Can you finish an exam in the time allocated? (1 Viewer)

[friction]

i like it the way it is because i get about 45-60 mins on q 7&8 and that means i can sufficiently try out most question and get the "give away marks." i would hate it if they changed it so that most people could be able to finish the paper as it would take away this slight advantage over the rest of the cohort. also there is plenty of time already, most of the people i know can finish up to 7 in about 2 hours so there really isnt any problems...

i dont know how it takes u an average of 6-10 hours to do an ext2 exam (however this did happen to me before DAM U INDP. 2006!, although if i was to time my self i would of been different and i would of went faster)

i would say that 3 hours is a good time limit, makes u go fast and think even faster.

i think that if u "ran out of time" then u
a)havnt prepared well enough
b)it was a long test (ie the questions took generally longer to solve, lots of algebra bashing or conics)
c)it was just a dam hard test and everyone will fail.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head.

BTW it takes the teachers 6 hrs cause their hopeless . But seriously think of most of the people that become teachers. They arent the ones dominating ext 2 those people do medicine and stuff. Keep it how it is it is good.

 

[friction]

I am curious to know why Extension 1 isn't brought into the same discussion, because the same thing happens in Extension 1 (i.e. the average student usually cannot "finish" the whole paper due to inability to penetrate harder questions).

It is not brought up because a good amount of student that do ext 2 can finish Ext 1 with plenty of time to spare. However they dont do advanced so they dont have the same feeling about advanced.

 

[conics2008]

3 hours is just not enough due to the level of working out required for some questions.

yeah sure we can fly through question 1 and 2 have you thought about the quesiton that require you to think and then answer ??

all the thinking time is going to waste, I think we should have thinking time xD

 

[duy.le]

actually i would really love it if they had an intermission, ie a break like half way for about 5 -10mins. force people to stop and actually think about their work and the work ahead of them. it would greatly be beneficial to most students who stress out and cant think properly cause all the people around them are writing like crazy and they're sitting there thinking. well thats what im planning to do, stop and think for a while, its actually better for u in the long run, not wasting pages of working out.

 

[Rfelt110191]

There is no way i could ever finish the ex2 paper on time it's such a waste of time doing prac papers coz unlike the 2unit paper where u have a change of finishing it in the time limit, i do the 4u paper for 3 hours and then spend another 2 hours trying to decipher the answers
I dunno whose side i'd be on... coz its the most demeaning thing to know that no matter how hard u try u will never be able to finish the paper or know how to approach every question but at the same time.. the longer the paper... the greater the chance of finding a question u can do lol
I hate this stupid subject...

 

[Js^-1]

Does anyone know how long we have for reading time? Because I really like reading the questions beforehand and working out what I'm going to do. It makes the questions easier when you get to them.

As for the intermission idea, I would love that. It would be great to have a bit of a de-stressing break, have a little chill for five minutes while you mull some ideas over in your head and then get back into it.

The fact that the paper is typically too long for the average Ext 2 student is good, it helps discriminate among the candidature. If most people were able to finish you would get too many people getting really high marks, then the subject would be scaled lower. The way it is works well.

 

[buchanan]

There are hundreds of papers available on the internet and some might think that is the challenge.

But I'd like to issue you a different kind of challenge.

Suppose you have just 1 paper. Do it perfectly even if it takes you weeks. Then do the same paper again, again and again, each time reducing the time taken to do it - until you do complete it in the allocated time. You must achieve this before starting another paper.

 

[cutemouse]

Suppose you have just 1 paper. Do it perfectly even if it takes you weeks. Then do the same paper again, again and again, each time reducing the time taken to do it - until you do complete it in the allocated time. You must achieve this before starting another paper.

Hmm okay, what's the logic behind this?

 

[gurmies]

I think what he means is that if you can't even finish a paper you've done before in 3 hours, then what chance do you have finishing a completely unseen paper...

 

[lyounamu]

I agree. 2 Unit exam is just too long. I have asked most of my peers at school who did 2 unit as an accelerant and they thought that 3 hours was just too much.

I finished my 2 unit paper in 1 hour and 35 minutes and I hardly fixed any question when I was readind over the paper. Basically same story for others.

I mean, come on. You are supposed to be challenged to some extent even if the 2 unit paper is not supposed to be very difficult.

I reckon 4 unit should be about 4 hours with 2 unit maths squeezed into 2 hours.

 

[cutemouse]

Yeah but I dunno how doing the same paper until you can finish it in the allocated time is useful...

 

[shaon0]

At the 2008 MANSW conference hundreds of maths teachers had to endure quite a stark confusing message from the Board of Studies.

On the one hand, Chris Thompson, a high ranking official from the Board of Studies said quite clearly that it is, always has been, and always will be a Board of Studies policy that every exam must be able to be completed within the allocated time, and that exam committees are expected to construct exams with this in mind.

Then an Extension 2 Mathematics HSC Judge (Rodney Miller) got up and said he has never been able to complete an Extension 2 paper in the time allotted, and on average it takes him 6-10 hours to complete such an exam.

So when you do a past paper, can you finish it on time?

And BTW, whose side are you on, Chris's or Rodney's?

I completed my half-yearlies for 3u and 4u maths comfortably but i think the HSC and Trials will be a lot harder to finish.

 

[MC Squidge]

"Then an Extension 2 Mathematics HSC Judge (Rodney Miller) got up and said he has never been able to complete an Extension 2 paper in the time allotted, and on average it takes him 6-10 hours to complete such an exam.
"

lol moron

 

[bored of sc]

I completed my half-yearlies for 3u and 4u maths comfortably but i think the HSC and Trials will be a lot harder to finish.

Same here. But my teacher said my extension 2 half yearly was the basics - complex (without roots of unity and trig. applications), graphs and integration (without reduction formula, definite integrals or parts even though the latter two are fairly straight forward).

So I agree for sure, it's going to get more difficult time-wise.

 

[x.Exhaust.x]

Same here. But my teacher said my extension 2 half yearly was the basics - complex (without roots of unity and trig. applications), graphs and integration (without reduction formula, definite integrals or parts even though the latter two are fairly straight forward).

So I agree for sure, it's going to get more difficult time-wise.

Ah lucky you bored of sc. My half yearly consisted of complex numbers, curve sketching, polynomials, integration (including reduction formula, definite integrals and by parts), and volumes.

I definitely had no time to complete the paper . Probably the reason being is because we covered the 5 topics incredibly quick, briefly (ahead of my tuition) and had no time to revise in the end.

It took us 3 days to cover all of volumes, and a few days to cover polynomials...

 

[dp624]

yeah, usually i can finish

 

[buchanan]

Yeah but I dunno how doing the same paper until you can finish it in the allocated time is useful...

Well, say you get 99% the first time in an hour. And say it takes you another 5 hours to get the last 1% done.

Then it's that 1% that you will have learned the most from.

And of course, the next time you do it, you will complete it in the allocated time with 100%.

 

[MC Squidge]

it would be better to do 100s of papers

 

[buchanan]

Only if you can get 100% on each one and within the time allocated.

And you can do that, can't you, MC Squidge?

 

[cutemouse]

Well, say you get 99% the first time in an hour. And say it takes you another 5 hours to get the last 1% done.

Then it's that 1% that you will have learned the most from.

And of course, the next time you do it, you will complete it in the allocated time with 100%.

Yeah I kinda get your logic. But, why would you attempt the whole paper just so that you could just 'rewrite' it? Why wouldn't one just concentrate on the 1% they got wrong? What's the real point in taking time and doing it all again?

Thanks