Question on VCE methods exam causes controversy among Year 12 student
While many students didn’t find the first methods exam too challenging, some later discovered that they incorrectly calculated a simple equation.
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Year 12 VCE maths methods students are lamenting that some of them got 20 x 20 wrong in the exam.
While finding the first methods exam not too challenging, a number of students discovered afterwards that under pressure they incorrectly calculated the surface area of a tile measuring 20cm x 20cm on question 7a.
Maths methods is the middle of three VCE maths subjects, but is considered to be quite advanced.
Its content includes algebra, calculus, probability and statistics as applied in a variety of practical and theoretical contexts. It provides a background for further study in science, humanities, economics and medicine and there are two final VCE exams on two different days.
The students were given a range of questions about surface area of the tiles as a result of a wave pattern which were premised on them correctly starting with the size of each tile. This can be established by multiplying 20cm by 20cm which is 400cm2.
Students shared their answers to working out the sum under exam conditions, which included 4000 and 200.
“DID ANYONE ELSE PUT 20*20=4000 OR AM I JUST AN IDIOT?” said one.
“I’m GONNA CRYY I DID THAT TO BUT I WROTE 40, THATS MORE EMBARAASING(sic)”
“Others were happier: 20 times 20, at least I got that right,” said one.
The question dominated the online post-mortem for the exam.
“Is it not 4000?” said one anguished student.
“OMG it’s 400” they concluded.
“For question 7a I wrote 40cm squared instead of 4000cm squared” one student said, getting it wrong twice.
A number of students were concerned that they didn’t put cm2 as part of their answer.
“I’m so dumb I wrote 400 units 2 I didn’t see that it was Cm I’m such an egg,” one wrote.
Those who got it right were overjoyed such as simple equation was on the exam.
“Yay, they put 20 x 20 on the exam!,” one said.
“Anyone else felt like that exam was a little too easy for the last year of a study design? It was far easier than most of the previous years’ VCAA exams. There’s definitely some tough ones in there but overall what type of VCAA exam asks ‘20 x 20’?” another said.
Rion Ahl and Andrew Kroger, co-founders of the 50Coach online tutoring program, said the maths methods exam “has traditionally been one where students are separated by the amount of work you’ve put into practice papers - and the exams this year are no exception”.
“This first methods exam, however, appeared to deliver less surprises than previous years meaning that consistency rather than niche skill was rewarded,” they said.
“More often than not, your final score comes down to your ability to catch silly mistakes under pressure - to re-read your answers and detect simple transcription errors - rather than your ability to do an obscure part of the curriculum which never shows up on exam day”
“Your final exam is just like any other skill - playing the piano, running a marathon or painting an artwork - even the best will make mistakes from time to time but with practice you’ll find it happens less and less.
“We encourage students to spend more time on analysing and reducing bad exam habits that lead to these mistakes - so that you can minimise the chance that it’ll happen to you on exam day.”
The second maths methods exam is on Friday morning.
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