HSC Maths Exam Gets an F for Failing Our Students (1 Viewer)

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if you really want to make extension more acessible, introduce concepts like calculus in earlier years without expecting students to master it in in two years. instead of teaching y = mx+b in year 7, teach f(x) = mx+b, so functions are introduced earlier and can lead to faster development. if this were the case, hsc maths would expand for new topics however i dont think confidence would be such an issue. the questions students do in year 9 and 10 do not require as much working as later years, so fostering that gradual development of more complex problem solving over time is another way to fix the issue.

edit: a bit more on the younger years, correct me if I'm wrong but i think students in year 7 now spend a topic on roman numerals? like are you effing kidding me, this is why their algebra is so crap
I've always wondered why maths advanced wasn't the lowest level of maths when it's considered the general level of mathematics all students are expected to reach in other countries (then again, our numeracy/literacy levels in this country are pretty low compared to others in the developed world). Algebra and functions should be taught much earlier and consolidated much earlier, so calculus can be introduced in y10, at least.

And yes roman numerals is a topic apparently. I thought that was a primary school topic. I feel like some of those topics taught in Year 7 felt like a waste of time; when I was in Year 7 I was taught binary numbers and I still do not understand its usefulness. And in my friend's sister's school (comprehensive), apparently algebra was not even introduced to them.
 

notme123

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I've always wondered why maths advanced wasn't the lowest level of maths when it's considered the general level of mathematics all students are expected to reach in other countries (then again, our numeracy/literacy levels in this country are pretty low compared to others in the developed world). Algebra and functions should be taught much earlier and consolidated much earlier, so calculus can be introduced in y10, at least.

And yes roman numerals is a topic apparently. I thought that was a primary school topic. I feel like some of those topics taught in Year 7 felt like a waste of time; when I was in Year 7 I was taught binary numbers and I still do not understand its usefulness. And in my friend's sister's school (comprehensive), apparently algebra was not even introduced to them.
far out man. its not even an issue with staffing cuz I'm 10000% sure the teachers have the capability to teach algebra and functions so there's like no excuse why these concepts cant be brought forward. its just the system in Australia which lets individual states manage education is super inefficient and slow to change
 

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POV: kurt when he hears that his students cannot keep up


***
On a serious note, it's not healthy to disregard stress. I don't believe that primary school students should have academic anxiety for anything at all - not for naplan, the selective test or anything in spite of what parents say, because it honestly won't matter in the long run. So I humbly disagree with your essay above.
I just don’t care in general, simply because I know how stupid it is to become stressed for any reason.
If it’s for no reason however, then that person should learn how to live life for what it really is, (potential and decision making), rather than be so reactive to the things that are outside of you.
After all, you will become disappointed if you hold expectations on things that are not yourself.
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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Bro nedom and auz. B6 for those essays idk if they did hsc english catchups here but gratz Mod C looking quite good. Might have to give the SR to nedom tho
 

Ian TGW

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I'm really not bothered anymore (you can say I'm a wuss or just a sore loser, don't really care, was just trying to argue against you cause discussion, even if slightly agressive, is quite interesting to me)

Anyways, why do you feel the need to force shit down people's throats and ask for validation for what you believe in. Belief is power, yes, if people follow a certain system then it has worth, it has value and can bring about order even if it is shit. People have as much right to hating something as they have to liking something. If people are only allowed to say they like something, and not be able to hate something, then where is the freedom of speech that the western world preaches.

'Simply adding meaning' is not what always occurs, but when an author is dead, and there are no notes to show the meaning of their work, who is to say that any line in their work is definitely pointing in a certain direction other than the surface level or the obvious.

You can say I'm a sheep following the crowd, and yes I would agree, cause as a human person, we dislike change. I prefer order and predictability.

The non-heterosexual (don't know if this term is correct) community which only accounts for a very small percentage of the world, I find it quite frustrating that modern society feels that you have to validate other people's values (being LGBTQ... was known, or still is idk, as gender dysphoria, mental delusion, medical condition, now it is seen as normal). Respect isn't like candy on Halloween, you don't just give it out to people, it's earned. If somebody doesn't respect you for who you are because of your values or your actions, so be it, end of story. If you want their respect, you should change, not ask others to change to conform to you. There's no "You gotta do this, you gotta do that, cause this this this". Just stop. You don't have the right/power to dictate what others are supposed to feel or do.

Going back to depression and whatnot. Just because you 'feel' that emotions are important, doesn't mean it is for everyone. You value it so much but do you understand the nature of feelings. 感情才是这世界最残忍的东西。You both hold on so desparately to these so called human characteristics, but do you understand what is true human nature. For sure music, art etc. are used to pass on information and tradition within one group/ethinity, but that's just one aspect of humans. Do you also understand that people can kill others in order to survive? Before the civilised ways of modern world there were territorial practices (don't do history, not sure if correct term) and people would go to war, even within their own country (just look at China's history, not really one country, but descended from the same moderately recent ancestor). Humans value survival, and they are also greedy, with them willing to kill others to attain what they want (with history being a testament to this fact). Don't go off saying you want to be human and not understand that humans aren't all that great. We kill animals for our own benefit, and mass reproduce them to eat them. If you eat meat, do you understand how your meat got there? Have you ever looked your food in the eye and plunged a knife into them? Maybe not a cow, cause it's not that easy to acess them in Australia, but how about a chicken or duck. Have you caught a fresh animal and put it in boiling water to kill it and then remove its feathers before cooking it? Stop being oblivious of what being human can encompass.
Music is fire 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
 

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I just don’t care in general, simply because I know how stupid it is to become stressed for any reason.
If it’s for no reason however, then that person should learn how to live life for what it really is, (potential and decision making), rather than be so reactive to the things that are outside of you.
After all, you will become disappointed if you hold expectations on things that are not yourself.
Unfortunately we live in the real world rather than a perfect world, and stress does exist for the vast majority of people - and this isn’t changing anytime soon.
 

morphious2

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Definitely agree with notme123 and idkkdi. (Didn't really wanna write up a whole ass essay to post so I didn't really cover many aspects in my first comment)

To build on idkkdi's comments:
I don't know if this is just me being depressed, edgy or just simply 'Asian parent' mindset, but I don't really believe there is such thing as a childhood. More often than not, there are many parents/people (probably not Asian, hahaha) that advocate for children to have a proper childhood and thus use that as a foundational argument for the need to maintain the status quo of the Australian education system of being a relaxed one. But what is a proper childhood? How much does one even remember from their childhood? There are certainly things that evoke nostalgia, such as toys, food (especially from a loved one), games or a location, etc., but how many of the memories that accompany them are actually vivid, and/or we can say that encompassed a long X amount of years my childhood, where we can actually identify the value of X. What I'm trying to get at is that the Australian culture of being lax is certainly what makes the country great and very much enjoyable, but that doesn't mean that it should be applied to every aspect, certainly not the education of the children that are the country's future (in China, students are referred to as "祖国的花朵,国家的栋梁“, "flowers of the country, the pillars of the country" translated, referring to the hope in students as the country invests into them (like flowers that need maintenance/catering for) as they will become pillars of the country, but also a flower being symbolic of youth and hope/brightness).

If children in a country like China (chose cause I am the most familiar with it in the Asia region) are still able to have a 'childhood' even though many are forced/pushed into extracurricular activities, it goes to show that you do not require the many years which Australian children have to actually attain a childhood. Through the 'sacrifice' (if it even counts as one - which idkkdi also commented on) of some time in junior years to develop an understanding of the fields that awaits them, students can actually attain a proper foundational understanding of what they may want to do in university to lessen the impact from the escalation of difficulty between high school and university. It also will stop some people from wasting years of uni jumping between courses because they didn't really understand what they were getting into, or just didn't truly know what they enjoy.

On the topic of stress. Personally, don't really care. This may come across as quite extreme, but I think emotions only come in the way of efficiency (yes, empthay ties with morals and ethics, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). If a person is passionate about something they will dedicate themselves to it, and typically, desire is quite an unstoppable force. This may not be always true, but "No pain. No gain".
W take
 

idkkdi

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feel like i'm reading the manifesto of my asian father hahahaha. let's just let kids kill themselves because we compare our high school exams to hyper-competitive nations.

Definetely agree that the sciences in HSC is a snooze. We should be teaching calculus based for physics 10000000%.

I think some people in this thread generally lack humanity and empathy, and seem to be fine with kids killing themselves over an exam. "University rankings are bullshit", and yet, so many chinese students come here to study.

I'm genuinely appalled by the complete lack of foresight in some of you. I came to this country so my entire life wouldn't be decided on a report card, and so that I wouldn't spend 12 hours every day at cram schools. This education system which breeds in China and Korea are simply manifestations of a growing, materialistic and hyper-capitalistic mindset. (Before you say China is communist... please read up.) Kids can live a good, meaningful fruitful life if they get a 30 atar, or a 99.95 atar, because our entire societal structure isn't dependent on our exams.

on another note... early offers need to go.
University rankings are absolutely absolutely bullshit. In what universe is anu umelb usyd unsw uq all ranked above Carnegie Mellon (arguably the best cs program in the world), LSE (possibly the best business uni in the UK) and Brown University (Ivy League). Check qs rankings 2023. There’s way more egregious examples that I cbs to find. go to most countries in the world and say ur from unsw or uq. They won’t even know what part of the world you’re from.
 

Anaya R

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Yes, the main problem is the culture of not putting in effort. Perhaps there is something to be gained from deleting standard subjects, and other easier subjects to force people to attempt harder ones.
Lower retention rates could be good, if balanced properly against increasing the average ability of the people who are retained.

Yes the lower years is an absolute problem. Primary schools should be improved. Teaching is way too lax in junior years. Science and maths should be properly introduced and taught to build solid fundamentals, from which Yr12 STEM can be made harder. I'm sure the sacrifice that comes with actually learning during junior years (if that is a sacrifice) can be made up for by the smoother transition.
There's quite a few of you who have already said it, but I think culture has contributed to this a fair amount.
From what I've seen, I feel like there's not a lot of appreciation for education and its entailments in our Australian culture. This explains why teachers are often undervalued and over-exerted (teaching is somewhat perceived as a lesser job - something I've seen/experienced as a training teacher - even though they can make or break a child's future) and non-traditional tertiary education systems (e.g. TAFE or colleges) are seen as a joke.

Parental culture also plays a part into this - if your parents are proactive in your education, you're more likely to succeed in it.
I'm not saying all parents (especially those who breathe down their kids' necks for studying 24/7) are going to give their children a better chance at success, nor am I denying that there are kids who study and succeed even though their parents are 100% uninterested in what their child(ren) does. But parents can provide a culture that sets up their kid for success if they're willing to help them with the fundamentals like reading, times tables, etc in primary school*. It really does make a difference and you can notice it. (The dilemma comes in when you have parents who have little to no time to do so, whether that be due to work or because they don't care).

*In secondary school, or even from year 5 onwards, parents shouldn't have to make their children study. They should (hopefully) be mature enough to realise that it's up to them to learn.
(Also yes I do realise this doesn't have much to do with the thread at hand but the topic spurned me idk)
 

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Unfortunately we live in the real world rather than a perfect world, and stress does exist for the vast majority of people - and this isn’t changing anytime soon.
Well, just letting you know, stress really is a choice, you just have to understand what I really mean when I say that.
Forget everything you know, and reflect on your pure self during childhood, (if you can remember. And if not, then try and grow a level of sensitivity/empathy to feel the emotions of anyone you see - which is possible - so that way you can live as a child through another child. Simple observation.).
 

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Honestly, I’m so sick of the god damn excuse that “we live in the real world”.
I’ve been through so many different experiences to know just what is and isn’t possible, (surprise surprise, anything is possible).
 

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Honestly, I’m so sick of the god damn excuse that “we live in the real world”.
I’ve been through so many different experiences to know just what is and isn’t possible, (surprise surprise, anything is possible).
This includes of course even being able to become someone who can go from sad and depressed, to someone who matters in even the grand scheme of things.
It all starts with the removal of identity. As a child, surely the one thing you can remember is the fact of how little you reasoned with the things you enjoyed, right?
Apply that lack of logic towards your values, and there, you will be truly living, no longer in your head, for you are your experiences, not whatever idea you have for what makes up yourself.
 

d1zzyohs

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bunch of edgelords in here saying stress is a choice like their some demi gods hahaha

anyone struggling out there, stress isn't a choice and is a primordial response to overwhelming tasks.
This includes of course even being able to become someone who can go from sad and depressed, to someone who matters in even the grand scheme of things.
It all starts with the removal of identity. As a child, surely the one thing you can remember is the fact of how little you reasoned with the things you enjoyed, right?
Apply that lack of logic towards your values, and there, you will be truly living, no longer in your head, for you are your experiences, not whatever idea you have for what makes up yourself.
lighten up bud. you're stressing me out with your 1930's overt nihilism.
 

Nedom

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Yes i completely agree
Personally, I think they should raise the salary of Biology teachers in particular to around 300k fr fr
Personally, I didn't choose Biology, cause I wasn't interested in it, and was always told that it was rote learning. Is this true for the subject in the HSC? If the answer is 'Yes', why make their pay so high, what are they being paid to do? (or was that clearly a joke and I'm getting r/woosh ed)
 

carrotsss

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Well, just letting you know, stress really is a choice, you just have to understand what I really mean when I say that.
Forget everything you know, and reflect on your pure self during childhood, (if you can remember. And if not, then try and grow a level of sensitivity/empathy to feel the emotions of anyone you see - which is possible - so that way you can live as a child through another child. Simple observation.).
I completely understand that to an extent however I also understand that the majority of the population doesn’t understand that and will experience stress, and hell even if you do understand that its impossible to entirely prevent stress from occurring, you can only mitigate it so much as stress is a chemical thing which is not entirely in the control of your conscious mind
 

carrotsss

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Yes i was kidding.

However, Biology as a subject has a lot of memorisation. Obviously, this would be stupid to make an exam made of memorisation. NESA actually did a master class when creating the biology HSC. They made the exam 90% understanding instead of memorisation. Where you are given stimulus-based questions that get you to apply to your knowledge rather than spew out memorised jargon.

Writing super difficult exam questions in itself is a skill in biology. The really phenomenal thing about biology is unlike the other sciences. Even if your truly an expert there will always be a way a question is twisted that even you can't answer. There's an infinite number of possibilities

For example, if you take a look at this exam, https://hivatutoring.gumroad.com/l/hivabiologyexam
It incorporates some of the most difficult questions possible from the hsc syllabus
The shameless promo 🤣
 

Nedom

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Yes i was kidding.

However, Biology as a subject has a lot of memorisation. Obviously, this would be stupid to make an exam made of memorisation. NESA actually did a master class when creating the biology HSC. They made the exam 90% understanding instead of memorisation. Where you are given stimulus-based questions that get you to apply to your knowledge rather than spew out memorised jargon.

Writing super difficult exam questions in itself is a skill in biology. The really phenomenal thing about biology is unlike the other sciences. Even if your truly an expert there will always be a way a question is twisted that even you can't answer. There's an infinite number of possibilities

For example, if you take a look at this exam, https://hivatutoring.gumroad.com/l/hivabiologyexam
It incorporates some of the most difficult questions possible from the hsc syllabus
Nah, *crying*, the link is to a paid resource. All good, I understand your point cause a person I know told me about how some of the biology questions are like English in that there can be multiple solutions (something like that), where there isn't just one specific answer, and it is hard to actually predict/determine your raw mark as opposed to the other sciences which there is a more specific rubric/criteria.
 

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