We still haven’t had time to take a proper look at the 2023-2027 VCAA Mathematics Study Design, but it smells very very bad.
A blog-reader has alerted us to a VCAA webinar on Mathematical Methods in the new study design. The video can be viewed here, with transcript here (Word, idiots), and PowerPoint slides here (PowerPoint, idiots). The study design is here (Word, idiots). The previous discussion on this blog can be found here.
The video made us nauseous.
This one is courtesy of frequent commenter, wst. It’s really a PoSWW, but the ideas may be sufficiently unfamiliar for it to be worth encouraging WitCHlike discussion. It comes from the Cambridge textbook General Mathematics 1&2.
VTAC, the Victorian body responsible for figuring out ATARs and the like, is, of course, a professional and widely respected organisation. VTAC is staffed by very well-qualified boffiny stats types, just quietly doing their boffiny stats thing, and they don’t make mistakes. Well, except for this. And this. And really, really this.
Anyway, a few months ago the Evil Mathologre alerted us to some new(ly discovered) weirdness courtesy of the always-perfect VTAC. Or, maybe it’s courtesy of ACTAC, which is the national umbrella group encompassing all of the State-TACs. It’s difficult to tell, since, much like QANTAS, it seems that ACTAC cannot be contacted, appearing to exist only as an abstract concept. Anyway anyway, to the weirdness. Continue reading “VTAC Converts an Own Goal”
This is our post for discussion of the 2022 NHT Specialist Mathematics exams, which have now been posted, here and here. (See also our corresponding 2022 NHT Methods exams post.) We’ve had a quick browse, and found plenty of irritants but no glaringly large errors. We don’t plan to look further or to post on the exams, except to follow up on whatever people find worthy of comment. Continue reading “Discussion of the 2022 NHT Specialist Exams”
This is our post for discussion of the 2022 NHT Mathematical Methods exams, which have now been posted, here and here. (See also our corresponding 2022 NHT Specialist exams post.) We’ve had a quick browse, and found plenty of irritants but no glaringly large errors. We don’t plan to look further or to post on the exams, except to follow up on whatever people find worthy of comment. Continue reading “Discussion of the 2022 NHT Methods Exams”
This is another one courtesy of Mysterious Michael. We’re not quite sure whether it’s a WitCH, or a PoSWW, or one for the error list, or simply a roll-your-eyes-and-ignore. In any case, it’s a question from the notorious 2016 Methods Exam 2 (report here), and we’ve expanded slightly from MM’s stated concern. (We could’ve expanded to include the entire question, as a Road to Nowhere, but decided not to lose too much of MM’s original focus.)
Have fun.
Yeah, we’re busy, but this one has been bugging us. It is an exercise and solution from Cambridge Specialist Mathematics 3&4. It’s basically a PoSWW, or we could simply let it pass as a textbook glitch. But we think there’s more than the obvious to say.
Well, sort of. The 2023-2027 SD is here (Word, VCAA, Idiots) and is linked on this page. Thanks to Red Five, whose detective skills are a hell of a lot stronger than VCAA’s announcing skills. Continue reading “The New VCAA Study Design is Up”
If nothing else, people can enjoy a great song.
This one puzzled us when we gave the 2021 Further Mathematics Exams a three-minute scan, but we didn’t bother then to think, um, further. Now, however, since graph theory is likely a mandatory part of Specialist 1&2, and thus also, at least technically, a mandatory part of Specialist 3&4, we have thought a little harder. So, after discussions with John Friend and with a colleague who we shall refer to as Professor Combo, here we are.
Perhaps people are done, but given the previous discussion, here and (weirdly) here, and a couple requests, it seems worth a shot.
Given VCAA’s pigheaded ramming through of their still-non-existent and now invisible new study design, some teachers have expressed concern about what and how to teach in Specialist Mathematics 1&2 in 2022. One teacher, we’ll call them Mr. Puzzled, emailed us:
I am a 11 & 12 specialist maths teacher and have been spending countless hours trying to prepare some sort of course outline for the upcoming year without clear advice from VCAA on what we need to cover. Continue reading “Specialist Mathematics 1&2 Note-Sharing and Idea-Sharing”
