Modified / Self-Designed Exam Equipment (1 Viewer)

[JamieWilks9]

For the past few days I've been scouring the NESA website for some more definitive equipment rules. But, all I have found are identical and vague equipment lists.

As you may know, in previous years, mathomat and curve sketching sheets have been permitted for mathematics students. However, these are no longer permitted as of 2020.

In class, I often find myself using a mathomat to quickly sketch in triangles for visualising trig questions, using the sine curves to cheap out on sketches, and the circle stencils for drawing quick circles.

After hearing that this would no longer be an option, I decided to see what can be used, and found out that for Advanced Mathematics, there's not a lot.

The official list on NESA's website shows:

• NESA approved Calculator
• Ruler

And nothing else. No set squares, no compasses or protractors. Ruler and calculator - that's it.

Now, the assumption could be made that the exam will be designed in a way that we will not need set squares or protractors or mathomat sheets. However, throughout my schooling career I have not known NESA to ever be kind or make something easier on us, so I'm not going to take that at face value.

Moving on to my actual question, being a design minded student I started to think "What can I do with my ruler?". Now, my dad told me about how his friends used to drill holes in their rulers and draw circles using one pen in one hole as a pivot, and the other as a pen.

But I wanted to know how far I could take this. I thought well, if the holes pass, can I cut out entire shapes into my ruler? Am I allowed to cut out my 45° triangle and my 30-60 triangle for quick drawing? Am I allowed to put a small stencil of circle types to draw in?

Then I jumped to the final stage: "What if I just 3D print my own ruler?". If I could get away with that, the flexibility was endless. Make the ruler a little bit taller than a typical ruler, to fit more shapes in the centre. Make one side of the ruler a precise sine curve.

I am struggling to find anything that outright says I cannot. Honestly, I'm struggling to find any solid information on equipment at all.

Perhaps I'm the only one that sees it like this, and there's some unspoken rule that makes this obvious rule breaking. Or maybe I've overlooked some rule on modified equipment. If so, I do apologise for the lengthy question with a disappointing answer.

I've always been a bender of the rules. Before my trials I bought a specific brand of sharpener that was large and round with a flat base. I would wrap my watch around the sharpener, and place the watch-sharpener combo on my desk. The sharpener held the watch up, and I could angle it so that the time pointed straight at me, and wasn't perpendicular.

 

[c8]

It sounds really wrong (and also really cool) but if there's actually no where that outright talks about modified equipment on the NESA page I'd check with your school as they'd know or at least know who to talk to to ask

 

[#RoadTo31Atar]

You can use you ruler and the corners of an A4 piece of paper to sketch the triangles quickly, just remember the side lengths (or don't since the ratios are on your formula sheet) and draw templates like that. For circles you can find a clear water bottle with a flat bottom that you can trace to make a decent sized circle.

This is prob what I would do if I wanted to do this but I would just sit the exam with only a calculator and pen as I have done so far for Y11 and 12 and have never needed a ruler.

 

[quickoats]

Mathomat sheets weren’t needed at all for past HSCs - the only thing I think they’d be beneficial for is conics from the old 4U syllabus to stop you from drawing egg shaped ellipses. Other than that, you probably won't need much more than a ruler to draw straight axes for graphs.

If I recall correctly, the HSC questions asked for diagrams/graphs to be at least half a page - having tiny stencils inside your ruler would be much too small for that.

 

[vinlatte]

For most math questions, a sketch is fine as long as there are correct markings. Like on a graph with x-intercepts and the general shape of the polynomial.

I am also not too sure, however most math questions involve equations as the working out answer rather than graphs.