Standardised National Test For Yr 12 Students. (1 Viewer)

[withoutaface]

Can you elaborate on that? By finance, I presume you mean money?

Yeah like there could be a compulsory requirment to do a business studies or eco type subject

 

[Slidey]

Hmm. I guess a pretty neutral subject like money would be a good moderator. It's still not perfect though, because some people who really just hate to do anything with money other than spend/earn/save wouldn't do too well at the course, i.e. me.

 

[Benny1103]

You're wrong. Have you actually juxtaposed different state syllabi for the same subject?

I am not entering the discussion/debate, but rather, I am going to point out the differences in the 'equivalent' subjects in Victoria and NSW. From what I have seen there are many differences in the subject content between Victoria and NSW alone. For example, permutations as a topic is 'dropped' at the end of year 11 in Victoria and the geometry that we do is minimal. On the other hand, a lot of the probability that we study is more calculator based - normal distribution. Take physics as another example. In Victoria prac related questions only appear on the school assessment tasks that we do. The physics exams in Victoria place far more emphasis on calculations and the theory that we learn about certain topics. It is very rare for any question, which relates to practical work in labs, to appear on the exam.

The subject content in the different states are distinctly different. I do not see any real point in messing with the current system. If people want to attend university overseas then why are they still studying in Australia? As for the HSC being too easy, I do not see how people can say that. As I see it, the pass rate means close to nothing as basically anyone who puts in at least some effort to study can pass - it is no big deal to pass. From what I have seen, the NSW maths exams are the most difficult in the country so unless there are consistently hundreds of people getting full marks on them then the HSC is far from being too easy.

 

[melsc]

i dont know myself...but a friend moved from NSW in yr 11 to queensland and she thinks that the HSC is much harder than the queensland equivalent... when the politicians said the HSC was easy...i just laughed...i cant speak for the other states...but from what i have observed huge emphasis is placed on the HSC and it is highly competitive in NSW to gain a university placement

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

That can be evaded by having a finance subject subgroup that everyone has to do a subject from, IB style, so a band 5 in a finance subject...

But then that would defeat the purpose of students selecting subjects that will be useful to them in uni - E.g. I have no use for Visual Art or Music coz I'm aiming for Commerce. Either of those subjects would be practically useless to me.

It might be an idea to make Yr 9 and Yr 10 students more aware of their uni options. I personally didn't know a great deal about uni courses in Yr 9. Some may disagree and say it's too young, but quite often kids will have an interest in something by that age, whether it be maths, science, art, music or something non-academic like sport.

 

[Sweets]

Lets just stop all this institutionalised testing and all go live in caves and read Byron

 

[buchanan]

There are concerns about lowering of NSW standards through any move to a national certificate (Patty, 2006). Future arrangements must add value to what exists and certainly must not lead to any reduction in quality or standards (Masters, et al., 2006)).

OK. I'm not going to change my website www.fourunitmaths.cjb.net in any way whatsoever (unless Geoff Masters proves the Riemann Hypothesis - but I won't hold my breath for that).

Patty, A. (2006) National test may kill HSC, Sydney Morning Herald, May 6, 2006

Masters, G., et al. (2006) Australian Certificate of Education: exploring a way forward. ACER.
(http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/publications_resources/profiles/documents/aust_cert_edu_pdf)​

 

[P_Dilemma]

I'm not sure that the Feseral Gov't will be able to. It's not a constitutional right the Fed Govt has to make laws rergarding education, it's a State matter.

 

[Bobness]

Read the editorials and letters to the editor in today's and yesterday's SMH

Or maybe its on the SMH website. They were really good