yeh, exactly "assumed knowledge" hence, if you dont have the foundations, how in the world do you expect to understand much more rigorous and challenging concepts in the hsc?Last years Physics exam asked a question directly from the year 11 syllabus, under the premise of assumed knowledge.
That's true but only for Maths. (They can ask up to 30% of prelim)Our maths teacher, who is a HSC marker, explained to us that the preliminary builds the basis and necessary foundations for HSC work but within the HSC exam itself, 20% of the preliminary course can make up the final exam. Even though it rarely does. He said its usually about 3 or 4 questions of a Math HSC exam that would be of preliminary standard.
Hope thats a sufficient answer XD