grundo said:
Okay so I am wondering whether I should move from Advanced to General Maths. This is only because I don't feel like I can realistically get very good marks in the subject, when compared to General. At the moment, I am coming 1st or 2nd in every subject except Maths, where I am coming roughly around the middle of the course of 54. I hate that because I'm a perfectionist and it's really annoying me. In the end, I think that if I move to General, I will be able to get into the top 10 fairly easily.
So really, what will be better in the long term for my UAI?
Also, is it too late to change courses now? Should I just wait til Yr 12?
As you can see, I am confused!! Any thoughts on what I should do...?
I'll address your second last sentence first: if you change, do it RIGHT AWAY! People who drop to general find that even though the course may be easy, TRYING TO CATCH UP ON A YEARS WORK IN YEAR 12, WITH OTHER ASSESSMENT, IS IMPOSSIBLE!
In advanced, coming halfway in the course is fairly good. I dropped to general from the same position because I was falling behind and by dropping I knew I could keep ahead and not have to spend 80% of my nights homework time trying to keep on par with maths. Now I can focus on other subjects and still do really well in maths.
On the other hand, heaps of other people who dropped down did it without the expectation of needing to work because "it's so much easier". It is, sure enough, but it's also DIFFERENT from advanced. You need to learn new things. That's why alot of people who drop down then don't do well in general, which scales so badly that it makes Chuck Norris go into the foetal position and cry. If you are in general, you need to get a band 6 to prevent scaling heaps badly. As a general guide, if you get over 95 in general maths, that will end up scaling to about the equivalent of an 85 in adv., but if you got 90 in general, that'd be about 70-75 in adv. I'd love to draw a graph about now, so much easier to explain... Moral of the story is that if you don't do really well in general it's better than advanced. But I mean REALLY well. The only marks you want to lose are with stupid mistakes, since the conent isn't too diffuclt and you have a formula sheet.
In reguards to Iyounomu syaing that you won't have a term 3 holiday, that's not true. For the first 3/4 of the prelim course you pretty much do year 9 advanced maths. But in your last term and then in year 12 you learn alot of different stuff. So basically you only need a quick refresher if you drop down now, whereas when you wait you have to do alot more. I assume the second exam which you haven't got your marks for was just before the holidays, so you should get it back right after. If you get that, and your mark is even within 25% of your first assessment mark, your still doing quite well. At this point I just refer you back to what I said about motivation and spending all your time trying to keep on par in Advanced.
I can give you advice, but really - it's your decision... what does your instinct tell you about how much you need to struggle [or not] to keep up those adv. marks?