Changing papers maybe stupid but the stress and pressure can sometimes cause kids to make very silly choices

Good point. But it is all about the economy again. We must have more taking the subject at this level to lead to a higher amount of graduates in Maths and Science, and thereby make us better able to compete for foreign investment – on paper, at least.

Aleo, there is no money in the sciences which is why people dont do science courses! The pay is brutal!

Anyone who sat higher maths in the past gets 25 extra points also if they fill in their cao again but i agree with your point

Absolutely, the course has been dumbed down but for many students, it is still tough, as it should be! But it is unfair to bribe students into taking such a risk when they have done nothing to deal with the underlying problems, like the poor exam system itself. Imagine how many people could do HL maths if they were assesed on a continious basis insted of the way it is now, unimaginative methods if just pouring out equations ect instead of learning to effectively add up! The system is more focussed on doing enough to pass instead of actually learning anything useful. And now teachers are further constrained by this stupid project maths which is just a new way of phrasing questions, might i add more awkwardly without improving anything!

I couldn’t agree with you more Jason. I have seen the new project maths curriculum. I can certainly see where they are going with it. They are making the course more practical and conceptual. Rather than learning loads of theorems off by heart, there are questions that you need to really think about and apply knowledge to get an answer.

However, I think the new course will only serve to disadvantage the very students who will actually go on to study maths in college. I have just finished my fourth year in college as a maths and physics student. We use differentiation, calculus and matrices for almost every single module we have taken in the past four years. They have removed matrices from the curriculum completely, which is an absolute farce. Matrices are an unusual concept when first introduced, but they are in no way any more difficult than any other material on the course. They are a vital aspect of solving problems in maths and should be put back on the curriculum.

Obviously, having studied maths in college, I have always been maths minded and found the subject easy to grasp. However, very often I did this by reading up on material myself in order to fully understand what was going on, something that was not done in class. The main issue lies in the teaching. For example, everybody knows that pi is 3.14, but the origin of this is never explained in class and simply knowing where it comes from, makes things easier to conceptualize.

I don’t want to rabble on all day, but even with my level of maths in first year of college, I found myself at a disadvantage compared to students from England and France. The level of maths they have after school, particularly in France, is far beyond what we get here and they have dumbed down the course since then. God help next years students starting maths in college, is all I can say!

I hope not. People who take higher maths usually do better than they expected.

Highly unlikely considering the amount of money spent on developing the new course

@Sean Martin you haven’t been trying to learn the new course for the past 2 years. The new Paper 2 is like jumping into black hole! Neither teachers or students are sure what format it will take.

@robjones That’s exactly what I mean

I am doing the paper in just over a week also, i agree teachers havent a clue what is going on but i believe the examiners will mark it easier as to suggest that project maths is a success

It doesnt matter how much money they put into their all new project maths bullsh*t, it has only served to over complicate things as they are trying to learn 5th and 6th year maths classes in a differnt method to what they have had for the firest 3 years. There may be some improvement by 2014 but as it standa, the comment above is right, people get no extra points for a fail and that will be the case for many.