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March 29, 2024, 08:02:22 pm

Author Topic: VCE Specialist Maths Exam Discussion  (Read 8430 times)

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SS1314

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Re: VCE Specialist Maths Exam Discussion
« Reply #15 on: November 09, 2021, 03:47:44 pm »
Anyone got any idea what the A+ cut off will be this year? 2019 A+ cutoff was 65/80 so im guessing its gonna be at least less than that.
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Orb

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Re: VCE Specialist Maths Exam Discussion
« Reply #16 on: November 09, 2021, 09:15:25 pm »
Anyone got any idea what the A+ cut off will be this year? 2019 A+ cutoff was 65/80 so im guessing its gonna be at least less than that.

I think in every year students tend to think their exam was the hardest year - often they don't end up being the case.

My personal hypothesis is that the graded distribution will be similar to 2019 - in terms of actual difficulty I don't think this year is any harder than 2019, i'd actually say it's reasonably easier from an exam difficulty perspective, than 2019.

The caveat is twofold:
1) 2021 SM students have had 2 years of COVID which will undoubtedly have impacted learning - resulting in comprehension and capability levels likely lower than those students in 2019 (on average) - not a reflection of overall student capability but rather that most students have had a very difficult two years which means that given the same exam, 2021 students likely to perform lower than 2019 students (hence leading to a lower graded distribution curve), and
2) Timing of this exam is much tighter than most years - which means that students would lose marks due to insufficient time relative to other years.

My prediction is 37-38/40 needed for an A+ in Exam 1 (decently easy) and a 64-66/80 needed for A+ in Exam 2, so roughly you'd need around a 102-104/120 for a 40 this year.
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Professor Polonsky

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Re: VCE Specialist Maths Exam Discussion
« Reply #17 on: November 10, 2021, 02:00:50 am »
I think in every year students tend to think their exam was the hardest year - often they don't end up being the case.
Very much this. I've been looking at VCE maths exams since 2012, and after almost every single exam you hear a chorus of "this exam was the hardest one yet", irrespective of its actual difficulty. The only time you don't hear it is if the exam was really easy.

The upside is that this barely matters. Except for extremely easy or difficult exams, the difficulty shouldn't affect your score. Take comfort from that, move on to the next exam, and keep working hard - you're almost at the finish line.

jazzycab

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Re: VCE Specialist Maths Exam Discussion
« Reply #18 on: November 12, 2021, 08:25:14 am »
I think in every year students tend to think their exam was the hardest year - often they don't end up being the case.

My personal hypothesis is that the graded distribution will be similar to 2019 - in terms of actual difficulty I don't think this year is any harder than 2019, i'd actually say it's reasonably easier from an exam difficulty perspective, than 2019.

As someone who taught Spec for 9 years (no longer in teaching), I agree with the sentiment that it wasn't necessarily harder than some exams from previous years.
Having said that, my initial thoughts were that it would have been incredibly challenging to complete within the prescribed time frame under exam conditions.
In order to nail it, I think you would have had to have found the most efficient solution to each question straight away.
In the comfort of my own home (with the distractions of children), within two hours of writing time, I managed to answer all of the extended response (with the exception of a few parts I'd asterisked to come back to - mostly due to working errors on my behalf), but only half of the MCQ. It took probably another hour to go back and fix my earlier mistakes and finish the remaining multiple choice.
Admittedly, I didn't answer everything super efficiently, but in the heat of the exam, I don't know how students are supposed to do o either.

PolySquared

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Re: VCE Specialist Maths Exam Discussion
« Reply #19 on: November 12, 2021, 12:10:13 pm »
What do you all think of these answers?

https://youtu.be/QlQabtUkcbA
2018:
Business Management (50)

2019:
English Language (43) - Chemistry (36) - Further Mathematics (42) - Specialist Mathematics (38) - Mathematical Methods (46)

ATAR: 99.65