To drop down or not? That is the question (1 Viewer)

[Virtual_Wonderer]

hey everyone, I'm debating whether or not to drop down from maths advanced into standard. This is my first week of year 12 and I just got my prelim marks back. Needless to say it's low enough for me to be considering it, since a band 5 or 6 is still a high band even if its standard, over a band 3 in advanced. I'm doubtful as to whether I could achieve a band 5 in the advanced course, and I want to maximise my atar marks, I'll worry about requirements later. Should I drop it or wait until this term's test?

Grateful for any advice or any experiences from people that have dropped down, thank you in advance

 

[AsuTeksu]

Hey there!

I'm an Advanced Maths student so my input may or may not be of any help.

I was at a Band 2/3 level after finishing Prelims which was one of the most demoralising things I have ever experienced. Although, I didn't drop since I needed the subject for my degree. I pushed through and I'm currently at a Band 5/6 level. So it is possible to bounce back! (Provided you're willing to put in the effort and whatnot).

There has been a lot of "experiencing sharing" on the forums here regarding this topic. It really is all up to you and your capabilities!

I advise you wait until the first assessment and see how you go, HOWEVER, you must put a genuine effort in. If you know you can't/won't put the effort in to do Advanced, it probably is better to drop.

There's a lot of people who have dropped though (that received low bands in Advanced) and are now in high bands for Standard.

Again, it's all up to you! but hopefully my input was of some help!

 

[carrotsss]

Don't drop. The design of scaling is such that if you put identical effort into both subjects you'll get an identical ATAR. However, standard will almost undoubtedly mean that you will put in less effort. For this reason, in my opinion if you're aiming for even a somewhat high ATAR you should pretty much never do Maths Standard unless your school forces you - that isn't to say there's anything wrong with people who do standard, it's just logically not worth it if you're aiming for a high ATAR.

 

[sheppy123]

Don't drop. The design of scaling is such that if you put identical effort into both subjects you'll get an identical ATAR. However, standard will almost undoubtedly mean that you will put in less effort. For this reason, in my opinion if you're aiming for even a somewhat high ATAR you should pretty much never do Maths Standard unless your school forces you - that isn't to say there's anything wrong with people who do standard, it's just logically not worth it if you're aiming for a high ATAR.

what constitutes a high atar

 

[its_ace21]

what constitutes a high atar

according to all the bos users, 99+

 

[sheppy123]

according to all the bos users, 99+

I don’t think people who do math standard are even aiming close to that atar anyways

 

[carrotsss]

what constitutes a high atar

I would say for this purpose the point of ATAR where somebody feels like they’re gonna have to work for hard for it - it definitely depends on the person.

 

[its_ace21]

I don’t think people who do math standard are even aiming close to that atar anyways

bro i aint aiming anywhere near that dw

 

[sheppy123]

I would say for this purpose the point of ATAR where somebody feels like they’re gonna have to work for hard for it - it definitely depends on the person.

Would an atar of like 88 - 93 be achievable doing standard, given that you do well in your other subjects

 

[its_ace21]

Would an atar of like 88 - 93 be achievable doing standard, given that you do well in your other subjects

ive seen ppl get better with standard

 

[carrotsss]

Would an atar of like 88 - 93 be achievable doing standard, given that you do well in your other subjects

Virtually any ATAR is achievable with standard (though extremely high ATARs are difficult because 100 only scales to 92), and in theory if someone is motivated enough to keep putting the same amount of effort into standard as they would into advanced, then there should be no difference.

 

[Virtual_Wonderer]

Okay thanks for the replies guys, after reading these and talking with my friends i've decided to wait it out until the term 4 test. If I get a band 4 or higher I'm going to keep advanced, I'll put in the effort like Asu said thx so much

 

[sainzsgf]

Okay thanks for the replies guys, after reading these and talking with my friends i've decided to wait it out until the term 4 test. If I get a band 4 or higher I'm going to keep advanced, I'll put in the effort like Asu said thx so much

Keep it, I barely scrapped a pass for maths but my teacher said if you got at least above 40 then you should be alright. Find your weak areas in the year 11 content and try and brush them up this year so by the time year 12 starts to properly kick off at the start of next year you won't be drowing in new concepts.

good luck!!

 

[carrotsss]

Okay thanks for the replies guys, after reading these and talking with my friends i've decided to wait it out until the term 4 test. If I get a band 4 or higher I'm going to keep advanced, I'll put in the effort like Asu said thx so much

keep in mind a band 4 ≠ a raw mark above 70

 

[sheppy123]

keep in mind a band 4 ≠ a raw mark above 70

is math advanced even worth if you’re getting a band 4 raw mark?

 

[carrotsss]

is math advanced even worth if you’re getting a band 4 raw mark?

im not really sure what you mean? if you mean if maths adv is worth it if you’re getting a 70-80 raw mark then definitely, that’s solidly into band 5 aligned marks territory and almost a band 6. if you mean getting a borderline band 4 aligned (which is a raw mark of approximately 40) then it’s a different story, it’s probably not really worth it ATAR-wise (a 70 aligned is the equivalent of an ATAR slightly below 70) so if someone was aiming for a high ATAR and getting that sort of mark they’d probably be best off just dropping maths entirely (because standard wouldn’t grant a higher atar anyway) unless it’s a requirement for their course, such as at usyd or if they want to take maths for the actual content and skills it provides

 

[year10studentpreparin]

just do standard maths and get band 6 and 5 and its fine.
who even needs a 99 atar except the most niche people and people who wanna suffer in med.

 

[carrotsss]

just do standard maths and get band 6 and 5 and its fine.
who even needs a 99 atar except the most niche people and people who wanna suffer in med.

doing maths standard encourages putting in less effort, I would make the argument that if they are aiming for an ATAR even above something like 85 then it would be detrimental to their ATAR for no purpose

 

[sainzsgf]

just do standard maths and get band 6 and 5 and its fine.
who even needs a 99 atar except the most niche people and people who wanna suffer in med.

yeah if its not a course requirement then drop. only reason i plan on keeping advanced is because its the absolute hardest math level im willing to do and most engineering courses require at least extension 1 lol

 

[Sam14113]

Don't drop. The design of scaling is such that if you put identical effort into both subjects you'll get an identical ATAR. However, standard will almost undoubtedly mean that you will put in less effort. For this reason, in my opinion if you're aiming for even a somewhat high ATAR you should pretty much never do Maths Standard unless your school forces you - that isn't to say there's anything wrong with people who do standard, it's just logically not worth it if you're aiming for a high ATAR.

Not sure your explanation is 100% — the system seems to me like it’s designed such that if every student put the same amount of time into each of their subjects then they should get the same mark (with a couple of minor, but usually irrelevant caveats).

So my assumption (and seemingly yours) that usually students taking standard put in less time than students taking advanced means that you don’t need to put in as much time into standard than advanced to get the same mark.

Either way, the system is secondary - the choice is really yours. If you need advanced for some course you may consider doing, then definitely keep it. Otherwise if you aren’t enjoying it and are struggling with it there’s no shame in doing standard - it’s a really underrated course in my opinion thats actually pretty decent for exposing you a variety of situations where you may need math (I don’t know btw, I don’t take it I can only tell you from my limited research) but if you’re going to hate math adv and you don’t need it, there’s no good reason to take it

EDIT: To clarify, ‘you’ in paragraphs 1 and 2 refer to Carrotsss and in paragraph 3 to Virtual_Wonderer