Removal of Conics from Syllabus (3 Viewers)

[tacogym27101990]

tell them not to put multiple choice in the tests.

 

[buchanan]

Why?

..............

 

[qqmore]

imo multiple choice for maths is pretty stupid, its pretty easy for someone to dont know maths at all to guess 1 correct
.......... something applies true and false.

 

[buchanan]

The President of MANSW has proclaimed in the June 2008 Secondary Newsletter that "MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS WILL BE PART OF ALL THREE CALCULUS COURSES".

MANSW is also holding a meeting on June 14 at 1:30 – 4:30pm, Kent Road Public School, Eastwood, for their submission to the Calculus courses, which I will also be attending. Would you also like me to advise MANSW that not everyone agrees that multiple choice should be in the calculus exams?

 

[pLuvia]

The President of MANSW has proclaimed in the June 2008 Secondary Newsletter that multiple-choice questions "WILL BE PART OF ALL THREE CALCULUS COURSES".

MANSW is also holding a meeting on June 14 at 1:30 – 4:30pm, Kent Road Public School, Eastwood, for their submission to the Calculus courses, which I will also be attending. Would you also like me to advise MANSW that not everyone agrees that multiple choice should be in the calculus exams?

Or since people disagree with the fact that in MC you can guess without any penalty why not put a penalty? Like in the AMC competitions etc.

 

[buchanan]

Have MC like the AMC?

Is the HSC a competition? If so then how are results reliable and valid in the context of standards referencing?

They aren't.

So here's a MC for you.

Vested interests are at play here. Choose which of the following are correct.

A. Cost cutting. Thousands of tax-payer dollars are spent on HSC marking every year. Making some of it MC will cut costs.

B. Hills Grammar School (with their heavy emphasis on extracurricular mathematics of DE's) having somewhat of an over-representation on the BCC, the writing brief and draft syllabus.

C. Some, and I emphasise only some, academics, pushing for conics to be abolished. Why? It doesn't prepare them for uni? Well what about Paul Ayres' submission recommending that university statisticians want more calculus to be taught in schools, not statistics? And how about some submissions suggesting that senior school would prepare students better for uni by doing linear algebra instead? Their submissions have been ignored.

D. Margaret Bigelow doesn't want to abolish General Maths despite good advice to do so.

How dare anyone suggest that General Maths is 3 years of year 10. How dare anyone suggest General Maths is what you do when you are not doing maths. How dare anyone suggest that it's all about keeping kids off the streets?

Keep the retention rates high to keep the politicians happy and this passes for good curriculum content? Well as far as John Della-Bosca is concerned it does. Most mathematicians in the world remain blissfully ignorant of the existence of such a course.

Of course, if over 50% of students do General Maths it could be said that the Syllabus is more of a political document than a mathematical one.

E. Anti-SGS and anti-Coroneos phenomena. Dovetailing the HSC exams has caught up with SGS and with Coroneos. Now it's the barbarian's and the philistine's opportunity for revenge.

F. None of the above. At your peril.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

would agree with putting some linear algebra in the hsc and that general maths = year 10.

 

[kurt.physics]

would agree with putting some linear algebra in the hsc and that general maths = year 10.

general mathematics does = 3 years of year 10 maths.

 

[Slidey]

The President of MANSW has proclaimed in the June 2008 Secondary Newsletter that "MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS WILL BE PART OF ALL THREE CALCULUS COURSES".

That's absolutely disgraceful.

 

[kurt.physics]

That's absolutely disgraceful.

agreed!

 

[Boxxxhead]

HSC Maths is going downhill, fellas.

And general maths is more than a joke. I also cannot stand people who struggle in general who would say "I'd go go0d iin maFs iif ii trii3d l0lz," because regardless of effort, general maths really is easy... if you can't do general, you're in mathematical strife.

 

[Trebla]

I guess it really depends on whether you want to favour the upper end or the lower end of the student cohort.
Those at the upper end, would probably want the course to be harder and more challenging and those at the lower end might want the course to be easier.

I myself don't really support multiple choice questions because they don't accurately assess a student's knowledge of mathematics since there is no working marked.
A student who can solve the question but makes a silly error in a multiple choice question would NOT be distinguished from a student who is completely unable to do the same question in this section.
The only way the two can be distinguished is if working is marked, since one would show appropriate working and the other would not.

From the perspective of students in the upper end, it is a very bad idea, but from the perspective of students in the lower end it may work in their favour...

 

[samwell]

i think statistics will be the worst replacement for conics. they should remove another topic instead of conics. the only gay thing about conics is the long algebra. Good luck for the people who are gonna do it in 2-3 yrs time.

 

[Trebla]

Other than the new exam format, I support the majority of the changes (contentwise) in the proposed new syllabus, except for the removal of Harder 3 Unit. I particularly support differential equations being introduced...

 

[Iruka]

They are only introducing DEs in a very wishy-washy way. And the introduction of difference equations, the way it is suggested at the moment, makes very little sense, either.

 

[Slidey]

Really? I'm rather fond of the idea of the addition of differential equations and difference equations to the syllabus, especially if both are added together and their relationship is shown.

 

[Psychokiller]

what the hell are conics? i havent heard of them in 1.5 years of uni maths?

 

[Iruka]

Well Slidey, the discrete logistic equation is in the proposed 3u syllabus, but the continuous version isn't. Why? because you can't solve it without using partial fractions, which are also not in the 3u syllabus. It is all very ad-hoc. I don't think it makes much sense.

 

[Eisadia]

A long way behind on this conversation, but needed to put my two cents in. I did my HSC last year. did 4U math. Loved it to death. it was stressful and i wasnt a genius, but conics was conceptually relevant - i believe that. and statistics classes are a joke.

hated statistics throughout my school life. doing uni stats isnt quite as bad i guess, because it appears that you crunch real numbers...

Much of the maths taught at highschool is mildly pointless - i truly believe that some general students and pre-yr 11/12 students should learn things other than how to draw a box and whiskers plot. not everyone stays on, and those that dont need to absorb knowledge of real-world relevence

But changing the syllabus.... i dont know. All the school syl. are so political anyway...
Im sad they are losing conics, and fiddling with the harder 3U topic. hopefully what they put in will be equally stimulating...

yeah...

 

[kurt.physics]

Maybe we should make a partition? If we get enough, then it will stay the same?