As flagged in a recent post, Western Australia’s SCSA is undertaking a review of and public consultation on the syllabi for two of their senior mathematics courses: Mathematics Methods and Mathematics Applications. The draft syllabi, prepared by a “working party” of unknown but we-can-take-a-very-good-guess constitution, are available here. Continue reading “PoSWW 60: The Fundamental Delirium of Calculus”
Category: PoSWW
PoSWW 59: Don’t Enter This Matrix
UPDATE (23/06/26)
Apparently the current digital version has this corrected. If that was already the case, and if the current paper version is also correct, then my post is not really kosher; it’s not fair to nitpick past stuff unless it indicates something particularly notable. It was dumb of me to not have checked, and I’ll update again or delete the post once the situation is clear. (I’m not donning a hair shirt over this but, unlike VCAA, I have standards.) (06/09/26 As near as I can tell, the most recent print edition of the text contains the error. So, all good, so to speak.)
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This one, a very welcome respite from the explicit nonsense, is due to frequent commenter, SRK. It is an exercise from Cambridge’s General Mathematics 34. As SRK notes, it is low-hanging fruit. But, when the fruit is that funny, you just have to pick it: Continue reading “PoSWW 59: Don’t Enter This Matrix”
PoSWW 58: AI, Captain!
The Australian Government Primary Principals Association has been meeting this week, and reportedly has a brilliant new idea (M,P):
Scrap ‘flawed’ NAPLAN writing test for AI and wellbeing assessments, principals urge
And, from another report:
AGPPA President Pat Murphy said the association is calling for a need to review the writing in order to make it relevant for today’s learners. “The review should consider the need for higher-order skills students need in an increasingly AI-enabled world,” Murphy told The Educator. “In practice, this would involve moving towards a more balanced assessment model.”
Yep, more balanced between absurdity and straight-out stupidity. But perhaps this new stupidity is no surprise, coming from the clowns whose glossy strategic plan can fail to once mention “reading” or “writing” or “literacy” or “mathematics” or “arithmetic” or “numeracy”.
And then people wonder why primary schools are screwed. Continue reading “PoSWW 58: AI, Captain!”
PoSWW 56: Symping for AI
Artificial? No question. The level of intelligence, however, is less clear. Continue reading “PoSWW 56: Symping for AI”
PoSWW 55: Bad Apples
We were alerted to this one by a friend currently suffering through a teaching degree. It is a word problem courtesy of AITLS, the guys who set the standards of how teachers should be professional. Continue reading “PoSWW 55: Bad Apples”
PoSWW 54: The Price of Leadership
Yes, you too can be a leader. And, if you act now, you can get your Diploma of Leadershippery for the low, low price of $2500.* Your Diploma comes with all this:
Meanwhile, Greg Ashman’s researchED mates are gouging people with their $60 thing, which probably doesn’t even include anything on managing a budget. The nerve of some people.
*) $3250, if you’re not MANSW royalty.
PoMWW 53: The Root of the Problem
This one is probably proof of VCAA’s mendacity rather than their stupidity. Either way, it’s in the ballpark, so I’m throwing it in with the PoSWW.
Below, is an MCQ from last year’s SM Exam 2, together with the exam report‘s explanation (W,I).* For readers who may be puzzled, the question was discussed here.
Note that this MCQ is not an issue of grading nonsense (unless one argues that the question should have been invalidated). So, it does not take part in the previous, grading madnesses, post. (And you guys still have homework to do. Come on.)
PoSWW 52: Magritte and Bear It
This one is on a question and a half from the 2025 Western Australian “calculator assumed” Mathematics Specialist Exam (not yet posted). One of the questions was queried because Haese apparently screwed up a similar question, and the query was whether WACE might screw up similarly. We’ll have to wait and see. However that query plays out, regular readers will quickly spot the entirely separate reason to be here.
PoSWW 51: Graphic Violence
Similar to some 2024 VCAA grading idiocy we have already noted, a colleague has just pointed out to us some idiocy from the grading of last year’s (CAS-poisoned) Specialist Mathematics Exam 2.
This “half a square” is not mathematics. It is anal retentive madness, courtesy of mathematical midgets who demonstrably lack any sense of proper mathematical thought or how to assess it.
Presumably, we’ll get the same grading idiocy from the same midgets this year. And, whether or not the same grading idiocy will appear, students will be stressing over whether the same grading idiocy will appear rather than concentrating upon anything of genuine mathematical depth.
CAS exams are insane. VCAA is insane.
PoSWW 50: Alarming Experts
The BBC had a report on the performance of British high school kids. Here’s the headline:
And here’s the graph included in the report: Continue reading “PoSWW 50: Alarming Experts”