Right now, you might be taking Advanced Mathematics in Year 11 or 12, and you might be finding it tough—but you shouldn’t drop down to Standard Maths.
You might be considering making things easier for yourself by transferring to Standard Maths (especially if you just started Term 1 of Year 12) because you’re struggling to keep up and the recent marks you got weren’t crash hot.
But, Advanced Maths is worth the effort—we’ve got three reasons why you should keep going with the subject.
Need some convincing? Read on to find out why studying Advanced Maths is worthwhile!
Reason #1: University Prerequisites
Reason #2: Struggling without Assumed Knowledge
Reason #3: Subject Mastery for Future Careers
Why You Should Drop to Standard Maths
Reason #1: University Prerequisites
Not only is Advanced Maths a prerequisite, it’s also assumed knowledge for a lot of other university courses. This means that if you drop down from Advanced to Standard, you can actually be limiting the options that you have for both university courses and the universities you wish to apply for when you graduate.
Getting into a University of Sydney Course
Sydney Uni has now put in a requirement that applicants must have studied Advanced Maths and received a Band 4 or higher for the majority of their degrees, except for humanities courses. The reason for this is that the University of Sydney, along with other universities, have recognised that many students are coming to university with an insufficient foundation of mathematics and mathematical ability.
Thus, when they begin tertiary study, they struggle! Our point is that if you drop down from Advanced to Standard Maths, you’re restricting your university course options, particularly at Sydney University.
Sydney University is also saying that no bridging courses are allowed. Rather, you have to choose a Bachelor of Arts degree and then do a first year mathematics subject at university in semester one and two—then you can transfer degrees.
So, it’s therefore going to take you an extra year to get into your dream degree if you want to go to Sydney Uni. Even if you aren’t thinking of applying for Sydney University, you still are limiting your course options because bridging courses are often too intense, as you are trying to learn the whole HSC content in a matter of weeks!
Reason #2: Struggling without Assumed Knowledge
The truth is, if the university you wish to apply for says that maths is assumed knowledge when entering the degree, this means that they assume you know the Advanced Mathematics course. In your first year of university, you are going to be studying subjects that require an advanced level of mathematical knowledge!
If you haven’t actually done this subject in the HSC, the subject content for your chosen degree may prove to be a challenge. University is much more fast paced than high school and requires lots of individual work.
Essentially, you don’t have the same amount of support that get in high school, when you’re at university. Those students who don’t complete Advanced Maths at school and go on to study maths at university often struggle with the material as it is really challenging!
What we mean here is that, it’s either going to be hard now in high school or it’ll be even more difficult later on! Really, you want to choose the harder course in high school when you’ve got the most support.
To get back on track, get personalised support with our HSC Maths Tutors Sydney and Sutherland Shire who will help you grasp Advanced Maths concepts in a shorter amount of time without disrupting your study for other units.
Reason #3: Subject Mastery for Future Careers
With one in three university graduates unable to find a full time job with their degree, it’s very competitive to get full time work in your chosen area. Without mastering maths whilst completing your degree, you may find it harder for you to land your first job.
If you want to stand out and differentiate yourself from a competitive crowd, you’re going to need to develop mastery for maths, particularly if it’s assumed knowledge or a prerequisite for your chosen career area. We recommend that you take the time to develop your maths skills whilst in school, rather than avoiding the hard work that’s associated with learning maths later on.
If you’re thinking long term, particularly if maths is foundational to your future career, then you should work on taking Advanced Maths in high school. You’ll have access to the best support while you’re still completing your secondary studies!
Why You Should Drop to Standard Maths
Reason #1: None of the courses you’re applying for require Advanced Maths
If you’ve shortlisted a bunch of university courses to study in the future and none of them have Advanced Mathematics as either a prerequisite or assumed knowledge, then feel free to drop down. You’ll have more time to focus on the subjects that you’re actually good at!
Reason #2: Advanced Maths is sucking your time, energy, and most importantly, your confidence
So, you’re doing all this work all for maths and you’re getting poor results. The danger here is that it could actually cause you to have a crisis of confidence, which could spill over into your other subjects.
This could mean you start to do worse in all of your subjects because you lack belief in yourself and are struggling to find the time to put into your other subjects. It therefore makes more sense, regardless of the bigger picture, to increase your time to do better across all of your subjects.
Reason #3: The HSC focuses on your results across all of your subjects
The HSC doesn’t reward mastery for one subject when calculating your ATAR, so this is a really good reason why you might drop down from Advanced to Standard—ensuring that you can do your best across the entirety of your HSC. This will also improve your overall ATAR and grant you more options regarding further study upon finishing the HSC.
Check out our HSC Subject Decision Tree Tool to help determine if you should drop Advanced Maths.
Good Luck!
Overall, there is a lot to think about when deciding whether or not to drop from Advanced Maths to Standard Maths for your HSC—it is a difficult decision to make. However, the main thing is to go with your gut when making that decision. Before you make that big decision, make sure you have all the up-to-date stats and facts on dropping HSC subjects here!
If you do need that extra help in your HSC journey across all subjects, be sure to check the Art of Smart blog for resources and always remember your teachers are there to support you the entire journey!
Looking for some extra help with your HSC studies?
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We offer tutoring and mentoring for Years K-12 in a variety of subjects, with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at our state of the art campus in Hornsby!
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Grace Mitchell hopes to one day stand in front of a Year 12 Modern History class teaching the history of the Soviet Union, or have an insightful discussion with a Year 10 English class on race relations in To Kill a Mockingbird. Either way, Grace is beginning her teaching journey studying a Bachelor of Education (Secondary: Humanities and Social Sciences)/Bachelor of Arts at Sydney University. Grace loves to learn new things, write short stories and opinion pieces, read, and play contemporary Australian compositions on the clarinet. When she is not learning – if that is possible – Grace loves to sit and watch the sunset.
