It’s all yours.
UPDATE (13/11/25)
VCAA has now posted the exam, here.
Continue reading “Secret 2025 General Business: Exam 1 Discussion”
Month: October 2025
New Zeal Lands Flat
There’s no time for this. I’m busy and the secret exam business begins tomorrow. But, when the blog gods call you gotta answer.
A couple days ago, I got a text from Jezza, flagging an article about some goings on in New Zealand. It seemed noteworthy enough, a continuation of the NZ maths ed battles that I wrote about a year ago. I decided to let it pass but the goings kept going on, and a news report I read today pushed it over the line. Continue reading “New Zeal Lands Flat”
Tutoring on the Edge
About a month ago, there were news reports here and there, sounding the alarm on the tutoring industry. The reports appear to have been inspired by the heavy promotion of a weightless paper by some University of Sydney education academics. Better, the reports also referred to the more thoughtful and interesting work of UTS education social scientist, Christina Ho. The alarm and the calls for “regulation” of the tutoring industry were not totally crazy but, as is typical with education coverage, the reports were fundamentally off-key. The obvious and fundamental point was barely touched upon. Continue reading “Tutoring on the Edge”
Calculators, VCAA and a Stupid, Conflicted MAV
A few weeks ago, I had a drive-by post on the MAV. This was in response to the MAV’s idiotic contribution to the Age‘s article on CAS and VCAA’s non-clearing of calculators for VCE exams. Of course the main culprit was VCAA, who demonstrated that they are speedily returning to their natural state of arrogance and incompetence. But no one should be letting the MAV off the hook. I indicated that I would return to them and, somewhat delayed by busyness and illness, I am now.
Continue reading “Calculators, VCAA and a Stupid, Conflicted MAV”
The Failed VCAA Revolution
A few years back, I was pondering how to bring about the desperately needed reform of Victorian mathematics education and, in particular, of VCE. I had been sermonising on the awfulness of VCE, and everything, for a good ten years, and blogging for five, and it all made zero difference. Not because anyone argued, or could have argued, against anything I said or wrote: my criticisms were obviously valid and obviously important. It made zero difference, however, because the arrogantly clueless VCAA, backed by His-Master’s-Voice MAV puppy, could simply ignore me. They did not give a damn about my opinion or about anybody else’s. But I wanted to do more than simply yell at the clouds. I came up with a plan. Continue reading “The Failed VCAA Revolution”
Ben Carroll Screws it Up on Teaching Degrees
This is a bit old but I’m not sure it got the attention it deserved. At least the formal announcement last month slipped me by.
A few months ago, The Age had a thoroughly idiotic article, on Western Australian teachers “exploiting a loophole” to be able to teach in Victoria. The article concerned Western Australia’s 2014 decision to reintroduce one-year teaching degrees, thus reneging on a national agreement that postgrad teaching degrees be two years. Then, since the States have mutual recognition agreements on teaching degrees, it meant that these 1-year WA teachers were qualified to teach in Victoria. Continue reading “Ben Carroll Screws it Up on Teaching Degrees”
Two Cheers for Ben Carroll’s Laptop Whack
Last week, the Victorian Premier’s office issued a media release:
Parents To Save Money On Students’ Digital Devices
The Premier chose to bury the lede, presumably because she surmised that idiot parents care more about whether their kid’s laptop is free than whether the cursèd thing is corrupting the kid’s education. Whatever. The Premier’s release eventually got to the important stuff:
From 2027, primary schools will benefit from updated guidance to help set sensible limits on device use in the classroom. This will mean that primary schools will be required to limit digital device use to a maximum of 90 minutes per day for students in Years 3-6, and minimal device time for those in Prep to Year 2.
Of course that “90 minutes” should be zero minutes, and the “minimal device time” should be zero device time. And, the Premier offers not a word on the systemic corruption that these “devices” cause in secondary schools. Nonetheless, one must applaud this semi-sanity.
It seems very likely that this semi-sanity is due to Ben Carroll, the Victorian Minister for Education. I am never going to warm to Carroll. He is a useless stooge for ACARA and he threw Kylie White under the bus, leading to VCAA being in the hands of the current nitwit. I am never going to forgive Carroll for his cowardly treatment of White and for dooming VCAA to a new reign of arrogance and incompetence. But it has to be said that Carroll is generally a very good education minister. He is generally concerned about the right things and he is generally looking to do the right things about them.
The Good(ish) AC K-2 News, the Bad AC Cycle News and the Ugly Mega-Agency News
Yesterday, Natasha BtB Bita had an interesting report (M, P). Bita reported Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare to the effect that the Australian Curriculum, which education ministers had previously agreed would be reviewed every six years, would now only be reviewed every ten years. Thus, the proper “root and branch” review of the AC will now only begin in 2028. Thus thus, we’re all stuck with the current stew of slop and insanity for many more years.
Continue reading “The Good(ish) AC K-2 News, the Bad AC Cycle News and the Ugly Mega-Agency News”
AI and the Death of the Mathematics Essay
Yes, the effect on mathematics writing is the least of our AI worries. This is a post I’d been pondering for a while, however, and a blinkered ABC report last week on Australian Catholic University and AI has spurred me to write it. Continue reading “AI and the Death of the Mathematics Essay”
VCAA’s Ludicrous Defence of CAS Programming for Exams
There is a lot to write about Tuesday’s Age article on CAS and exams. The article was good but it was long and somewhat confused, tending to muddle specific CAS-exam issues with the more general CAS debate.* On the day of the article, I took a quick whack at the MAV (as did Greg Ashman today), quoting a teacher-friend who emailed me and who was horrified by MAV’s contribution to the article (and generally). I will return to the MAV, and more general issues of the Age article, after some dust has settled, but of the course the main culprit is VCAA. Here, I want to quickly highlight an astonishing but somewhat hidden aspect of the Age article, which proves VCAA to be both very stupid and very dishonest. Continue reading “VCAA’s Ludicrous Defence of CAS Programming for Exams”