Jpcrema27 Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 Hi guys im about to begin the IB. I will be doing phyHL and chemHL(maybe). I wanted to know if you guys think i should do math hl or math further hl. I have done Maths Kangaroo and scored a gold medal(135.5/150points) and ive done the brasilian math olympiad (OBM) and scored a silver medal. I also got an A*, and a best of the world award in my Math IGCSEs. I am good in math and it has always been easy to me. My teacher said i could do math further hl, but is itworth it??? Is it too hard?? Does it really count towards ur college application (engineering ou pure mathematics)?? Thanks and sry for bad eng im brasilian. ... What do you guys think? Thanks for the help! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flinquinnster Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 Well, Maths HL is already a pretty big challenge, so that makes Further Maths HL even more challenging. However, it seems that you are more than capable of taking on Further Maths HL, though it would be best to consider whether your school can provide you with the teachers/time to make sure you do well in the subject. Also, consider whether you think it would lower the scores of your other subjects a lot. As to whether it helps with university applications, it depends. Whilst doing Further Maths HL is definitely good in getting you to do a lot more maths to prepare you for university, most universities will never require you to take it. So whilst it may help (and check the requirements for the different universities you want to apply to), it may mot be worth the effort. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBfreakingout! Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 Ask your teacher/school whether you can start the year by doing Maths Further HL and then see whether you are able to manage with all the other subjects. If you can manage and get good grades even with Maths Further, then do it! However I feel that unless you get a 7 in maths further, it is pointless as you should just do Maths HL and get a 7, or you will be lowering your grade when you dont need to be tackling maths that hard. Seeing as maths further is (from my understanding) an extension of maths HL, moving into Maths HL after maths further will not be a disadvantage it might just mean that you have covered more than required. Hope that helped a bit. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctrls Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 If you're considering studying maths at university, then taking further maths has it's advantages. While it will never be required by any university, it can strengthen your application and more importantly, you get to spend more time doing maths and you get more practice. For engineering on the other hand I'm not so sure, I wouldn't recommend doing it just for the sake of uni applications and all that (if you want to however, then by all means go for it). By the way, FM HL is taken alongside regular maths HL, so to do FM you have to do both. If you're planning on taking a regular diploma however, you can't take both 2 science subjects and 2 maths subjects. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaifyanre Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) By the way, FM HL is taken alongside regular maths HL, so to do FM you have to do both. If you're planning on taking a regular diploma however, you can't take both 2 science subjects and 2 maths subjects.No, you don't have to take regular HL for FM HL, as stated in the syllabus:All categories of student can register for mathematics HL only or for further mathematics HL only or forboth. However, students registering for further mathematics HL will be presumed to know the topics in thecore syllabus of mathematics HL and to have studied one of the options, irrespective of whether they have alsoregistered for mathematics HL.You can take HL along with FM and it's, I suppose, what most people do.Taking FM is by all means beneficial to math-related courses, but it is a lot of work (although there's no IAs).Since it assumes knowledge of math HL you should either:-know the math HL content before you begin-learn the math HL as you go and do discrete and sets first, linear algebra before geometry (but ideally learn some matrix stuff before everything else), calculus and stats obviously after the corresponding core material.The second option is obviously more feasible, but if you are doing FM, learn some HL material before you start (at least induction), it will help a lot. Edited June 25, 2014 by ssy 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpcrema27 Posted June 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 My teacher taught me vectors and matrices at the IB HL level already this year, but is it enough or should i learn more stuff? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaifyanre Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 My teacher taught me vectors and matrices at the IB HL level already this year, but is it enough or should i learn more stuff?Matrices, proof by induction and algebra (as you wrote various math contests I don't think it will be a problem) should be enough for discrete and sets. I'm not exactly sure but that seems like all.Some vectors should be enough for linear algebra and therefore geometry (again since you wrote math contests I'm assuming some out-of-MYP-or-many-other-pre-IB-system knowledge, eg some geometry).However, for calculus and stats, you need knowledge of the corresponding core topics. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpcrema27 Posted June 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 I already know the "proof by induction", which i needed for the competitions. This is a little off topic, but have you ever heard of the IMO (International Math Olympiad). I think i have a chance of getting into my countries team, but it will take a lot of effort. Do you think it is worth trying/does the competition count towards college applications (USA/UK)? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SNJERIN Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 Well, if you know "proof by induction" then you probably have covered some of the core topic *Algebra* in math higher level, which is really cool, However to actually achieve good marks at math further you need to do lots of core topics in math hl, like Trig/logs/exp functions and some calculus parts. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpcrema27 Posted June 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 Well, if you know "proof by induction" then you probably have covered some of the core topic *Algebra* in math higher level, which is really cool, However to actually achieve good marks at math further you need to do lots of core topics in math hl, like Trig/logs/exp functions and some calculus parts. I have also already done logarithms and trigonometry, but i dont know if i have covered it all. What do you have to know from trig ? Cosine Rule, Sine Rule, SOH CAH TOA (sin=opp/hypo, cos=adj/hypo, tan=opp/adj)- is this enough? And what exactly is exponential functions? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SNJERIN Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 You seem to have covered about 20% of it. You need to know how to graph sin(x), cos(x), tan(x), csc(x) , sec(x) and cot(x) as well as inverse functions and solving trig equations. That is for precalculus. Then you need to memorise lots of tirg identities, they arent hard though Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SNJERIN Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 exponential functions are when you have a constant *a* raised to a changing power *x* so :- f(x)= a^x. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flinquinnster Posted June 26, 2014 Report Share Posted June 26, 2014 I already know the "proof by induction", which i needed for the competitions. This is a little off topic, but have you ever heard of the IMO (International Math Olympiad). I think i have a chance of getting into my countries team, but it will take a lot of effort. Do you think it is worth trying/does the competition count towards college applications (USA/UK)? Getting into your national IMO team would definitely, definitely help towards college/university applications in both the USA and UK. Granted that if you didn't apply to a mathematics-related subject it wouldn't be that useful - but still good in showing general extra-curricular involvement, but since you seem to have a pretty solid interest in the STEM area it would be great in demonstrating specific interest and ability in maths. Even if you didn't necessarily make it onto the national team, the process of preparing for it and any potential training/camps that you would attend would be excellent to talk about in any of the many essays that you have to write for any application. I don't necessarily have an informed opinion on this, but I think it might actually be more impressive to participate in the IMO (and obviously to aim to do well) than to have done Further Maths HL. Obviously, the most impressive thing would be to manage both Further Maths HL and IMO, but I'm guessing sometimes it would be hard to balance both! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaifyanre Posted June 26, 2014 Report Share Posted June 26, 2014 I already know the "proof by induction", which i needed for the competitions. This is a little off topic, but have you ever heard of the IMO (International Math Olympiad). I think i have a chance of getting into my countries team, but it will take a lot of effort. Do you think it is worth trying/does the competition count towards college applications (USA/UK)?Getting into IMO would be really, really great. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpcrema27 Posted June 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2014 (edited) " Getting into IMO would be really, really great. Even if you didn't necessarily make it onto the national team, the process of preparing for it and any potential training/camps that you would attend would be excellent to talk about in any of the many essays that you have to write for any application. "I am doing the POTI (Polo Olimpico de Treinamento Intensivo) which is an extra course (free) from the government directed to olympic level math and to get in it you have to apply and to do a test. Is it enough or should i try the IMO. Also, do you guys think i should do Math HL for me to have more time to train for getting into the IMO?? Edited June 26, 2014 by Jpcrema27 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpcrema27 Posted June 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2014 Link: http://poti.impa.br/ Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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