Mystery emailer VS has alerted me, that the VCE exam reports have been published (Word, idiots):
*) Methods Exam Report 1 and Exam Report 2 (and exam 1, exam 2, marking guide 1, marking guide 2)
*) Specialist Exam Report 1 and Exam Report 2 (and exam 1, exam 2, marking guide 1, marking guide 2)
*) General Exam Report 1 and Exam Report 2 (and exam 1, exam 2, marking guide 1, marking guide 2)
*) Foundation Exam Report (and exam and marking guide)
The University of Melbourne appealed the FWC decision. The appeal decision was handed down on 04/09/26: the UoM lost their appeal and have been ordered to reinstate Owczarek. There are things to say about this decision but I won’t unless and until it seems appropriate to do so.
The Australian has a vicious and voyeuristic report on the FWC decision.
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Last month, just as Christmas was crashing in, Professor Moira O’Bryan, the Dean of Science at the University of Melbourne, found it “necessary” to email all staff at the School of Mathematics and Statistics. Why? Well, it all began a year ago. Or, four years ago, depending upon how you count. But let’s begin a year ago. Continue reading “Power Games at the University of Melbourne”
Obviously, I’ve been having fun lately, beating the crap out of VCAA Version 2022 (which may or may not resemble VCAA Version 2025). This post is also on exams and exam writing, at least in part, but not in the same crap-beating manner. It’s more of a puzzle for me. Continue reading “The True Value of Words”
In 2022, David Leigh-Lancaster and Kaye Stacey had an article published:
Evolution over Two Decades of CAS-Active Senior Secondary Mathematics Curriculum and Assessment
I stumbled across the article a year ago, pondered for a year what to do with it, and I’ve finally decided: give up. Life is simply too short to address all that is annoying and wrong with the article, so I’m simply putting the thing here as a WitCH and people can do what they want. Or nothing. I don’t care. I’ve read the damn thing three times, which is four times too many, and I just don’t care. Continue reading “WitCH 143: David and Kaye’s Excellent CAS Adventure”
This post continues on from the two previous posts, whacking VCAA’s internal response to Burkard’s and my critique of 2022 exam questions. This post will consider VCAA’s response to poorly written questions (part 5). It is, thank God, our last post on VCAA’s response.
Continue reading “VCAA’s Responses to Poorly Written 2022 Exam Questions”
This continues on from the previous post, where we whacked VCAA’s internal response to Burkard’s and my critique of 2022 exam questions with minor mathematical issues (part 3). This post considers questions Burkard and I identified as being poorly conceived (part 4).
Continue reading “VCAA’s Responses to Poorly Conceived 2022 Exam Questions”
Yes, we’re back in Red Rock West. For months, I’ve been bugged by VCAA’s internal response to Burkard’s and my critique of the 2022 exams. The thing is too unwieldy to warrant publishing as a whole, is replete with non sequiturs, statistical smokescreens and whatnot. Indeed, VCAA’s entire response amounts to a non sequitur Gish. I’ve been struggling to figure out what to do with it and I’ve decided to pretty much just go for it, in three separate posts.
Continue reading “VCAA’s Responses to the Minor 2022 Exam Issues”
A few years ago, before having introduced the secret exam business and the exam error lists, I posted a WitCH on a question from the previous year’s Specialist Exam 1. For me, there was a glaring issue with the question. It turned out that the commenters, while noting other clunky aspects, could not see this issue. Now my commenters includes, of course, the smartest maths teachers around, and so I was puzzled.1 So much so, that I checked the question with some mathematicians. As I wrote in a comment,
When my daughter Eva was a little over 3, I decided to try to take her to a musical, Anything Goes, which was then showing in Melbourne. This was ambitious, if not utterly foolhardy, and I figured to first show Eva a movie of the musical so that she would be more familiar with the story and the music. It was a good plan and it turned out to be impossible to implement. It also clearly didn’t matter: even with the excellent singing and dancing, Eva was simply too young for such an event and we didn’t stay long.1
