I maintain that it was not hard. As I have said elsewhere people percieve it to be hard because the exam committee decided to take a new approach. This year's paper tested your understanding of the topics studied. The rollercoaster question, which many struggled with, is an example of a not so hard question over-exaggerated on these forums because people had not seen anything like it before and hence did not understand the math behind it. In hindsight most are probably hitting themself over it. However Venom, I will agree that the cutoff will be lower. Although we will never know, I would bet the average raw mark from this paper throughout the state is lower then normal, not because of its hardness, but because of the new direction the exam committee is hopefully headed. In 2001 it was 96ish. My guess is that it will be 92-93ish because most of the state generally speaking, will struggle.
Personally I was disappointed with question 10. Currently all the marks I have lost have sadly occurred in questions 3-4. I wrecked a perfectly good chance to get a great mark - easy q10 on a paper with a low-cutoff.
Just my 2 cents - end of rant, sorry if I have offended anyone, the head teacher of maths at my school - marked for 30ish years, agrees with me.
Oh, and I should have mentioned this before. Difficulty is relative. The cut-offs will depend on the quality of the cohort. We will wait and see how many people get 120 and/or first in the state.
