'Stupid' Exam Questions

[chocolatechipcookies]

First: if you wrote out the general formula in full, then simplified, I think you'd be fine.

Second: Look, it's in the study design, but I really do not see how methods could use them... Even for spec, they're on the formula sheet, I don't know why methods kids are expected to memorise them, particularly for the ones doing both. Just chuck 'em in your notes book and refer to that if you need to.

Ah thank you.

I asked my teacher if we needed to know them and she said yes but like I said I've never come across it.

If it came up in an exam 1...then

[Tasmania Jones]

Would we lose marks for not rationalising a denominator?

[keltingmeith]

Would we lose marks for not rationalising a denominator?

Only if they say "put it in the form "

[Reus]

If we use pencil on the exam does the whole exam need to be written with pencil? Or is it interchangeable with pen and pencil since I'm more comfortable using pencil with specific questions haha

[Tasmania Jones]

Only if they say "put it in the form "

Thanks

[Reus]

Thanks

PLEASE CHANGE YOUR USERNAME LOOOOOL

[keltingmeith]

If we use pencil on the exam does the whole exam need to be written with pencil? Or is it interchangeable with pen and pencil since I'm more comfortable using pencil with specific questions haha

That's... Extremely odd, and I'm judging you for it.
Nah, should be fine - I mean, if people can switch to a pencil because their pen runs out, I don't see why VCAA wouldn't let you swap between the two for some other reason.

[strawberries]

The answer is probably yes, but is this too much working out for one question?

[Zealous]

The answer is probably yes, but is this too much working out for one question?

If it's all correct then it's fine... but you could've cut it down to something like:







It was only a 2 mark question, so 1 mark for relevant working out and 1 mark for the correct answer. The examiners just want to see that you know what you're doing.

[Blondie21]

On the grade distribution thingo: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/statistics/2012/section3/vce_mathematical_methods_cas_ga12.pdf

Why is exam 1 /80 marks? Why isn't it 40?

Thanks

[keltingmeith]

On the grade distribution thingo: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/statistics/2012/section3/vce_mathematical_methods_cas_ga12.pdf

Why is exam 1 /80 marks? Why isn't it 40?

Thanks

The exam gets marked twice. Just like with English, different questions can have different interpretations. One marker might think, "hmm, that's an invalid way of answering the question. They can have 1/2 marks", but the other marker might think, "wow, that's brilliant! I never would have even thought of that, but it makes so much sense. 2/2 marks, easily!"

It's also to make sure one marker didn't miss something, so their two marks get added together. Presumably, if there's too much disparity, you exam will go to a third marker - that's highly unlikely in maths, though. At least, not as much as in essay-writing subjects.

(also, can confirm one marker might give you a mark, while another might not - I had odd marks for one of my specialist exam 2 questions)

[speedy]

I we can't figure out the first part to a consequential question, so continue on with a variable 'a' or whatever, if you later figure out the first part, can we just go "let a = answer" and just sub it in for the final solution? Or do we have to re-do all of the subsequent questions?

[faredcarsking123]

I we can't figure out the first part to a consequential question, so continue on with a variable 'a' or whatever, if you later figure out the first part, can we just go "let a = answer" and just sub it in for the final solution? Or do we have to re-do all of the subsequent questions?

Yeah need to know this!
Especially for example 2013 exam 2 for the last page

[GeniDoi]

Yeah need to know this!
Especially for example 2013 exam 2 for the last page

Sorry to destroy hopes but this wouldn't work on the question you are talking about on exam 2 2013. The problem is, the answer to the "lockout question" where you needed to find m in terms of k is ALGEBRAIC, and is not a simple number. Furthermore, its actually a function because its defined for 5 <= k =< 8. What that means is that any working you do for the question where you let a = "answer" is a simplification of the problem and a generalization.

It would be the equivalent of writing the answer to Q1 a) i) on every exam 1 (which is generally always a 2 mark product rule diff questions) as dy/dx = dy/du * du/dx and nothing more. You would never get marks for doing that even though its absolutely correct because its a generalized solution and VCAA wants an exact one.

That's why if you look at the mark percentages for the question, less than 10% got the marks for the rest of Q4, even though so many claim to have tried to get consequential marks.

Don't waste your time doing working on consequential questions that have an algebraic answer if you didn't get the answer to the lockout question, you will never receive any marks on them even if your working is 100% correct. You're far better off checking the rest of your paper if you've exhausted everything to try to figure out the lockout question to no avail.

[myanacondadont]

how 'dark' must the pencil be? Like are talkign about pressing ridiculously hard or will a soft touch with a HB work? So glad we can use pencil holy crap, I was stressing out that I'd run out of space if I made a mistake