Five questions in 2022 VCE maths exams were wrong, top maths professors say
A new error has been uncovered in the second VCE specialist maths paper – the seventh mistake so far in the 2023 exams – sparking an apology from the VCAA, which is now investigating.
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An error in the second VCE specialist maths paper – the seventh maths mistake so far in the 2023 exams – is under investigation by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
A spokesman for the VCAA apologised for the “undue stress this has caused schools and students and will take steps to ensure that no student is disadvantaged”.
Teachers are calling for the drafting mistake in a one-mark question about type II errors to lead to all students who sat the exam being awarded a bonus mark.
The mis-labelled graph in Monday’s exam brings the 2023 maths error tally to at least seven, including three errors in general maths and three errors and a recycled question in maths methods.
The VCAA said it “accepts full responsibility for errors in the 2023 VCE examination papers. These do not meet the high standards that the VCAA sets and that the community rightly expect”.
One of the errors in the general maths exam led to an apology from Education Minister Ben Carroll last week and the awarding of one bonus mark to all students who sat the exam.
The new specialist maths error in section B, question 6, part h was picked up by students and teachers on Monday and involved the mislabelling of a graph, with H1 and H0 switched around. One leading teacher labelled the mistake “very careless and potentially confusing”.
“The question is worth one mark, I wonder if the VCAA will give everyone one mark like they did with general maths?” he told the Herald Sun.
The error-ridden 2023 exams come as 69 eminent professors and university mathematicians signed an open letter to Mr Carroll asking for further investigation into five serious errors in the 2022 maths exams on Sunday night.
The VCAA last year commissioned a review to examine errors in the 2022 specialist and methods maths exams raised by Monash University mathematicians Professor Burkard Polster and Dr Marty Ross.
The VCAA review found the language in the exams could have been more clear, but there were no serious errors that affected students.
This finding was not supported by Professor Polster and Dr Ross, who even offered to vet the exams for free. This was not accepted by the VCAA.
Similar concerns were raised by leading teacher John Kermond in a submission to a state parliamentary inquiry this year.
As a result of the lack of action by the VCAA, Professor Polster and Dr Ross wrote an open letter to Education Minister Ben Carroll expressing concern about the errors and the mishandling of the issues by state officials.
It reads: “We are university mathematicians, we have read the exam questions at issue, and we agree with Polster and Ross. Whatever term one wishes to use, all five questions are unacceptably flawed”.
“Each question exhibits some fundamental misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the underlying mathematics,” the open letter states.
“Each question, at minimum, would have created unnecessary confusion, with a subsequent loss of time for at least some students, and probably many.
“It is difficult to imagine how the questions could have been graded in a fair and consistent manner, and in any case the flaws are simply, on a mathematical basis, unacceptable,” the letter said.
On Monday the VCAA restated its view that the 2022 errors were not serious.
However, it will work with the signatories of the open letter on another review of maths exams “to ensure that the mathematics in future examinations meets the highest possible standard”.
Mr Carroll told the Herald Sun on Monday: “It’s my expectation that all curriculum and assessment is high-quality and grounded in academic integrity.”
Nearly 50,000 Victorian students sat at least one maths exam this year. There is one more exam to go – foundation maths – a new subject in 2023.
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