Winning the numbers game in HSC maths

Former Armidale Secondary College student Jordan King enjoyed his HSC experience,which was made even sweeter when he was awarded the prestigious Tuckwell Scholarship from the Australian National University (ANU) prior to finishing his exams.

Jordan King said the HSC experience wasn’t just about studying but about a balance between school,social life,fitness and hobbies.Supplied

The Tuckwell Scholarship Program is awarded to 25 talented school-leavers every year,giving recipients financial support,personal enrichment and development opportunities while studying the degree of their choice.

King ticked all the selection criteria for the scholarship:intellect,character,leadership and commitment to Australia.

His approach to study was to “enjoy what you’re learning”.

“To truly enjoy the HSC,I think you need to try and alleviate some of the stress and appreciate and engage with the content you learn. For me,the HSC experience wasn’t just about studying but about a balance between school,social life,fitness and hobbies,” he said.

“Maintaining a good balance between all these different aspects of life was vital in ensuring that I enjoyed my HSC experience and never got too bogged down in studying.”

King tackled his HSC exams head-on and saw the exam period as a challenge. He enjoyed the feeling of knowing how to confidently answer a question thanks to his preparation throughout the year.

“The exams are like the last sprint across the finish line at the end of a marathon. With the marathon of studying you’ve done throughout the year,the final sprint is made much easier,” he said.

Reflecting on his overall HSC experience,King said it was natural to fear the unknown when starting exams.

“Not knowing what questions could be thrown at you can be a daunting prospect,” he said. “But this can be combatted through completing lots of past papers and practice questions and accepting there will always be questions in the exam that you will have never seen before.

“All you can do is trust your preparation and feel confident that your knowledge will hold up against any question they throw at you.”

Mathematics Advanced was one of King’s favourite subjects. His approach to studying maths was to attempt the multiple-choice section first or to find a few short answer questions that he knew he could do,to help build confidence.

“I found this method,for me,helped to remove some of the nerves and got me off to a strong start in the exam hall,” he said.

“In every subject it is extremely important to maximise your reading time and get the most out of it. A lot of students don’t use this reading time to their advantage and suffer as a result.

“Reading time can be valuable to help identify any questions that you may need to spend a bit more time on or make some mental notes on any question types that you may have slipped up on in the past.”

Before taking an exam,King would always take some deep breaths to help calm his nerves. And he emphasised that he never spent too long on one question,always mindful of the time.

“You never want to lose marks because you didn’t have the opportunity to attempt a question due to bad time management,” he said.

“I would also always try to finish my exams 15 minutes early so that I could go back over any questions I wasn’t 100 per cent sure about.

“This also gave me some extra time up my sleeve to come back to a question at the end of the exam if I’d struggled to find the answer in the moment.”

Whenever King saw a challenging question,his first step was to break it down into components and work out which part of the syllabus was being tested. Using this process,he was able to make sure he was answering the question as best he could.

Writing summaries of key information will help when it’s time to revise.Flavio Brancaleone

Despite being awarded the ANU Tuckwell Scholarship during the middle of 2021,King was still required to meet the Tuckwell ATAR eligibility requirement of above 95. So he continued to work just as hard with the reassurance that his work was going towards something tangible.

“During the interview process for the scholarship,the panel asked questions to gauge our character and personal qualities and values,” he said.

“All the applicants had incredible academic achievements and a wide range of talents,but the scholarship is awarded not just for academic achievements but for personality and character as well.”

King said his goal for the future was to work in a career that he enjoyed.

“I hope that my degree in bachelor of advanced science with honours is a good step in this direction. I have ambitions to potentially go into a career in science research and to try and make some contribution to Australia,giving back to the country that has provided me with such a great education.”

Finding a study partner can be helpful in keeping you on track.Flavio Brancaleone

King’s tips for Mathematics Advanced students:

Learn from your mistakes During the year I made a list of question types that I repeatedly made mistakes on and then revised these before the exam to reduce any careless errors on the day. Minor mistakes can be avoided if you pick up on them early,and this will go a long way in maximising your mark.
Complete past papers Maths is a subject that requires a lot of practice,and I found that the more past papers I did the more confident I became. Completing these past exams under timed conditions also helped in ensuring that I was working fast enough to make it through the HSC exam comfortably. Solutions to these past exams can be found online as well,so you can get instant feedback on your exam and identify areas of weakness.
Summarise key information Writing summaries was another tip that I used to stay on top of maths throughout the year. I aimed to condense all of the Maths Advanced content into a few pages of summaries which I could then look over prior to the exam. Writing notes makes it extremely easy to revise and was a massive factor in helping me achieve highly in Maths Advanced.
Prioritise what you study I found in maths that there were some areas that I didn’t need to spend as much time on as others. This meant that I was able to prioritise trickier content and not waste time doing a bunch of questions on an area that I was already confident in.
Show your thinking I would say that setting out in maths is very important and something that is often overlooked. I made sure to work a lot on my setting out so the marker could see all of the steps involved in my final answer. You cannot be marked for things that you didn’t write down,so I would highly recommend spending time on setting out and structuring your answers clearly and with logical progression.

Top tips from maths teachers

Michael Murton,Bowral High School and member of NSW Government Quality Teaching Practice Unit.

A guide to getting to the right answer

To solve an HSC exam problem,look carefully at the information in front of you. Everything you need is there.

Here is a question that is common to both the 2021 HSC Examination for Mathematics Advanced (Q32) and Mathematics Standard 2 (Q41) courses.

Check to see where the given percentages match those in the problem,and if they don’t,look again to see if you can make them work by exploring the remainders from 100% of the 68%,95% and 99.7% values. Write this information on the graph provided in the question and include the position of the mean and relevant standard deviations. (Outliers are not considered in this problem).

Christopher Guy,Relieving Deputy Principal at Blaxland High School

Question checklist

Mathematics

Top-scoring Mathematics exam answers in 2021 Mathematics Advanced

Exam question:

A right-angled triangle XYZ is cut out from a semicircle with centre O. The length of the diameter XZ is 16 cm and ∠YXZ= 30°,as shown on the diagram.

a. Find the length of XY in centimetres,correct to two decimal places.

b. Hence,find the area of the shaded region in square centimetres,correct to one decimal place.

Student answer:

Marker comments:

Both parts (a) and (b) have the correct answer with all appropriate working.

General feedback:

(a)

Mathematics Standard 2

Exam question:

After the eighth deposit,Simone stops making deposits but leaves the money in the savings account. The money in her savings account then earns interest at 1.25% per annum,compounded annually,for a further two years.

Find the amount of money in Simone’s savings account at the end of 10 years.