my school makes our math papers very, very hard… what do I do? (1 Viewer)

[celest_string]

hello! i’m in year 12 and to turn a long story short, our school makes our math exams very very hard - like significantly harder than any other school paper i’ve ever seen.

people on average just scrape a 50% and the highest you can get in these tests are only 60-70 or so percent. i find myself so discouraged because i don’t know what to do like i prepare for it as much as i can but it’s still in a way no use because our teachers end up putting questions we’ve never seen before. the papers are harder than the papers from known selective schools as well, which i felt was very telling.

what should i do? is there anything i can even do? i’d love advice!

 

[MysteryATAR!]

all that matters internally is your rank, so atleast for me, harder papers are preferable as they better differentiate genuine ability as opposed to minimising silly mistakes (as in an easy paper)

if you’re looking for a competitive edge though, maybe try and get your hands on some specialist tutoring papers (eg kurt)

good luck!

 

[anonymoushehe]

hello! i’m in year 12 and to turn a long story short, our school makes our math exams very very hard - like significantly harder than any other school paper i’ve ever seen.

people on average just scrape a 50% and the highest you can get in these tests are only 60-70 or so percent. i find myself so discouraged because i don’t know what to do like i prepare for it as much as i can but it’s still in a way no use because our teachers end up putting questions we’ve never seen before. the papers are harder than the papers from known selective schools as well, which i felt was very telling.

what should i do? is there anything i can even do? i’d love advice!

tbh having harder papers is way better - ur internal marks will scale up accordingly if u do well in externals

 

[justletmespeak123]

hello! i’m in year 12 and to turn a long story short, our school makes our math exams very very hard - like significantly harder than any other school paper i’ve ever seen.

people on average just scrape a 50% and the highest you can get in these tests are only 60-70 or so percent. i find myself so discouraged because i don’t know what to do like i prepare for it as much as i can but it’s still in a way no use because our teachers end up putting questions we’ve never seen before. the papers are harder than the papers from known selective schools as well, which i felt was very telling.

what should i do? is there anything i can even do? i’d love advice!

would you mind sending the questiosn u deem hard here?

 

[justletmespeak123]

tbh having harder papers is way better - ur internal marks will scale up accordingly if u do well in externals

no it's not, this only lets high IQs and fast learners answer the paper. it doesn't account for slow but deep learners.

(this is important because there are literal retards who probably have a slightly higher IQ then me yet they literally can't get above a 70 in math advanced)

you literally just covered the stuff 1 week ago, why are u asking impossibly hard questions?

 

[anonymoushehe]

no it's not, this only lets high IQs and fast learners answer the paper. it doesn't account for slow but deep learners.

(this is important because there are literal retards who probably have a slightly higher IQ then me yet they literally can't get above a 70 in math advanced)

you literally just covered the stuff 1 week ago, why are u asking impossibly hard questions?

yeah that is true

 

[berryry]

could u send a sample of the paper?

 

[melanie_o]

hello! i’m in year 12 and to turn a long story short, our school makes our math exams very very hard - like significantly harder than any other school paper i’ve ever seen.

people on average just scrape a 50% and the highest you can get in these tests are only 60-70 or so percent. i find myself so discouraged because i don’t know what to do like i prepare for it as much as i can but it’s still in a way no use because our teachers end up putting questions we’ve never seen before. the papers are harder than the papers from known selective schools as well, which i felt was very telling.

what should i do? is there anything i can even do? i’d love advice!

If your school performs better on the bona fide HSC exams, then that would indicate that your school makes your assessments harder compared to the average of the state. Assuming you have a high rank, and get a good exam score, then your marks will no doubt be much higher post-HSC.

 

[celest_string]

would you mind sending the questiosn u deem hard here?

Just two examples from year 11 ext1 prelim

 

[celest_string]

Just two examples from year 11 ext1 prelim

Like I did NOT know what to do

 

[justletmespeak123]

If your school performs better on the bona fide HSC exams, then that would indicate that your school makes your assessments harder compared to the average of the state. Assuming you have a high rank, and get a good exam score, then your marks will no doubt be much higher post-HSC.

No it doesn't

The main principle of designing good exams especially for a statewide exam is that they should be slightly differentiating, not impossible.

The OP papers appear to be of BoS difficulty. They don't give BoS difficulty in the actual exam except the very last question - for good reason. You lose all differentiability for medium to low level performers - the majority of the state.

If you still don't understand what I mean, I mean that the difference in mark between a medium to low level performer wouldn't be anything, since these two levels of performers couldn't answer the questions either way - now it just boils down to who has better test taking skills.

(this is important as the marks most people get in these impossible questions are from test taking skills rather than actual mathematical knowledge, especially those who like to write frivolous bullshit to secure 1 mark (me included))

Inconclusion, Impossibly hard exams don't offer anything meaningful to ranking (except the top 10%), and are just a way to drive someone to suicide and bad mental state. I don't want to take a mark of some fucking retard who only got higher than me thanks to luck

 

[MysteryATAR!]

Inconclusion, Impossibly hard exams don't offer anything meaningful to ranking (except the top 10%), and are just a way to drive someone to suicide and bad mental state. I don't want to take a mark of some fucking retard who only got higher than me thanks to luck

how did we escalate to suicide that quickly bro

 

[justletmespeak123]

how did we escalate to suicide that quickly bro

because some retarded teachers think its a good idea to put impossibly hard questions that only 2 people out of 30 in the class can do

in a selective school such as james ruse, this might be okay, but not in a random ass public school.

 

[berryry]

lowk those questions seem normal if you place them against other selective school papers - id argue the recent nsb/ruse papers are harder

 

[anonymoushehe]

Like I did NOT know what to do

yeah i can see why but lowkey in year 11 no one really spams soooo many prelims but by the time u start doing trials in year 12 you basically become more familiar and adapted to questions like these — like they look pretty doable now after doing year 12 but if I had that in my prelim I may have struggled just a little plus everything is crammed in prelims you just got to start doing exam questions on a topic once u finish so u become familiar with it early on

 

[celest_string]

yeah i can see why but lowkey in year 11 no one really spams soooo many prelims but by the time u start doing trials in year 12 you basically become more familiar and adapted to questions like these — like they look pretty doable now after doing year 12 but if I had that in my prelim I may have struggled just a little plus everything is crammed in prelims you just got to start doing exam questions on a topic once u finish so u become familiar with it early on

I just did my first exam for year 12 (ext1) and bro… it was hard for me for some reason but I genuinely worked my ass off this time… I put effort in basically every day, consulted various questions etc… that’s why I don’t know what to do

 

[anonymoushehe]

I just did my first exam for year 12 (ext1) and bro… it was hard for me for some reason but I genuinely worked my ass off this time… I put effort in basically every day, consulted various questions etc… that’s why I don’t know what to do

thats fine everybody doesnt do their best on their first task - that was my case but my marks started increased across the year

 

[Flatuitous]

No it doesn't

The main principle of designing good exams especially for a statewide exam is that they should be slightly differentiating, not impossible.

The OP papers appear to be of BoS difficulty. They don't give BoS difficulty in the actual exam except the very last question - for good reason. You lose all differentiability for medium to low level performers - the majority of the state.

If you still don't understand what I mean, I mean that the difference in mark between a medium to low level performer wouldn't be anything, since these two levels of performers couldn't answer the questions either way - now it just boils down to who has better test taking skills.

(this is important as the marks most people get in these impossible questions are from test taking skills rather than actual mathematical knowledge, especially those who like to write frivolous bullshit to secure 1 mark (me included))

Inconclusion, Impossibly hard exams don't offer anything meaningful to ranking (except the top 10%), and are just a way to drive someone to suicide and bad mental state. I don't want to take a mark of some fucking retard who only got higher than me thanks to luck

bit of a drag to say it's BOS difficulty

imo, those qs that were posted are hard but u dont need to be bos level geeked to solve them

 

[Flatuitous]

Just two examples from year 11 ext1 prelim

out of curiosity, would u be open to sharing what school you attend?
it's completely valid if u dont wna highk doxx urself