem too bad. http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/COURSES/FIRST_YEAR/pdf files/Physics1A_syllabus_T12009.pdf

so i'm just asking people who have done phys1121 or phys1131 for their thoughts on the difficulty of this subject and the usefulness of hsc phys.
lol tim siu
you got through 4u, imo you'll be fine

people with no clue will drill me for this but the fact of the matter is hsc phys won't give you that much of a leg up
just stay committed and etc etc
 

Timothy.Siu

Prophet 9
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
3,449
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
thanks guys, on a kinda unrelated note, anyone know nything about scaling for uni?
 

Azamakumar

bannèd
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
2,748
Location
the gun show
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
thanks guys, on a kinda unrelated note, anyone know nything about scaling for uni?
to a bell curve, x % get y mark
it gets a bit different with subjects with higher equivalents

at least with maths 1a, I know that only 1 DN goes to 1131, the other 25 or whatever are reserved for the 1141 students. Basically they veto good marks if you get them in a subject that has a higher equiv.
 

Timothy.Siu

Prophet 9
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
3,449
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
to a bell curve, x % get y mark
it gets a bit different with subjects with higher equivalents

at least with maths 1a, I know that only 1 DN goes to 1131, the other 25 or whatever are reserved for the 1141 students. Basically they veto good marks if you get them in a subject that has a higher equiv.
so generally, if you want to get a good mark, it would be better to do the higher course right? so its generally better to do higher phys 1a than phys 1a? well anyway thanks a lot.
 

Azamakumar

bannèd
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
2,748
Location
the gun show
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
err
its easier to get a higher mark in the higher subject, if that makes sense
at a certain point in the standard one you're effectively just wasting effort.
 

nottellingu

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
385
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
to a bell curve, x % get y mark
it gets a bit different with subjects with higher equivalents

at least with maths 1a, I know that only 1 DN goes to 1131, the other 25 or whatever are reserved for the 1141 students. Basically they veto good marks if you get them in a subject that has a higher equiv.
err
its easier to get a higher mark in the higher subject, if that makes sense
at a certain point in the standard one you're effectively just wasting effort.
Are you sure about this?

It doesnt seem right.
 

ashllis92

Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2009
Messages
289
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
I went to a lecture on info day about the differences between uni and high school and the guy was saying that when a tutor is marking an assignment exam etc... they will only give out the marks deserved and if none deserve a DN they won't give anyone a DN and conversely if 10 ppl deserve they give out 10 DN's... is this not correct? the guy was a politics tutor so would it be different in the arts faculty to the science faculty?
 

LordPc

Active Member
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
1,370
Location
Western Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
yea, azamakumar i dont know where you are getting ur info from but i think ur off

firstly it doesnt make logical sense, but secondly i took math1131 and my friend took math1141. he is way better than me in maths (since he was my main source of assistance for the 1131 course and he killed me in hsc maths). yet when the marks came out i had better marks in 1131 than he does for 1141.

what you are saying might have some truth, such moving from a mark of 99 to 100 is easier in the higher course, but not for a majority of the course
 

nottellingu

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
385
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Okay what I heard was that the higher math students work through the material at a faster rate and learn some extra things towards the end.
On exam day both sit the same exam except the higher math students will be able to attempt 5 bonus question which will add to their wam?

I need to decide if i want to take higher maths with the TSP soon! :/
 

Iruka

Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2006
Messages
544
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
The main reason why you should do MATH1141 is because you learn more. If you're not a maths major or planning to do a substantial amount of maths later, I don't think it is really worth it. There are more Ds and HDs given out for 1141 compared to 1131, but you will have to work for them.
 

LordPc

Active Member
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
1,370
Location
Western Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
so? The fact of the matter is that a large proportion of the HDs and Ds are strictly awarded only to 1141 students.
dude, that means nothing

people that take higher maths are (and i think im safe to make this generalisation here) very good at maths. furthermore, im sure if you compared the higher students and normals students you would find that the higher students care a lot more about their marks while some normal students would be more than satisfied with a pass.

of course there are going to be way more Ds and HDs in the higher courses which can be directly attributed to the calibre of students that take the course
 

Azamakumar

bannèd
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
2,748
Location
the gun show
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
of course there are going to be way more Ds and HDs in the higher courses which can be directly attributed to the calibre of students that take the course
I don't know why this is so hard to grasp. Of course there are going to be smarter students in that course. The general idea is that if they're capable they should be doing the harder work, which is why htere is only a limited opportunity to get good marks from the standard course.

Either way, believe what you want. I've heard it from a senior tutor and the first year director for maths.
 

Tim035

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
857
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
A heap of friends and I decided we cbf'd doing higher maths as it wouldn't really be required for any medical science majors, so we did MATH1031.. We all got HDs.
 

toadstooltown

1337 }{4><
Joined
May 1, 2005
Messages
137
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
I did PHYS1131 in '07 without doing HSC phys and it was okay. The course has changed since I did it, but uni physics is pretty much just maths with applications.

With regards to scaling - don't even bother thinking about it. If you work hard and do well, you'll get a good mark regardless of how big the course is. For big subjects the director of the subject will decide what to do. There's pretty much no standard system. Occasionally heads of subjects might get asked to explain why so many people failed or so many people got HDs.
 

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

Top