Dropping down to Ordinary Maths

Skodaa

I've been doing Higher Level Maths since Junior Cert and feel like I should drop down.
After going through a year of higher level in 5th year , I'm going for an A in Ordinary Level will that be easy seeing that it's going into November and apparently the course is different.
I'm currently doing 5 honors (excl. Higher maths) and pass irish..Aiming for 450 in the LC

Mr Rhode Island Red

What kind of results are you pulling in Honours? Is it eating up a lot of your time? If you're getting 40% or above at all you're still going to get 71 points minimum if you stay in honours, as opposed to the 56 points you get from an O1 (90% plus) in pass.

But if you don't need the subject for points, or if it's taking up too much of your time (which I know it very well can), or if you're failing the tests badly, then I'd say go ahead and drop. If you are going to drop I'd drop ASAP, because as you said the pass course is a fair bit different.

Skodaa

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

What kind of results are you pulling in Honours? Is it eating up a lot of your time? If you're getting 40% or above at all you're still going to get 71 points minimum if you stay in honours, as opposed to the 56 points you get from an O1 (90% plus) in pass.

But if you don't need the subject for points, or if it's taking up too much of your time (which I know it very well can), or if you're failing the tests badly, then I'd say go ahead and drop. If you are going to drop I'd drop ASAP, because as you said the pass course is a fair bit different.

In 5th year i was getting 50-60s but then in the Summer test I got 30% ( I didn't study ) the majority of the class failed but I know they're all naturally good at maths from being in the same class as all of them. I'm the only one in the class who got a D in the Junior Cert also from that higher level class, So I did battle hard to keep up. I just feel that there's a risk I might not get a D and I'm hoping to do Computer Forensics and Security/Computer Science which needs O2/H6 but I need 435 points for it. I just want to know if I'll be struggling to get an A in pass maths?

skippy1977

From what I've seen in my school, and this may be be in no way reflective of what happens nationally but the students who are getting A's in Ordinary Level Maths appear to be those that are good at Maths but have decided for one reason or another to drop HL, maybe to focus on 6 other subjects. I feel, again just from those I have taught, that any student who got an A at OL would have been on a par with students who got low C's at HL.
Those struggling at Higher Level who drop late (fairly late) seem to pick up a B easily enough but have not had enough preparation in Ordinary Level questions to get the A, even though they have covered the material whilst doing the HL course. For someone who has done higher level a lot of the questions look very straightforward but there is enough difficulty in the paper to separate the A's and the B's and reward those that have put in a little extra effort.
Now that's a very general view of the pattern in our school and I suppose my advice is that if you do decide to drop and you do need an O2 in it, you will need to work reasonably hard at it.

Skodaa

skippy1977 wrote: »

From what I've seen in my school, and this may be be in no way reflective of what happens nationally but the students who are getting A's in Ordinary Level Maths appear to be those that are good at Maths but have decided for one reason or another to drop HL, maybe to focus on 6 other subjects. I feel, again just from those I have taught, that any student who got an A at OL would have been on a par with students who got low C's at HL.
Those struggling at Higher Level who drop late (fairly late) seem to pick up a B easily enough but have not had enough preparation in Ordinary Level questions to get the A, even though they have covered the material whilst doing the HL course. For someone who has done higher level a lot of the questions look very straightforward but there is enough difficulty in the paper to separate the A's and the B's and reward those that have put in a little extra effort.
Now that's a very general view of the pattern in our school and I suppose my advice is that if you do decide to drop and you do need an O2 in it, you will need to work reasonably hard at it.

I've just never really sat down and put enough time in my Higher maths so i feel like it's catching up on me.I'm confident that I can get an O2 if I drop into ordinary after the midterm. It's just people in my higher maths class have a better understanding for maths. I'll see what I can do but I think the O2 is achievable not with minimum work but maybe the same amount of work I was putting in at higher. Thanks for the information though!

mathemagics

I wouldn't completely agree that "the pass course is a fair bit different". You learn a few more things in the Higher course (it is a superset of the Ordinary one), but the main difference, in my opinion, is how capable you are expected to be of making use of what you have learned. The Ordinary level questions hold your hand a bit more. So you could drop down to Ordinary at any time that you want - you're not going to miss out on learning things that are required for the exam by staying in Higher for longer - the only risk is that you'll waste some time learning a few things that you don't need.

Skodaa

mathemagics wrote: »

I wouldn't completely agree that "the pass course is a fair bit different". You learn a few more things in the Higher course (it is a superset of the Ordinary one), but the main difference, in my opinion, is how capable you are expected to be of making use of what you have learned. The Ordinary level questions hold your hand a bit more. So you could drop down to Ordinary at any time that you want - you're not going to miss out on learning things that are required for the exam by staying in Higher for longer - the only risk is that you'll waste some time learning a few things that you don't need.

So you'd agree an O1 is achievable I mean obviously I'd need to put in effort but not excessive amounts because the whole point of dropping ( for me) was to focus on my other subjects but still getting a high grade in ordinary maths.

mathemagics

My main point was this:

mathemagics wrote: »

So you could drop down to Ordinary at any time that you want

They don't learn anything in Ordinary level that you wouldn't learn in Higher level. There is therefore no rush to switch as you won't be missing anything, so take your time considering the decision carefully.