HL Maths

suitcasepink

Hi peeps, a 5th year here!
Im just wondering people's ideas about HL maths and especially those who did it and dropped to pass.
At the moment Im normally getting 50-55% in my tests and my teacher wants me to stay up, but I dont know? Like I dont want to be only scraping through and then for it all to go wrong on the day of the LC and I fail it..

I think what Im asking is, people who dropped to pass? What was the "epiphany" that made you move down?

nowayjosie

deise_girl wrote: »

Hi peeps, a 5th year here!
Im just wondering people's ideas about HL maths and especially those who did it and dropped to pass.
At the moment Im normally getting 50-55% in my tests and my teacher wants me to stay up, but I dont know? Like I dont want to be only scraping through and then for it all to go wrong on the day of the LC and I fail it..

I think what Im asking is, people who dropped to pass? What was the "epiphany" that made you move down?

Hi deise_girl: its been a very long time since I was a student however I'll tell you what my two daughters did - both studied Higher Maths for junior cert they both struggled their average was 50-55% on tests and they were terrified they would fail on the day - they both dropped back to pass and passed - in my humble opinion, if you have an inkling that you may not get through HL on the day then do pass level - best of luck :D

DepoProvera

I'd definitely stick with it if you aren't horribly bad. Just work at it during the summer. Extra 25 points and you won't have to compensate with a different subject. If you're able that is, but maths takes a lot of constant work.

Raeone

Your only in fifth year and you have plenty of time untill the leaving cert. Alot can change from now until June 2013. I would say, stick with higher level maths until you start to struggle and your teacher reccomends dropping down.
Even just a D in higher level is better than an A in maths.

Scarlett Scout

deise_girl wrote: »

Hi peeps, a 5th year here!
Im just wondering people's ideas about HL maths and especially those who did it and dropped to pass.
At the moment Im normally getting 50-55% in my tests and my teacher wants me to stay up, but I dont know? Like I dont want to be only scraping through and then for it all to go wrong on the day of the LC and I fail it..

I think what Im asking is, people who dropped to pass? What was the "epiphany" that made you move down?

I agree with nowayjosie. And there is no epiphany but if you are worried now then chances are you will eventually drop. What can happen is that if you leave it to late to drop then the other class could have covered something that you have not and you might be lost.

Ally7

Because you're only in fifth I think you should still stay on, loads of people struggle with the course in fifth year but it all seems to come together in sixth.

jos360

Maths just takes practice. In first year, I was bottom of my year. In second year they streamed our classes and I was put in pass. Then I worked a lot (past papers) and got moved up to HL for JC, in which I scraped a B. In fifth year I got put into the lower HL class. I got 50% in my 5th year xmas. Then I worked a lot from xmas to summer and got my first ever A in maths in my 5th year summer. Then again at sixth year xmas and mocks, both A1's. I even got picked for my schools candidate for the Irish Physics Olympiad which I did pretty well in (caus Im sooooo cool :P). Now Im going for the A1 in a month and have Maths in TCD for my first choice on my cao!

A lot can change in two years, don't give up
I was in you shoes last year!

SureYWouldntYa

Girl in my class was in your boat, passing every test and everyone else gettin 70+. Mock results came and all got C3..... except her, she got a B3. Perseverance is the key

UnknownSpecies

I'll give you my own story. From 1st to 3rd year, had an awful teacher and struggled badly. Teacher told me I should drop down at JC level but I knew I was good enough, his teaching wasn't. Scraped through JC pres and with a lot of hard work and self-taught maths, got an A in the JC.

Fast forward to LC 2009. Same situation, lumped into the useless teachers class again. Basically failed the whole way through 5th and 6th year. I honestly could never pass his exams. LC pres came and he told me I'm a fool if I stay up. I did the Higher level pre anyway, failed miserably with 28%. Again, I knew I was good enough but the teacher was holding me back so badly. I had to act quick so I got grinds for the remaining 3 months and nailed down several topics just to get me a decent LC grade. In the end, exams went fine and I got a C1.

To me, this would suggest that if you get several topics nailed down very well and guarentee ourself those marks, you're better off going for a high C grade rather than a Lower level A1. Worth more points to you and some colleges offer more points if you have Higher level maths done.

nowayjosie

deise_girl wrote: »

Hi peeps, a 5th year here!
Im just wondering people's ideas about HL maths and especially those who did it and dropped to pass.
At the moment Im normally getting 50-55% in my tests and my teacher wants me to stay up, but I dont know? Like I dont want to be only scraping through and then for it all to go wrong on the day of the LC and I fail it..

I think what Im asking is, people who dropped to pass? What was the "epiphany" that made you move down?

I also meant to say deise_girl - you shouldn't look on it as dropping down to pass level - your not dropping downwards your giving yourself a better chance thats all

DepoProvera

Dirty pecimissm! I was considering dropping down after 5th year now I'm gunna for the A1.. Maths is just practice everyday.

Canard

Hey

First of all, what are the tests like? Are they exam-standard? If so, 50% is excellent :pac: All through 5th/6th year I got A1s with A2s in xmas/summer of 5th year, then in the mock I got a C3 because we just werent doing exam-focused material - hugely disappointing of course but I knew I wasnt A1 standard. People who were getting Ds in those class tests failed the mocks (and crazily are still in HL). My advice is that if the tests are exam standard, then stay in higher, you're doing fine If not, I'd have a go at exam questions and see if you start to get a better foothold in the subject. It all comes together when you cover more of the course too.

partyatmygaff

I used to get Cs in fifth year too (On the old course). With a bit of work I managed to bring that up to A2s and A1s in sixth year. It's definitely not impossible, in fact ~50% is pretty good for fifth year.

Bazinga_N

I'm in the Junior Cycle, so I wouldn't be of much help, but I was in a similar situation a while back.

I am in Honours Maths, and for a while was only getting in the 50% range. I started to consider dropping to Ordinary Level. So, I went to my teacher to ask for his opinion. He told me, that numerous of times he has seen students just scrape by during the years and come out excellent in the actual exam. It's really down to revision and practice.

So, I'd say stay where you are and stay there until the mocks. If you do badly in the mocks, drop then.

suitcasepink

Thanks everybody for your replies!
The later tests have all been taken from exam/sample papers, though I dont know if theyre being marked like the real thing?

I guess Ill stay up for the end of 5th year anyway, no point going to pass a few weeks before the Summer tests. But people saying to wait and see how the mocks go, is it not too late and that stage? Coz you'd need to go over the whole pass course in a matter of weeks?
Im also going to really try at it a bit more, I think thats a big problem with me too, not giving it enough of a chance!

Thanks again everyone

jos360

deise_girl wrote: »

Thanks everybody for your replies!
The later tests have all been taken from exam/sample papers, though I dont know if theyre being marked like the real thing?

I guess Ill stay up for the end of 5th year anyway, no point going to pass a few weeks before the Summer tests. But people saying to wait and see how the mocks go, is it not too late and that stage? Coz you'd need to go over the whole pass course in a matter of weeks?
Im also going to really try at it a bit more, I think thats a big problem with me too, not giving it enough of a chance!

Thanks again everyone

Yea there are some things on the pass course that you might not recognise.
I give 3 of my friends grinds in OL and when I first started there were some questions I had to bs my way through :P. But I just read their textbook which only took like 45 min and their past papers to 2008 and had it all off in about an hour. Don't worry about the mocks being too late. Anyone can move to pass in a day, maybe three if you wan't to spread it out. My advice to anyone is to stick with HL up to a week before the LC. If you really think you can't pass it, then switch to OL and spend two nights just getting used to the style of the paper.

Another thing to keep in mind is the marking scheme of the new Project Maths paper. I've spent a while studying it and it seems that all questions are pretty easy to get the high partial credit for 7/10 marks. Its the full marks that are gonna be difficult. This makes sense since they introduced this paper to make it easier to pass, and harder to get 100% in.


5th year is definitely too early to switch maths levels. My friend desperately wants to do engineering but dropped to OL maths and dropped Physics in first term of 5th year. Now he's applying to DIT level 7 engineering in hope of getting moved to their level 8 degree somewhere along the way. (If you don't get what that means, summary = it sucks).


Stick with it, use past papers (not NCCA mocks), and give your'e past paper answers to your'e teacher of friend to correct for you, don't do it yourself. Students will always either over or undermark themselves.


Also, this website has helped a lot of people I know in compensating for bad teachers. http://www.purplemath.com/modules/

Good Luck

leaveiton

deise_girl wrote: »

Thanks everybody for your replies!
The later tests have all been taken from exam/sample papers, though I dont know if theyre being marked like the real thing?

I guess Ill stay up for the end of 5th year anyway, no point going to pass a few weeks before the Summer tests. But people saying to wait and see how the mocks go, is it not too late and that stage? Coz you'd need to go over the whole pass course in a matter of weeks?
Im also going to really try at it a bit more, I think thats a big problem with me too, not giving it enough of a chance!

Thanks again everyone

I'd say definitely stay til the end of 5th year, there's plenty of time in 6th if you want to go to OL then. At the moment though I'd say you're doing fine, if you're getting Cs then you can definitely improve on that. Remember that there are probably a lot of things you haven't covered yet. You may be getting lower grades in some areas, but who's to say you won't to another topic next year and be brilliant at that? I wouldn't worry about it too much at the moment, anyway.

I don't think it'd be too late after the mocks, a lot of people in my class have dropped since and they're getting on fine. Also, I'm open to correction on this, but I think with the new Project Maths syllabus it is just a case of cutting out some information that you do at HL, rather than being a different course at OL.