Thousands of students to be awarded extra point after maths exam error

Nearly 4000 Victorian students who sat Monday’s specialist maths exam will be granted a mark due to an error in one of the questions.

Victorian students will be awarded a mark after an error was printed on the 2023 specialist maths paper.

Nearly 4000 students who sat Monday’s specialist maths exam will be granted a correct mark for a question that was “no longer valid” due to an error.

The revelations come as at least three schools are understood to have given students the wrong exam paper this week. Instead of giving them the Chinese as a Second Language Advanced exam, students were given the Chinese as a Second Language exam paper, which is due to be held next Wednesday.

Students were sharing the papers online.

A VCAA spokesman said two schools reported having inadvertently administered the wrong Chinese Language examination and six students were affected.

“The VCAA is working directly with the two schools to ensure that no students are disadvantaged,” the spokesman said.

The specialist maths extra point is the second bonus mark the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority has had to award students during the 2023 exam period due to errors in VCE exam questions.

So far, the Herald Sun has uncovered seven mistakes in maths exams, including three errors in general maths, three errors in maths methods and one in specialist maths.

These come on top of five serious errors from 2022 VCE exams which is the subject of a letter of protest to the Minister for Education Ben Carroll signed by 69 of the country’s most esteemed mathematicians.

They also come amid maths errors detailed by teachers going back 20 years or more.

A spokesman for the VCAA said the mislabelling in the final question of the 80-mark exam specialist exam number two on Monday meant the question was “no longer valid”.

The error in section B, question 6, part h was picked up by students and teachers on Monday and involved a graph which had H1 and H0 switched around.

The VCAA said it had “made the decision to award all students who attempted the exam a correct score for this question. This was the most effective and appropriate way to ensure no student will be disadvantaged and that the assessment process is fair, valid and reliable”.

“The VCAA apologises for undue stress this has caused schools and students”

“Schools that conducted the 2023 Specialist Mathematics Examination 2 have been advised via email of this outcome,” the spokesman said.

The VCAA Board Chair will work with the Education Department to conduct a comprehensive review of the vetting and proofing process for VCE examinations with any recommended changes to be made prior to the 2024 VCE exams to ensure they meet the highest possible standard.

The experts will include the lead authors of the letter of protest about the 2022 errors.