When year 12 student Ryan Luu walked into his mathematics advanced exam at Canley Vale High, it was not the stifling heat that bothered him.
“I found it way, way more difficult than what I prepared for,” he said.
Canley Vale students said both the advanced and standard maths exams were trickier than previous papers, including Stephanie Ly, Ayden Tran, James Ly and Katie Nguyen.Credit: Sam Mooy
He was one of 17,023 students in NSW who sat the mathematics advanced exam on Wednesday as temperatures soared towards almost 40 degrees across much of the state, while 32,243 sat the mathematics standard 2 paper.
Ryan, 17, had completed past papers from 2020 to 2024 with his teachers but said questions in Wednesday’s paper were trickier to decipher and required more elaborate steps.
“This was a deceptively hard test, I think, especially in topics like probability and statistics.”
He was not alone – Canley Vale mathematics teacher Paul Nguyen said the pressure of the exams, the number of wordy questions, and the extreme heat made it a stressful experience.
“There were some questions that were textbook, and it was nice to see. But there was also a really good mix of questions that were, I wouldn’t say out of scope [of the syllabus], but nearing it,” he said.
Until today, he said the 2023 exam was the most difficult in recent times. “However, I believe genuinely, this year’s paper has topped it,” he said.
“It’s pretty demoralising. However, I think it really puts into perspective how far the scope and syllabus can go with the questions that they can ask.”
The advanced maths exam has previously come under fire from teachers for being too wordy and overloading students with unnecessary information.
The HSC advanced mathematics wire questions put students through their paces.Credit: NSW Education Standards Authority
Year 11 accelerated student James Ly, 17, said many of the questions were not straightforward and required students to visualise concepts, such as one question about a 100-centimetre string of wire.
“Under test conditions, I couldn’t get it,” he said. “I believe that this particular paper was more challenging than the previous years.”
Year 11 accelerated student Stephanie Ly, 16, said the paper was more difficult because of the unfamiliarity of the way certain questions were asked.
“I think it was a lot based on how the question was written, it was like terminology we don’t cover in class,” she said.
Ayden Tran, 17, said the standard paper was also trickier than previous years.
“There was a fair bit of questions that really, like, get your brain working,” he said.
The mowing question asked students about how long it took to cut a triangle of grass.Credit: NSW Education Standards Authority
One particular question about mowing a pattern of grass in the shape of an equilateral triangle made him stop and think.
“It requires a lot of different formulas and steps to really break down the question and really comprehend what it’s trying to ask.”
Canley Vale standard maths teacher Jamie Ta said it appeared as if mathematics exams for the HSC were becoming more difficult.
“The questions were really wordy today,” he said. “I think the tests are getting harder because our kids are doing and working so much harder as well, matching their abilities.”
Former maths teacher and maths educator Dr Robin Nagy said the difficulty of the advanced exam discouraged students from studying maths.
“First and foremost, the proof that the exam is consistently too hard is in the translation of raw marks to the band-aligned marks which students receive on results day, which always results in the considerable inflation of marks,” he said.
“Students might feel they’ve done awfully badly – they might have done a lot better than they think because [results] don’t reflect the raw marks. That’s evidence to me the exam is too hard.
“I firmly believe the exams are created with the idea that they have to be able to discriminate at the top end between first in state in the very top students. That pressure causes the last couple of questions to be set at a level which is way above the level appropriate for maths advanced.
“Maths exams should be strengths-based, assessing what students can do rather than trying to find out what they can’t do. When they’ve done a two-year course, you would be able to expect them to be able to demonstrate what they’ve learnt.”
The 2025 HSC exams will run until November 7.
Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.