Can You Crack the Toughest Question from This Year's HSC Maths Test?
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Every year, over 75,000 students sit their NSW HSC exams, but only 3,300 of them undertake the daunting three-hour maths extension 2 paper—and looking at this year's notorious final page question, it's easy to understand why.
In this year's paper, there was a particularly tricky page of questions, which included various complex number problems involving real and imaginary numbers.
While there may be other challenging math questions such as this one, it seems that this year’s maths test was a head-scratching problem.
Now, when students were asked to describe their experience with the paper, they shared that it was much harder than they had expected.
Vivian Xu, 17, from James Ruse Agricultural High School, was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald saying, 'questions 14 to 16 (the final page questions) were harder than normal'.
Students of the HSC maths extension 2 paper are typically identified as the 'brightest of the bright'. Only a tiny proportion of the class was capable of engaging with the paper–which makes the questions all the more remarkable.
Sizhe Pan, one of Vivian Xu's classmates, explained the situation further by saying, 'Overall it was pretty hard, and (there were) a higher concentration of medium to hard questions, but I finished on time.’
The questions on the paper, particularly the final page, were those that would usually be seen in university exams.
Miriam Lees, a Consultant for the Mathematical Association of NSW described the importance of the questions, stating, ‘complex numbers form the basis of a lot of our modern life.’
Lees also described this year's complex number questions as 'harder than she had ever seen before', adding that students need to have a working knowledge of geometry, advanced trigonometry and visual representations to solve the questions.
‘Twenty years ago, where students could use their algebra brain to get the answer, this year you needed to use geometry, advanced trigonometry and visual representations to solve it,’ she explained.
Not surprisingly, there were several social media users expressing their confusion after sitting the advanced maths exam.
One asked, 'NESA (NSW Education Standards Authority) what were you on when you wrote that?'
Those who sat the higher maths paper decades ago also chimed in, with one man stating: 'Seriously … 51 years ago I got in the top decile for Maths Extension 2 … but I assure you the questions were nowhere near this level.’
While this year's task was incredibly difficult, a new maths syllabus is being brought in next year that is designed to get more people studying the subject for their exams, with the hopes of aspiring mathematicians being less intimidated by daunting questions.
Do you think you could have cracked this year's toughest maths question? Or do you think the challenge was too much? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
In this year's paper, there was a particularly tricky page of questions, which included various complex number problems involving real and imaginary numbers.
While there may be other challenging math questions such as this one, it seems that this year’s maths test was a head-scratching problem.
Now, when students were asked to describe their experience with the paper, they shared that it was much harder than they had expected.
Vivian Xu, 17, from James Ruse Agricultural High School, was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald saying, 'questions 14 to 16 (the final page questions) were harder than normal'.
Only 3,300 students took the three-hour maths extension 2 paper. Credit: Andy Barbour/Pexels
Students of the HSC maths extension 2 paper are typically identified as the 'brightest of the bright'. Only a tiny proportion of the class was capable of engaging with the paper–which makes the questions all the more remarkable.
Sizhe Pan, one of Vivian Xu's classmates, explained the situation further by saying, 'Overall it was pretty hard, and (there were) a higher concentration of medium to hard questions, but I finished on time.’
This complex maths question from this year’s HSC Maths Test was a head-sratching problem. Credit: Dailymail
The questions on the paper, particularly the final page, were those that would usually be seen in university exams.
Miriam Lees, a Consultant for the Mathematical Association of NSW described the importance of the questions, stating, ‘complex numbers form the basis of a lot of our modern life.’
Lees also described this year's complex number questions as 'harder than she had ever seen before', adding that students need to have a working knowledge of geometry, advanced trigonometry and visual representations to solve the questions.
‘Twenty years ago, where students could use their algebra brain to get the answer, this year you needed to use geometry, advanced trigonometry and visual representations to solve it,’ she explained.
Not surprisingly, there were several social media users expressing their confusion after sitting the advanced maths exam.
One asked, 'NESA (NSW Education Standards Authority) what were you on when you wrote that?'
Those who sat the higher maths paper decades ago also chimed in, with one man stating: 'Seriously … 51 years ago I got in the top decile for Maths Extension 2 … but I assure you the questions were nowhere near this level.’
While this year's task was incredibly difficult, a new maths syllabus is being brought in next year that is designed to get more people studying the subject for their exams, with the hopes of aspiring mathematicians being less intimidated by daunting questions.
Do you think you could have cracked this year's toughest maths question? Or do you think the challenge was too much? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
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