Chelsea’s Tips For Acing HSC Maths

Meet our Mathematics Mentor: Chelsea

Trig is interesting as it’s one of the topics that I really struggled with at first in Year 11. I had to put a lot of time and effort into it to understand it, and it ended up becoming one of my favourite topics.

Meet our Talent 100 Mathematics Mentor, Chelsea!

ATAR:

99.15

High School:

Danebank Anglican School for Girls

HSC Subjects:

English Advanced, Mathematics Extension II, Chemistry, Studies of Religion I

What was your favourite subject in high school?

My favourite subject was Extension 2 Maths – it’s one of those subjects where you can put an endless amount of time into it. It’s very challenging but also intellectually stimulating.

I really like challenging things, especially at the moments of having epiphanies and revelations after working on a particularly hard question.

What inspired you to teach at Talent 100?

The main reason was first of all, because I liked it, and I also did very well in the HSC both externally and internally.

However, unfortunately, I don’t have many opportunities to apply my knowledge these days, especially in my degree. I thought tutoring would be a great opportunity to not let my knowledge go to waste, and pass on my experience to other students for their benefit.

After I graduated, I started off doing private tutoring, and joined Talent as a tutor last year.

I spoke to a friend who was tutoring at Talent, and he recommended I look into joining. My friend who recommended me was able to make many meaningful connections with his students, and always shared memories of his class which was very wholesome. I knew I wanted to do the same!

I also thought that rather than tutor 1:1 privately, it would be more time efficient to benefit an entire class of students, rather than just one to maximise the amount of value that I can deliver. In particular, in Term 1, I was fortunate to take on a class of twelve students. This was one of my best experiences. In the same three hours, I could share my knowledge with twelve other students.

RELATED: Daniel’s Journey to Pure Mathematics and HSC Study Tips

What are your favourite topics to teach?

I would say my favourite topics to teach are trig and functions.

I’m a visual person and enjoy using graphs to derive solutions. Trig is interesting as it’s one of the topics that I really struggled with at first in Year 11. I had to put a lot of time and effort into it to understand it, and it ended up becoming one of my favourite topics.

It was something that was really complicated, that I was able to master and know how to handle really well. My school teacher was able to help with this and to teach me different acronyms to help remember the content.

1 + tan^2(θ) = sec^2(θ); (a man plus a tan is sexy)

the second is:

1 + cot^2(θ) = cosec^2(θ); (a baby plus a cot is cozy)

There are so many little tricks that I’m really glad to pass onto other students.

What’s something people might not know about you?

I love performing, in particular dance!

I’ve been a dancer since I was 3 or 4 years old. I was born and raised in Beijing, back in middle school I competed in a cheerleading squad regionally and nationally.

In university, I’ve tried to pursue this artistically through university societies – in particular UNSW Law Revue. This is a sketch comedy show. In first year I was in the band as a pianist; in second and third year I was a cast member which included dancing, acting and singing; and in 2019 I was the Executive Producer and Treasurer of the Society, so I spent a lot of time working with them. Here, I was working up to 40 hours per week on the society, as well as full time university and part time work.

I would definitely recommend Year 12 students when they go into uni that it’s a completely different world. There are so many different people and so many different extracurricular activities to get involved in.

I know at UNSW there are hundreds of clubs and societies ranging from debating, to business, tea and coffee and even gaming societies. Obviously, it’s a little different because of COVID, but there’s so much room for you to find your passion and your home at university.

Click here to view our Talent 100 online timetables for Term 4, and enrol in one of Chelsea’s classes at Hurstville.