What kind of SAC's could I expect for Further Maths?

[ebay5505]

and what would be the best to go about studying/preparing for them?

[vce01]

there will be a long SAC on your core material (mine went for 10 classes) and one for each of your modules. it'll just be like your normal maths tests....except its a SAC and you get to use a cheat sheet.

as for preparation, make sure you're set with your calculator and just practise questions from your text book.

[ReVeL]

Yeah, at my school we had a 7 class SAC on statistics, followed by the remaining 3 SAC's that were in test format.

When preparing, ensure your book of notes is up to date and contains relevant information. Do not put things you don't need (eg. examples of pythagoras's theorem) because it just makes it too hard to find particular information.

Make sure you have mastered the use of your calculater. This includes getting as many programs as you can, which help in double checking answers and are very time efficient.

My text book (essential) provided decent questions I thought, but to go further there are Checkpoints which have past exam questions and which I borrowed from a friend and found quite helpful.

Hope that helped and good luck.

[doboman]

Heres what to expect for the first SAC (95% of schools do it)

SACs:

The first Further Math's SAC Is no doubt the worst SAC you'll have to complete In year 12. Although all schools do It differently, the most common Core SAC runs for approximately 10 lessons, In which you have to analyze data, and present It In differing formats (box plots, graphs ect). It Is mentally draining, but you must ensure that you stay on top of your game- or else you might not get time to finish.

The rest of the SACs are quite normal, and may compromise of chapter tests, or whole sac papers.

The SACs In FM are worth 34% of your final study score, so don’t slack off.

FM SAC 1:

(Description copied from a VCAA guide)

The outcomes for Unit 3 are:
Outcome 1
Define and explain key terms and concepts as specified in the content from the areas of study, and use this knowledge to apply related mathematical procedures to solve routine application problems.
Outcome 2
Use mathematical concepts and skills developed in the ‘Data analysis’ area of study to analyse a practical and extended situation, and interpret and discuss the outcomes of this analysis in relation to key features of that situation.
Outcome 3
Select and appropriately use technology to develop mathematical ideas, produce results and carry out analysis in situations requiring problem-solving, modelling or investigative techniques or approaches in the area of study ‘Data analysis’ and the selected module from the ‘Applications’ area of study.
Tasks
In Unit 3 students complete an application task and an analysis task.
Description
A data analysis application task using contexts for investigation from a suitable data set selected by the teacher. The task has three components of increasing complexity:
·   display and organisation of univariate and bivariate data
·   consideration of general features of the data
·   analysis of the data such as regression analysis, the use of transformations to linearity, deseasonalisation, smoothing, or analysis of time series.
and
An analysis task for the first selected module. This may be
·   an assignment where students have the opportunity to work on a broader range of problems in a given context; or
·   a short and focused investigation, challenging problem or modelling task; or
·   a set of application questions requiring extended response analysis in relation to a particular topic or topics; or
·   item response analysis for a collection of multiple-choice questions, including analysis of item distractors and their relationship to conceptual, process or reasoning error.

In lay-man terms, this is what’s going to happen in the SAC. You’re going to be presented with THIS data (if anybody wants it, just PM me) and instructed to do various manipulations of it. So what’s going to proceed is, you will se your calculator to RANDOMLY select (I think, but not sure on the number) 20 different countries which you will go on to draw box plots, scatter plots, residual plots, 3median line, line best fit, correlation coefficient..and so on. This will be around 7 lessons worth, and is 20% of your Further Study Score - so take it seriously.
So, on your first SAC you will have this data to:

1.   Create a box-plot
2.   create a scatter-plot
3.   create residual plots
4.   Analyse trends in data
5.   Analyse the three median line, as well as the line best fit…and make a decsison on which method is more efficient (according to R, and Rsqueared values)
6.   write a clear, and cogent piece of analysis that analyses every single aspect of the data (out-liers, Q1, Q3 ect)
7.   If necessary, make transformation to the data.


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If anyone wants the data spread, let me know

[nerd]

Does every school use the same data? How does that work?

[doboman]

yes every (almost) school uses the same data. because u will select the data randomly. as in, they give u a paper of 100 pieces of data, and u randomly pick 20 (CALC PROGRAM) so no cheating is involved either.

[nerd]

Ohhh...awesome. doboman, can you send me the data spread? that would be great! i'll pm you my email address.

[steph753]

doboman could you please also send me the data spead. my email should be in my profile. thanks heaps

[dior1]

That's great! Doboman, could you please send me the data spread?

[doboman]

doboman could you please also send me the data spead. my email should be in my profile. thanks heaps

That's great! Doboman, could you please send me the data spread?

I'll need your emails to send them over. Please PM them to me.

[steph753]

Thanks for the data spread

[doboman]

Thanks for the data spread

Glad i can help. Good luck in '09.