Frequently Asked Questions & Answers in VCE Maths Methods!

Can I do Units 1 and 2 Methods if I didn’t do Year 10 Maths Methods?

You cannot do Units 1 and 2 Methods in Year 11 if you didn’t do Year 10 Maths Methods. This is because Year 10 Methods laid the foundation for the work in Year 11

If I did Year 10 Methods, can I swap to Units 1 and 2 General Maths (Further) ?

Yes, you can. In fact, many of the skills you picked up in Year 10 Methods will help you.

The Maths pathways diagram illustrates this

Should I do General ( Further) Maths or Maths Methods in Year 11?

Both subjects have their benefits, but if it’s within your reach, Methods is a very useful and comprehensive subject to have under your belt. Your choice often depends on your level of interest and ability in Maths, and your hopeful career path. It’s mainly aimed at students who intend to pursue Science, Engineering, Commerce, Accounting or anything in the health sector such as Biomedicine, Dentistry or Medicine at university following their VCE.

“Do I need to study Units 1 and 2 Maths Methods to do Units 3 and 4 Methods ?”

If you wish to study Maths Methods in Year 12, you must complete Units 1 and 2 of Maths Methods in Year 11 to a satisfactory standard…. So YES. If you really struggled in Maths Methods Units 1 and 2, you will probably find Units 3 and 4 difficult…unless you change your work ethic.

If you are interested in a career such as Engineering, Commerce, Accounting, Science or anything in the health sector such as Biomedicine, Dentistry or Medicine, then you will need and use Maths Methods so YES. Even if it’s not a prerequisite for your degree, any course that involves numbers will require you to learn what is covered in Methods at some point, so why not get stuck in now! As a university student said “Even if you’re planning to do a degree in Visual Arts, you never know what you might end up doing in the future. I moved to my degree in Science after a year in a Bachelor of Music, and having a few high school Maths units saved many headaches in the move across. If you can handle the workload, Methods is a really handy subject to have in your back pocket and opens up a lot of options if you’re unsure about where you’re going to end up.”

Conversely if you don’t enjoy the work with numbers, maybe it is time for a career re-think!

“How hard is Units 3 and 4 Maths Methods?”

There is no denying Methods can be a challenging subject, but with a good worth ethic, a sound foundation from Year 11 and a bit of self-belief, you can reach your goals. At the start of the year and throughout the year, have an attainable goal in mind, and if you put in the work, the goal will be possible.

From a Methods student: “The difficulty of Methods means that it can be far more satisfying to study than other subjects. In some other subjects it is easy to understand the content but it takes hours and hours of practice to be able to perform in the exam, however in Methods you will get an immediate reward by just understanding the content. And this is something you can do. It takes practice and patience, but I would argue that an intuitive understanding of the content prepares you for the exam better than almost anything else”

“Does this have any real-world application?”

Although it may seem some of the content is theoretical, Methods is actually surprisingly applied. The techniques you use to sketch and analyse graphs (especially calculus) are used in pretty much any career from business (e.g. charting the performance of share prices) to medicine (e.g. monitoring drug concentration in blood) to scientific research. Probability and statistics are being hailed as the skills to have in the modern workforce. It’s true that calculators and computers can do a lot of this stuff but they’re only tools- and unless you understand the logic behind how they work, they won’t do you much good. Methods aims to teach you the theory behind these very important skills and concepts and prepare you to use them in the workforce.

Even if you don’t use the exact skills you learn in Methods in a job, you’ll definitely take something away from the way Methods teaches you to think, problem solve and to think systematically.

Should I do Further Maths or Maths Methods?

Further Maths has a strong emphasis on Financial Arithmetic, Statistics and Data Analysis, Matrices and networks. It teaches you the essential Maths skills you need for courses in the areas of Business, Psychology and Education for example. It is very different in its topics, to the Methods course. Changing to Further Maths means learning new things, rather than studying the same topics you looked at in year 11 and you will need to base this kind of decision on both your results in year 11 Methods and your best estimate of how much time you think you can devote to your Methods in year 12. Methods is a definite increase in difficulty from Year 11, but strong performance in Year 11 Methods will have laid a sound foundation for the year 12 course..

Can I do Units 1 & 2 Maths Methods in Year 11 then do to Units 3 and 4 Further Maths in Year 12?

Absolutely. You must keep in mind, however, that the content in Further Maths is very different to the content in Methods and you will need to be sure that you are ready to ‘catch up’ with what you have missed if you are changing from year 11 Methods into year 12 Further Maths.