New HSC Mathematics Syllabuses And Scaling For NSW Changed in 2018

This is the follow-up blog entry for the NSW math scaling issue that I went over yesterday. The basic issue is that student is studying General Mathematics course in NSW it resulted in a higher score than if they had studied the more difficult intermediate HSC Mathematics course. I had already know reforms that aimed to address this issue are being prepared and rolling out in near future. I wanted to summarise them to give a more clear picture of what is happening particularly with the aspect that to do with Math.

The quoted information are all from following two articles Overhaul of NSW HSC courses starting 2018 and The HSC maths equation that doesn’t add up.

There’ll be more maths in science subjects, a greater focus on writing in English and a new emphasis on Australia’s western heritage in history under a revamped NSW Higher School Certificate. HSC students in 2018 and beyond will study new English, maths, science and history courses in the first shake-up of the core-subject syllabuses in almost two decades.

For the first time, statistics will be part of the calculus courses for mathematics extension students, reflecting the growing importance of data in work life.

A perceived anomaly in which some maths students have been selecting easier courses in order to gain a higher ATAR will also be scrapped.
A new marking system will ensure students taking higher-level maths will be appropriately scaled.

For science, there will be a greater focus on maths and quantitative analytical content.

A spokesman for the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) said the new maths syllabuses, to be introduced next year for the general maths course and in 2019 for higher-level courses, would address the issue.

“[The new] HSC mathematics syllabuses will feature common content and marking scales that allow direct comparison of students to taking the calculus and non-calculus based courses, and address concerns that ATAR scaling advantages students taking the non-calculus General Mathematics course,” the spokesman said.

This is a good step towards the right direction and after two decades are long over due to an update.

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