Students' marks altered on VCE maths exam after a calculator issues

[sgeorge]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/answers-just-didnt-add-up-on-year-12-maths-methods-exam/story-e6frf7kx-1225963534508

THOUSANDS of students have had their marks changed on a VCE maths exam after a calculator controversy.

Several schools complained that students using a certain approved calculator had problems solving two questions on the second maths methods paper held on November 8.

A teacher and exam marker said that students with the Casio Classpad calculator got "no solution" when tackling the questions.

"It caused a lot of students a great deal of stress. They came out in tears," said the teacher, who wished to remain anonymous.

"They were effectively locked out of the question, costing them valuable time and potentially six marks on an 80-mark paper."

VCE exam results will be released on December 13.

[Romperait]

If any compensation is given for the question, will it be given just to the people who used the casio classpad or everyone in general? Because that (pyramid of death) was the only section I lost marks on and it would seem just a little unfair if people got exemption from what was, in my opinion, the biggest distinguisher in both exams.

[beroy]

i love you sgeorge for giving me this news in a time where i am feeling very anxious.

[sgeorge]

^ haha i'm glad it helped

I think marks will just be awarded to everyone, as otherwise there would have to be an assumption that people using the malfunctioning calculators would have all gotten the question correct if they had been using a different calculator.

[QuantumJG]

Lol with exams having faults in them.

I remember with physics there was a question in sound that was slightly ambiguous and VCAA made two of the choices right. Teachers are always mutilating papers to find any fault in them.

What is even better is that this year in my Thermal & Classical physics exam, the formula sheet had mistakes all over it so the professor was racing around at the start of the exam telling people to change formulas. It gets even better! Halfway through the exam he found another fault in the formula sheet so he came across to everyone's desk and told them to change the formula. I hated that exam!

[werdna]

Ouch.

[Pixon]

Can anyone actually verify that "THOUSANDS of students have had their marks changed"?

[stonecold]

I am officially screwed.

One of the only two questions which I got pretty much all right and now they are giving the marks to everyone.

ClassPad is a piece of shit.  Dear Casio, Stick to Watches!!!

Everyone comment at the bottom of the article and let them know of all the other VCAA stuff ups which have plagued the 2010 exams.

[Whatlol]

OMG i cant believe this! dont they realise now all the students who spent extra time on this question, and got this correct are now completely screwed.... i sacraficed other questions to get this one correct. methods SS = 25 for me

[crayolé]

Which question was this?

I'm a classpad user and didnt realise there was a botched question

[onur369]

Pyramid of death. Section 2 Question 3. Worth 6 marks.

[stonecold]

OMG i cant believe this! dont they realise now all the students who spent extra time on this question, and got this correct are now completely screwed.... i sacraficed other questions to get this one correct. methods SS = 25 for me

+1.  I sacrificed the last question to get this one.  My hatred for VCAA has gone up even more, if that is possible.

[AzureBlue]

This is ridiculous - doesn't the board that write these exams at least test the questions on the calcs to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen?

[stonecold]

This is ridiculous - doesn't the board that write these exams at least test the questions on the calcs to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen?

It just proves that they don't test the exams thoroughly enough, which is a joke considering how important they are.

Doesn't someone have to review the performance of these clowns?

[Souljette_93]

But they wouldn't know which students used what calculators..

Anyways, I think everybody will be given a fair chance and those that did  get the question right will still find themselves above everybody else. ( it's all ranking)