Trends in HSC Mathematics Papers (1 Viewer)

[qawe]

I was wondering:

Are there any trends that have been occuring in the last few years to be aware of?

I'm considering things like: paper length, difficulty of paper (and various sections of the paper, esp. Q10), topics in various sections of paper (esp. Q10).

And what impact may these trends have on this year's paper? Can any reliable predictions be made about this, and has anyone heard any such predictions from experienced teachers/tutors (you may PM me if ur not comfortable posting here)?

Any guidance would be much appreciated

 

[qawe]

I guess this is kind of related to the previous thread: "Hardest HSC Advanced Mathematics Exam in the last 10 years?"
Except this thread centres around all years (roughly) post-2001

 

[Tavin]

I'd be interested in this too, as well as the thread I started down below

 

[K4M1N3]

Unfortunately i reckon that the papers are getting more and more easy. Mind you not by much though.

 

[bleakarcher]

hopefully multiple choice is going to be an advantage, not a disadvantage lol in the examz next yr and further on

 

[OldMathsGuy]

Any guidance would be much appreciated

The truth of the matter is that you cannot predict a thing. While a trend can be observed in hindsight who knows what the examiners are going to do from year to year.
Back in the early 90's, they had too many people attempting 4unit maths who were not suitable candidates and so the remedy at the time for this was to make the 2U exam harder.

Things have been pretty steady since then except for the odd aberration here and there (the 2003 Mathematics paper for example where three pages worth of Q10 required too much work for the average 2U student and 2006 for Extension 1 where the paper was longer than standard).

Overall the trend for 2U has been pretty steady for the last decade. Just do the past papers and you'll get a better understanding (as well as better study value) from that than reading what I have to say on the matter.

Best Regards
OldMathsGuy

 

[interesting]

The truth of the matter is that you cannot predict a thing. While a trend can be observed in hindsight who knows what the examiners are going to do from year to year.
Back in the early 90's, they had too many people attempting 4unit maths who were not suitable candidates and so the remedy at the time for this was to make the 2U exam harder.

Things have been pretty steady since then except for the odd aberration here and there (the 2003 Mathematics paper for example where three pages worth of Q10 required too much work for the average 2U student and 2006 for Extension 1 where the paper was longer than standard).

Overall the trend for 2U has been pretty steady for the last decade. Just do the past papers and you'll get a better understanding (as well as better study value) from that than reading what I have to say on the matter.

Best Regards
OldMathsGuy

+1, just like a true maths veteran..
& yeah i also heard they shortened the time? does that mean less questions or was it to substitute for the multiple choice

 

[MrBrightside]

I have noticed that in qs 9 or 10, there is a high chance of a qs being Loan repayments, probability or definitely geometry.

have also noticed that exam papers pre-2001 tended to ask questions more out of the ordinary, thus were harder. But 1999 if I recall correctly was pretty easy and 1998 was really hard. And I've heard people say 2005 was the hardest exam paper to date. :/

 

[interesting]

I have noticed that in qs 9 or 10, there is a high chance of a qs being Loan repayments, probability or definitely geometry.

have also noticed that exam papers pre-2001 tended to ask questions more out of the ordinary, thus were harder. But 1999 if I recall correctly was pretty easy and 1998 was really hard. And I've heard people say 2005 was the hardest exam paper to date. :/

it was 2006 ! D:

 

[MrBrightside]

it was 2006 ! D:

really? My tutor said 2005 was the hardest one and said that it was even in the news papers, I remember faintly, that it was somewhat challenging/different, but 2nd time round I really had not as many problems with it.

 

[qawe]

it was 2003:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/27/1067233102222.html

 

[OldMathsGuy]

+1, just like a true maths veteran..
& yeah i also heard they shortened the time? does that mean less questions or was it to substitute for the multiple choice

The time remains the same for all exams but as well as the 10 marks of multiple choice, the rest of the exams have been compressed in terms of marks:
Mathematics 120 marks to 100
Extension 1 84 marks to 70
Extension 2 120 marks to 100.
This tells me that since the time remains the same, there should still be a similar amount of "stuff" in each exam, but spread over fewer marks. This means that you are going to have to do more work for each of your marks. This will screw around a little with established marking formats, most likely accentuating the fact that 1 mark on question one takes a matter of seconds while 1 mark on the final question will be a matter of minutes. OR, there is going to be a shift in the nature of the questions. At the moment, this is all speculation because the board have not produced a sample paper, only the format. Suffice to say that I hate the idea of MC questions for the more serious maths courses.

Best Regards
OldMathsGuy