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.
One of the key issues covered by the Age article was the programming of CAS calculators. Since VCAA does not require calculators to be cleared for VCE exams, teachers and students are incentivised to spend huge amounts of time and brain ultra-programming, which is then time and brain not spent on learning mathematics. Pedagogical disaster aside, this also guarantees that different students will enter the exams with dramatically different weapons at their disposal, and this ridiculous game is worsening every year.
For context,
*) NSW does not permit programmable calculators for exams
*) QLD do not permit CAS calculators on exams, and calculators must be cleared prior to exams.
Victoria is the country mile outlier in Australia (and internationally).** So, how does VCAA justify this needless arms race for VCE exams? According to the Age article,
A Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority spokesperson said it publishes a list of approved calculators that allows a balanced focus on mathematical interpretation.
No, it does not. The exams are perverted beyond any touch with reality, but let’s leave that be.
“The VCAA understands VCE examinations can be stressful and seeks to reassure students and their families it has measures in place to ensure all students are assessed fairly and equitably.”
This is nonsense and VCAA knows it is nonsense. NSW and QLD ban this insanity because it is insane, and VCAA knows it. VCAA knows damn well that there is nothing remotely “fair” or “equitable” about this programming anarchy. VCAA may be clueless to the perversion of CAS, because they are seemingly that ignorant and that stupid. There is zero chance, however, that VCAA is unaware of the inequity of the programming. VCAA is, simply, lying.
It gets worse:
The authority said all exam questions are tested on approved CAS devices to ensure that solutions can be reached using the basic functions of each device.
So what? You have a Maserati to drive from Melbourne to Geelong. I don’t have a Maserati but, still, I can use the basic functions of my Malvern Star and cycle there. So it’s a fair race? What is the purpose of VCAA’s monumentally stupid line except to obfuscate? It is appalling, as bad as anything that Honest Steve ever uttered.
Whatever one thinks of CAS generally, whatever one thinks of CAS on exams, the permitting of programmed CAS on exams is unfair and insane, and obviously so. VCAA should be ashamed and they should be shamed. They are incompetent and they are dishonest.
*) I did my best to untangle the issues when interviewed about the article on ABC.
**) WA and TAS use uncleared CAS calculators, and SA-NT uses uncleared non-CAS calculators. None of these states have exams remotely as perverted and as game-playing as Victoria. I do not know anywhere in the world that has exams nearly as CAS-perverted as Victoria.
I have spent a great deal of time creating programs,”Amacros Under name Supatex”, available to my students. As I stated to VCE Examiner, Exam 2 has not 5 questions but 35 parts, divided into 120 min, approx 2 min each. Common CAS response is “Syntax Entry”, so you are “stuffed”, no time to work out the error. I built in the context to my macros to help the students to quickly arrive at the solution. Regards, supatex
I loathe the idiotic game that VCAA has created (and everything else about CAS), but it is only common sense for everyone to play the idiotic game according to VCAA’s idiotic rules.
There are too many involved in the MAV & VCAA that only have experience in teaching. There is a lack of understanding of applied maths. Most engineers & other science-based maths specialist hardly ever use a CAS calculator for what it is capable of. A better approach would be to have year 12 students using a package of programs on their laptop. They all have them. A better place to start would be to raise the standard of arithmetic learning in primary schools. Very few primary teachers can even do simple arithmetic like % calculations.
I strongly disagree with your “better approach” and strongly agree with your “better place”, but that is discussion more suited for other posts.
The point of this post is that programmed CAS on VCE exams is a disaster and that VCAA is out of its mind.
Nice bit on ABC Radio. Clearly communicated that there are two issues, and both issues addressed sharply and squarely within the limits of that format. Well done.
Thank you.
Use of downloadable CAS programs from the appropriately titled LazyMath (https://lazymath.github.io) website is widespread, but at least it is more equitable with the availability of free programs than it used to be.
I’m aware of LazyMath. That does not remotely fix the problem, and the idea that some random third party library could somehow be the way to deal with this issue is batshit insane.
Just clear the fucking calculators. There is nothing to debate except how exactly VCAA lost its mind.
Agreed. But there already exists a power imbalance even when calculators are cleared. Computer programs like Mathematica already have an advantage over the traditional handhelds, even with a cleared CAS.
VCAA clearly hasn’t thought it through when introducing CAS. QLD, for example, even puts restrictions on the calculators so that they cannot perform ‘symbolic differentiation or integration’ and similar algebraic manipulations.
It is quite sad that this will likely not change anytime soon, as the next study design is a few years ahead.
I disagree. I think VCAA (and MAV, which is essentially the same thing) thought it through. They just didn’t give a fuck.
Sorry, correction, “Context Entry Error” should have been “Syntax Error”.
Fixed.
Not that it should matter, as these calculators shouldn’t be used anyway, but I am convinced that the VCAA “test” the calculator use through the emulators rather than the actual hardware. Spec. Maths 2022 exam 2, question 4c and the associated exam report would be my first example.
Yes, not the main point but there have clearly been screw-ups with the testing. Plus, spending all that time attempting the impossible, to write “fair” and platform-neutral questions, takes time away from trying to write good questions.
The entire thing is nuts, and VCAA knows it.
Not to mention the Year 12 General student who didn’t know how to solve a linear equation, but didn’t need to as the CAS did it!
CAS poisons everything.
I tutor students in later grades and the CAS perversion on exams is quite farcical. Having grown up insularly in Victoria, I couldn’t believe it when I saw the quality and difficulty difference in exams from other states, let alone other countries. COVID has made students’ basic arithmetic manipulation skills much worse, unfortunately.
Thanks, Lil. Yes, Victoria is under the control of a cult. Almost no school students, and very few teachers, are aware that a saner maths ed world exists (precariously) beyond Victoria’s borders.
How does the Age article’s muddled take on CAS exams expose deeper problems in VCAA’s competence and honesty, and why was this issue largely overlooked?
Sorry, Master, but your questions are a little cryptic. What is “this issue”, and overlooked by whom?
VCAA’s statement to The Age was thoroughly idiotic and, to the extent that what they wrote was even comprehensible, thoroughly dishonest. VCAA has known for years that the programming of CAS has been a big and huge-growing issue. In their statement to The Age, they were simply, disgracefully, pretending otherwise.
What is unclear to you? That VCAA are dishonest idiots? Or, why they are being dishonest idiots on this occasion?