Changes to study designs!! Thoughts?

[whys]

I'm going to put this out there - I am assuming that the reason for these drastic changes are to reduce the gap between high SES schools and low SES schools, since the latter would be facing more difficulty with adapting to online learning (correct me if I am wrong). I really don't think shortening the syllabus addresses anything and it's more of a shortcut method for VCAA to be like 'yay we did something' despite the changes being almost useless in levelling out the playing field. I don't see any other plausible explanation for removing half of unit 4 except for VCAA attempting to address complaints from teachers and principals, and try to make it fair for everyone. I don't think it's doing any of those things though.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like we're not having the extended investigation for biology? I guess that's a plus.

EDIT: Wow okay they took out heaps of the probability and statistics stuff for methods and spec so I'm very happy about that

Yes - now we just need to do the poster SAC on an experiment that has already been conducted and don't need to conduct one ourselves. I'm upset about probability because that was the easiest topic for me . Time to fail methods...

[TigerMum]

I am a bit curious as to how making a single SAC (that may likely be carried out online!) worth the same amount as an EXAM is supposed to "reduce the stress" of students.

[J_Rho]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like we're not having the extended investigation for biology? I guess that's a plus.

From my understanding, there will be extended investigation but you won't be required to complete practical activities.
EDIT: oop whys beat me to it

Edit: Here is the link https://vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/adjustedSD2020/2020EnglishEALSD.pdf

Where did you get this link??? I can't find it on the VCAA website

[angrybiscuit]

I'm going to put this out there - I am assuming that the reason for these drastic changes are to reduce the gap between high SES schools and low SES schools, since the latter would be facing more difficulty with adapting to online learning (correct me if I am wrong). I really don't think shortening the syllabus addresses anything and it's more of a shortcut method for VCAA to be like 'yay we did something' despite the changes being almost useless in levelling out the playing field. I don't see any other plausible explanation for removing half of unit 4 except for VCAA attempting to address complaints from teachers and principals, and try to make it fair for everyone. I don't think it's doing any of those things though.

Agree — it is not really addressing anything.

Yes - now we just need to do the poster SAC on an experiment that has already been conducted and don't need to conduct one ourselves. I'm upset about probability because that was the easiest topic for me . Time to fail methods...

Aw I very much struggle with probability so it was really just luck for me.

[SS1314]

I finished the entire methods course (including statistics), so I just took a big L lol

Also, by shortening the study design, isn't that just going to increase competition?

[Ionic Doc]

Unit 4 of Biology has been significantly changed, and now I'm curious to see what they will do to chemistry.

[darkz]

I finished the entire methods course (including statistics), so I just took a big L lol

Also, by shortening the study design, isn't that just going to increase competition?

Yeh probably. If you recall the most recent methods exams (except 2019), the last question has always been about functions and almost always has questions with really low-scoring percentages. So just because there's less content, that doesn't mean that they can't separate those who know the content/ don't know the content.

[Chocolatemilkshake]

Unit 4 of Biology has been significantly changed, and now I'm curious to see what they will do to chemistry.

Yeah I wonder! Apparently they've altered all the study designs and are now just releasing them (that's what I heard anyway)

[J_Rho]

annoying how they arent releasing them all at the same time

[Joseph41]

[stress induction overload] Can anyone send a link to this news?

VCAA hasn't released a statement anywhere that I'm aware of, but amended study designs for 2020 have been uploaded to the subject-specific pages for some subjects.

[rkjthguakj]

I understand where VCAA is coming from to increase the weighting of Unit 3 and decrease it for Unit 4, but I am absolutely hating it. The idea to increase Unit 3 because students are more likely to have already done the SACs is understandable. But my school is yet to do a single methods SAC, (it's on Monday). Our methods SAC is now worth more and is unfair for a number of reasons.

1. We have had to study this area of study through online learning (which puts us at a disadvantage) although it's not the worst. But we feel like we haven't received adequate learning through a screen as opposed to in a classroom.

2. An online SAC is riddled with loopholes and areas of problems. Because it is weighted so much and we feel so unprepared, students are going to take other measures. This is dangerous for all students, because if you don't cheat you're going to be disadvantaged by those who will. At this rate, the top scores are going to based on who cheated the best, rather than who understood the topic best.

It's just a stroke of bad luck to have graduated in this year 

[TheEagle]

Is the English link legit? It doesn't open anymore

[Sine]

Moving this to Victorian Education DIscussion since there is some discussion of non-maths subjects

[TigerMum]

Just thought I'd let people know that VCAA have put up edited study designs for pretty much every subject now.

[S_R_K]

Can only speak for maths, but I would have preferred that the end of year exams had their weighting increased to compensate for the lost SACs. (But in general I don't like SACs and would prefer to just have 100% exams, perhaps with mid-year exams). I know that students regard exams as quite stressful, but I think they are a fairer assessment overall, and are more straightforward to prepare for.

On the reduction of content: I think the omission of inferential statistics from both Methods & Spesh can partially be taken as an admission from VCAA of how pointless and stupid the inclusion of those topics was. It would be better if they are removed from the new study design from 2022 onwards.

It is disappointing that Methods retained normal distributions (which is little more than an exercise in pushing buttons on CAS) but got rid of continuous probability distributions (which allowed for a connection between probability & calculus). Presumably this is because the normal distribution is required for Spesh. (Ugh).

Further is now extremely light on. The subject was already essentially just an arms race in who could practice the most past exam questions, but now it's even worse. I suspect that most schools will have finished data in term 1, and so now have two terms to cover finance and one module (which could normally be done in one term, or perhaps one term + a couple of weeks).

Obviously it's a difficult and unanticipated situation, but what has happened with the adjustments really highlights how awful the study designs were to begin with.