Taking Up Honours maths..?

xclw

hi!
i'm repeating the leaving cert this year, i got an A1 (98%) in pass maths last year so i was just wondering would it be too hard to take up Higher maths this year, i can get grinds to help me too and a fairly good teacher, i found pass aths really easy like i only had to do my homework in it, and cos of the 25 extra points i'm just wondering about it.. thanks

Luno

I don't really think it's a good idea. It's a long course, really need the two years for it!

Sunny!!

wouldn't advise it like the above poster said you need the two years. You'd be better off taking up a whole new subject than doing hl maths, and you can't really compare hl and ol imo.

Hope this helps:)

sganyfx

Ignore these people, go for it if you are good at maths you will be able to get a good result, just make sure to make it your main focus and fine a perfect balance between your work ethic for each subject.

Luno

sganyfx wrote: »

Ignore these people, go for it if you are good at maths you will be able to get a good result, just make sure to make it your main focus and fine a perfect balance between your work ethic for each subject.

I have to completely disagree with what you're saying here. There is a huge difference between higher and ordinary, an A1 is by no means the equivalent of a C in higher. It is time consuming, you'd have to dedicate yourself to only maths which I don't think the OP intends to do.

Togepi

Go for it if you might need it for a course or if you're willing to put loads of time into it. I'm taking it up this year but I think if I keep it on 'til June I'll go down in some other subjects.

But I'm taking up another new subject too, so that doesn't really help...

Whatever you do just remember that higher and ordinary Maths are totally different. The stuff you do for ordinary level doesn't really help at all, so it's just like taking up a brand new (and ridiculously difficult) subject.

Hope this helps.

Sunny!!

sganyfx wrote: »

Ignore these people, go for it if you are good at maths you will be able to get a good result, just make sure to make it your main focus and fine a perfect balance between your work ethic for each subject.

Just because a person is good at ol maths doesn't mean there going to be good at hl. There two different courses. At the end of the day its easy to get an A1 in ol is someone half apply's them self.

I wouldn't recommend it op, but i'm sure when you posed the question here you asked for an honest opinion:)

Chuchoter

Pass is sooooo easy compared to honors. I wouldn't bother, you'll never get it done in only a year. Hell we've had 2 years and we're still not going to get it finished.

AdamD

As somebody who did HL, I can say that if you got 98% in OL you could easily do HL if you apply yourself. The replies above me sum up why our generation are 'bad at maths'.

amandaf675

the two courses are very different. i wouldnt advise it.

i was getting 60%(avg) in higher maths and i dropped back to pass as i just wasnt 100% on how id manage the paper and i was lost in pass maths, i failed the first xmas exam and the mocks because of how different the course was

Sunny!!

AdamD wrote: »

As somebody who did HL, I can say that if you got 98% in OL you could easily do HL if you apply yourself. The replies above me sum up why our generation are 'bad at maths'.

very stupid comment. Do you know what the real reason people aren't good at maths in this country. Because 48% of maths teachers aren't qualified.

AdamD

Sunny!! wrote: »

very stupid comment. Do you know what the real reason people aren't good at maths in this country. Because 48% of maths teachers aren't qualified.

And because people are scared of the subject...because people who are capable of doing it are being encouraged not to...

Sunny!!

AdamD wrote: »

And because people are scared of the subject...because people who are capable of doing it are being encouraged not to...

i wouldn't recommend it, i'm sure theres been many discussions about this before, but imo the difference is too big:)

pajero12

Sunny!! wrote: »

very stupid comment. Do you know what the real reason people aren't good at maths in this country. Because 48% of maths teachers aren't qualified.

No, He has a point, Honours Maths Is pure hyped up, Honours maths just adds on to the pass syllabus, That unqualified teacher bullsh1t is just an excuse for people who dont do the work,
For example, There were 7 A1's in my year last year, and the teacher missed 6 weeks of class due to terrible circumstances.

AdamD wrote: »

And because people are scared of the subject...because people who are capable of doing it are being encouraged not to...

What he said!!

Sunny!!

pajero12 wrote: »

No, He has a point, Honours Maths Is pure hyped up, Honours maths just adds on to the pass syllabus, That unqualified teacher bullsh1t is just an excuse for people who dont do the work,
For example, There were 7 A1's in my year last year, and the teacher missed 6 weeks of class due to terrible circumstances.

What he said!!

i'm sorry but thats the biggest piece of bull i've ever heard

MarionMcg

Do not try to do honours maths!! this year you will already have to learn a new curriculum at pass level. You will be studying strands 1 & 2 of project maths, which means a whole new probability and statistics course and a different focus for trigonometry. You will be doing at least 15 constructions for the synthetic geometry question!! if you got an A at pass last year then all this will prob be no bother to you, bt if you tried to study higher level course you could become swamped. And then your other subjects could suffer....

leaveiton

I know nothing about the difference between pass and honours, so I can't really advise you, but why not just try it? I understand where a lot of people are coming from here, saying that it's a very big gap, but I think you should try it and decide for yourself. If you find the work is too much after a couple of months, then you can go back to doing ordinary level. I'm sure with a result like 98% last year, you'd have no trouble getting back into the swing of things at pass.

overshoot

pajero12 wrote: »

That unqualified teacher bullsh1t is just an excuse for people who dont do the work.......and the teacher missed 6 weeks of class

6 weeks of no qualified teacher v 2 years, il take the 6 weeks than you. strolled to an A in junior higher, got 40% in LC mocks, the difference id a engineer for the leaving. picked up a qualified teacher for a half dozen grinds who could explain things and id my B1 less than 2 months later in the leaving. (we had a late mocks which got even later thanks to some snow).

anyway op, id say give it a go,when you have done the pass course and know what to expect you can always drop back. you should make up your mind up by christmas though, 6 subjects count and if it is a lost cause there is no point in putting extra effort into it at the expense of other subjects where you can get points

pajero12

Sunny!! wrote: »

i'm sorry but thats the biggest piece of bull i've ever heard

Is it?? So You've done both courses to compare??

Ahh i see what you did there...I said you were talking bull so you said the same back......Good job Buddy

MacGyver007

pajero12 wrote: »

Honours maths just adds on to the pass syllabus

The following is a link to the syllabus for Leaving Cert Maths for examination in June 2012. Page 17 onwards is of interest:
http://www.ncca.ie/en/Curriculum_and_Assessment/Post-Primary_Education/Project_Maths/Syllabuses_and_Assessment/LC_Maths_for_examination_in_2012.pdf

Sunny!!

pajero12 wrote: »

Is it?? So You've done both courses to compare??

Ahh i see what you did there...I said you were talking bull so you said the same back......Good job Buddy

yes i have. I'm not going into a pointless argument with someone, i'd rather be constructive and not try and change peoples opinions on something.

Op i hope you make the right choice:)

AdamD

Also: I was in a pilot school last year so have done project maths. It's definitely doable.

IMO

xclw

I'm just wondering, you know the 25 extra points does that count even if ya just get a D3? i think i'm going to talk to one of the teachers in my school, thanks everyone though

MacGyver007

xclw wrote: »

I'm just wondering, you know the 25 extra points does that count even if ya just get a D3?

Yes it does; 25 bonus points will be awarded for every grade from A1 to D3.

Togepi

AdamD wrote: »

And because people are scared of the subject...because people who are capable of doing it are being encouraged not to...

+1

Maths used to be one of my favourite subjects (and I never had much trouble with it) but I dropped to ordinary a couple of weeks into the Leaving Cert course because all I heard was that it was impossible and extremely time-consuming. (Pretty terrible decision really.)

Ah Here!

Go for it! HL maths is hyped up so much and its not even that hard! You could easily get at the very least a D3 without THAT much work but if you do plenty of hard work(which you should or don't even bother) you should do much better than that! And anyway if you end up thinking its impossible you can drop down.

Anonymo

Sunny!! wrote: »

i'm sorry but thats the biggest piece of bull i've ever heard

it's hardly bull - it might not be the full story but it's not without foundation. Look, a teachers job is to help students learn their material. Without a good teacher a student can still learn the material but it will take longer (and they may need a few grinds along the way). It's not like a bad teacher will suddenly make a student think illogically. Of course, if the student isn't willing to put in the extra work on that subject (since it might unduly detract from their other subjects), then that is a different matter.

However in the OPs case let's assume that -as he/she said -the honours teacher is good. Anybody that gets 98% in ordinary level is certainly capable of getting a decent grade at honours level. It's not like honours level is in a different language. A lot of it is the same material but with a bit extra thrown in. Considering the bonus points in maths this year, it certainly makes sense to put in the extra work. It sounds like you sailed through ordinary level so repeating that would offer no challenge to you at all. Why not do higher level until Christmas time and reassess then?

Togepi

Anonymo wrote: »

...It's not like honours level is in a different language. A lot of it is the same material but with a bit extra thrown in...

It's definitely a lot more than a "bit extra" thrown in. The ordinary level stuff I've covered gets me through roughly 10% of the questions covered at higher level. It's at a completely different level, no comparison.

Anonymo

Togepi wrote: »

It's definitely a lot more than a "bit extra" thrown in. The ordinary level stuff I've covered gets me through roughly 10% of the questions covered at higher level. It's at a completely different level, no comparison.

10% !? I'd would guess it to be more like 40-50%. In other words if you can get near to 100% in ordinary level I think it would be quite bizarre if you couldn't pass higher level with a little extra work. With a more conserted amount of extra work I would imagine that at a C grade is definitely manageable. I'm not talking about converting an A1 ordinary to an A1 higher. But given the bonus points involved this year a C3 grade at HL would be worth a whole lot more than an A1 at OL. For that reason I would definitely urge the OP to give HL a shot till Christmas at least. The only difference will be that you'll cover extra material. The ordinary level course is a subset of the higher level one so you have to cover that anyway.

Togepi

Anonymo wrote: »

10% !? I'd would guess it to be more like 40-50%. In other words if you can get near to 100% in ordinary level I think it would be quite bizarre if you couldn't pass higher level with a little extra work. With a more conserted amount of extra work I would imagine that at a C grade is definitely manageable. I'm not talking about converting an A1 ordinary to an A1 higher. But given the bonus points involved this year a C3 grade at HL would be worth a whole lot more than an A1 at OL. For that reason I would definitely urge the OP to give HL a shot till Christmas at least. The only difference will be that you'll cover extra material. The ordinary level course is a subset of the higher level one so you have to cover that anyway.

No I meant that with OL you'd only be able to do about 10% of the HL questions, and the rest would be new and more difficult stuff, not that you'd only manage 10% in the Leaving. If you get an A in OL it'd mean you'd have been able to get a decent grade in HL, but you won't be using much OL material in HL, so it means you have to do some serious work especially in one year... So it's very possible, but incredibly difficult!

Anonymo

Togepi wrote: »

No I meant that with OL you'd only be able to do about 10% of the HL questions, and the rest would be new and more difficult stuff, not that you'd only manage 10% in the Leaving. If you get an A in OL it'd mean you'd have been able to get a decent grade in HL, but you won't be using much OL material in HL, so it means you have to do some serious work especially in one year... So it's very possible, but incredibly difficult!

Fair enough. I understand your point. But my contention is that anyone that can get close to 100% is capable with a comparable level of work of passing the leaving cert. A deal of extra work will get that person to a low C grade - yes it's extra work but not at the scale you are suggesting. I would agree that converting a low C to a B or then an A grade at HL - for someone who needs to work hard at maths to get a C - would be a very difficult task. However the marking scheme at HL is such that anyone who attempts all the questions and makes a decent attempt at them should be able to pass.