Did VCAA Misgrade the 2022 Exams and, if so, Why?

This will be my last VCAA post for a while. I’m sick of it all. And, anyway, it’s now a matter of waiting to see what the Minister and the newly acting CEO of VCAA will do. I think both of them have demonstrated some genuine interest in repairing the mathematics exams, and I think both of them deserve an honest shot at it, without a nasty blogger sniping at them. But, there’s one last post I think must be written.

One of the lingering puzzles of VCAA’s Deloitte Debacle is why VCAA were so determined to game their mathematics exam reviews so much. VCAA were clearly determined beyond all plausibility to ensure that Deloitte examined nothing beyond trivialities, and it seems VCAA didn’t let a proper mathematician get within a country mile of the exam questions. But why? Sure, the 2022 exams were, as always, bad, with, as always, bad errors, and any halfway honest review would have been plenty embarrassing. But bureaucratic deceit can only hide so much, and not nearly as much as VCAA had to hide. So now, rather than simply looking like a gang of clowns, VCAA looks like a gang of deceitful clowns.  Continue reading “Did VCAA Misgrade the 2022 Exams and, if so, Why?”

Critique of the 2023 Victorian VCE Mathematics Exams

Sorry guys, it ain’t gonna happen. Burkard’s and my 2022 critique was time-consuming and exhausting and stressful. We’re not doing it again. Ever. So, for this year the Discussion posts (here, here, here, here, here, here and here), and the Errors post will have to do. Continue reading “Critique of the 2023 Victorian VCE Mathematics Exams”

A Student Petition on the VCE Exams

A group called High School Activate has launched a petition, to the VCAA and the Victorian Minister for Education, on the VCE errors business. I obviously agree with and support plenty (but not all) in the letter. But just to be clear, I have no idea who HSA are, and they definitely aren’t me or associated with me.

Presumably the intention is for the petition to be signed by current and finishing school students, but it’s up to you/HSA.

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Tony Guttmann’s Letter on the VCE Mathematics Exams

Tony Guttmann, AKA Mr. Very Big, is a legend of Australian mathematics and of Australian mathematics education. He is a fellow of the AAS and pretty much everything else. Tony was the hero of Curriculum War 1 and was on the front lines of Curriculum War 2. Tony signed the recent mathematicians’ open letter on the errors in the 2022 VCE mathematics exams. Last week, Tony also submitted a letter to The Age, which The Age has so far declined to publish. Tony has given us permission to post his letter here. Tony’s letter follows.
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What Are the “Errors” on the 2023 VCE Mathematics Exams?

Given the wide interest, I think it is worth compiling all the “errors” on this year’s six maths exams. (See here, here, here, here, here and here for the discussion posts.) So, please list whatever you believe to be an error, and please indicate whether you regard each error as “major” or “minor” (see below). Justification is not required but may be helpful. Then, soon, I’ll try to update the post with a summary. Continue reading “What Are the “Errors” on the 2023 VCE Mathematics Exams?”

VCAA Has Deloitte to Learn

Last year, as seemingly occurs every year, there were serious errors on the VCE mathematics exams. This was reported on at the time by the Age, on the basis of a teacher’s complaint and a comment on this blog. The errors were reported on again last month by the Herald Sun, on the basis of a parliamentary submission. I was pleased to see these reports although they were not my doing. I did not notify any reporters of the exam errors and no reporter had asked me for comment until after the recent Herald Sun and Guardian articles on this year’s General Mathematics exam errors.

As I routinely do, I quickly blogged on some (but not all) of the 2022 errors (here, here, here and here), but other than that I had been as quiet as possible about the whole thing, even on this blog. For a reason, and until now.

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Open Letter to the Victorian Minister for Education

As I wrote about briefly, in December last year Burkard and I wrote a critique of the VCE mathematics exams, which was to form the basis of VCAA’s external review. As I’ve just written, here, dealing with VCAA was incredibly frustrating. More importantly, the overview VCAA released to us has entirely hidden the substance of the external review, and/but the review seems to be nothing more than distraction and whitewash. In particular, there still seems to be no clear appreciation within VCAA that mathematical truth is a thing, and that properly qualified mathematicians are by far the best judges of that thing.

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Quick Comments on the General Mathematics Exam Error

The General examfghtrefcwetiofe …

Let’s try again:

Sparked by the report in the Herald-Sun, the matrix error (and the who cares “of-of” error) on the General Mathematics Exam 2 has obviously received a lot of attention. This has included apologies from VCAA, from the CEO of VCAA, and from the Minister of Education. It has also led to VCAA announcing that all students would receive the mark for the question.

We haven’t looked at the exam question (or the exam), and so know nothing of the question beyond what commenters have suggested. Even without knowing the details, however, there seem some obvious things to note, or at least they will be obvious for the regulars at this blog and for the similarly disenchanted.

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Burkard’s and My VCE Mathematics Exam Critique

Burkard and I were planning this for later, but given the Guardian has named us and linked to the relevant document, I may as well post on it. Below is a critique of the 2022 VCE exams, which, after prior discussions, Burkard and I wrote at VCAA’s request. This critique was the basis (sort of) of VCAA’s external review of the VCE mathematics exams, which was finalised earlier this year.

I will soon have much more to write on the background to all this, and on VCAA’s external review.

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