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tygyg1111

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I am more concerned about the level of mathematics in Australian high schools, which leaves a lot to be desired. You see a lot of first year kids dropping out of STEM in university for this very reason. Unless you went to an elite private school, Australian HS-level math generally does a poor job of preparing you for the rigor required in university.
I'd say the Australian 3 unit maths curriculum should be a minimum prerequisite for any engineering degree. 4 unit maths would be ideal, but you might be looking at a 4-5% participation / qualification rate at most schools.
 

56860

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I'd say the Australian 3 unit maths curriculum should be a minimum prerequisite for any engineering degree. 4 unit maths would be ideal, but you might be looking at a 4-5% participation / qualification rate at most schools.
The requirement for all STEM majors is a 'sound' performance in Math Methods. This is nowhere near enough to guarantee a quality candidate as uni math is significantly harder than HS math. It's actually a laughable requirement, which is why you have so many dropouts.
 

AndrewS

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The requirement for all STEM majors is a 'sound' performance in Math Methods. This is nowhere near enough to guarantee a quality candidate as uni math is significantly harder than HS math. It's actually a laughable requirement, which is why you have so many dropouts.

It's not just about doing higher level maths for a STEM major.

Having a high level of mathematical competancy would be beneficial for every single person as they go about their lives and have to make decisions about what to buy every day
 

ficker22

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I am more concerned about the level of mathematics in Australian high schools, which leaves a lot to be desired. You see a lot of first year kids dropping out of STEM in university for this very reason. Unless you went to an elite private school, Australian HS-level math generally does a poor job of preparing you for the rigor required in university.
Same here in germany
 

Coalescence

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It's not just about doing higher level maths for a STEM major.

Having a high level of mathematical competancy would be beneficial for every single person as they go about their lives and have to make decisions about what to buy every day
Not sure in what situations I would encounter in my life where I would need to use differential equations to solve the problem. But accounting mathematics for sure would be beneficial for day-to-day life for every individual.
 

56860

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Same here in germany
Yeah I think the big difference between eastern and western education systems lies pre-university. Whereas in the east kids get thrown into the pressure cooker very early, in the west it's easy sailing up until you get hammered by university. Western systems simply don't prepare kids for university because everything leading up to it is too damn easy. Not saying eastern universities aren't difficult, they are, but by that point kids are already used to it.
 

AndrewS

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Not sure in what situations I would encounter in my life where I would need to use differential equations to solve the problem. But accounting mathematics for sure would be beneficial for day-to-day life for every individual.

Not differentials.

Algebra to decide on two options, exponential growth (savings), statistical sampling for when you, probability, stats in general, along with a dose of physics on moving objects etc etc
 
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