Eddie Woo’s five steps to acing HSC maths

“You can appreciate the world better when you understand the mathematics behind it. Mathematics is powerful to solve problems. Our whole society is built on mathematical tools. When you learn maths, you get better at everything.”

Woo’s tips for HSC Maths

1. Just do it
   “Maths is a practical subject, much like music or sport. It doesn’t matter how much you watch or read about a skill like that, you just have to do it hundreds and thousands of times to get good at it. Maths really rewards the effort and time you put into it. If you’re reading this early on, you’ve got time to do that. It’s difficult to develop conceptual understanding of an idea in maths by cramming.”
2. Explain your answer to a friend
   “What we’re assessing in maths is: do you understand? Can you explain why your answer is right? We’re looking for you to communicate your understanding – do you ‘get it’? So I suggest going to a friend and putting yourself through the process of explaining your solutions to some questions. It will deepen your understanding to force you to explain.”
3. Find and attempt unfamiliar questions
   “By the time of the HSC exams you’ve encountered every topic in maths which means they can ask you anything – but also, they can combine them in unusual and non-routine ways. In the HSC exams the questions that are the hardest are those that combine multiple topic areas. When you’re revising, the textbook will just give you questions that are confined to one topic – they’re in nice, neat little chapters. It’s good for learning the skills as you go but not for assessing if you understand how this concept can be linked to another.” Attempting past HSC exam questions may be beneficial to give you practice in answering these types of non-routine questions.
4. Set yourself time pressure
   “Your brain behaves differently when under stress. Using a past paper, I’d try and set myself three hours to complete it so I would train myself to finish the complete paper with time to review. At first I wouldn’t finish in time and so I found that those last questions which I didn’t have time to get to included multiple topics and were more challenging. So, practising under time pressure helps to train your brain.”
5. Watch out for small mistakes
   “Often where we lose many marks and feel silly is on the small questions – the one-markers. These small questions are doubly important to review when you’ve finished the paper and are checking your answers because we are liable to rush through them. Having detailed lines of working out – as opposed to just writing the final answer – is not just useful for communicating to the marker, it is helpful for you when you are going back over an answer to follow your own logic and locate potential errors.”

Quality study not quantity, says maths ace

It may seem hard to believe but Manal Khan – who topped Mathematics Advanced in the 2020 HSC – showed little interest in maths during her primary school years. It wasn’t until high school that her interest in the subject started to match her aptitude.

“When I was in primary school my mum had given up all hope for my mathematical abilities, so you can imagine what a turnaround it was in later years,” said Khan, who attended Amity College in Sydney’s west.

Her formula for success in this challenging subject was multifaceted.

“Rather than one thing, it was a combination of many things – the resources available to me, my teachers and peers, the amount of practice I put in, daily habits such as sleeping schedules and so on,” she said.

But more than anything, it came down to having the right mentality. “I’ve always felt that a major factor contributing to success in anything is your mindset. You have to be determined and believe that you can actually achieve this goal of yours – and for me, my religion plays a huge role in my mindset and motivations.”

Khan found that quality of study time was more important than quantity, and checklists helped to keep her on track.

“Some people put a lot of focus on how much time they spend studying, but I always measured my progress by the amount of work I got done rather than the time I spent on something. I also used checklists to keep on top of my work and stay organised. Checklists really help when everything seems overwhelming,” she said.

When it came to different subjects, Khan adapted and modified her approach.

“How I studied differed from subject to subject. For subjects that heavily involved calculation, like maths, I would revise the theory behind each topic but would mostly study by completing actual questions. For maths, you can’t rely on rote learning.

“For other subjects, like Biology or English, my initial focus would be more on understanding the content and not as much on attempting questions, until I had a thorough understanding of the concepts,” she said.

Self-care, rest and extracurricular activities also played a big role in helping her get through the HSC in a healthy and balanced way.

“The hardest part was staying motivated, especially during COVID lockdowns. However, going through it together with my friends and peers definitely helped. As many of us joked, it was a ‘collective experience’,” she said.

After graduating, Khan started studying optometry but has now transferred to medicine at UNSW Sydney.

For this top student, everything circles back to the attitude you bring to whatever you’ve taken on.

“The perspective you hold towards things makes all the difference. You get to choose your subjects, so learn about them with interest. After all, you’ll always be working towards something, so do you really want to spend your life stressing? Enjoy the learning process, and good luck!”

Khan’s tips for HSC Maths:

1. Do homework exercises as you go: ”That way when it comes closer to exams, you can focus more on studying rather than ‘learning’ the topics.”
2. Have a ‘mistakes document’: ”Use this to record common mistakes you make – for example, not checking if the answer lies within the domain.”
3. Note key learnings: ”Create notes to summarise important ideas, formulas and tips along with any challenging questions you come across in your homework or classwork exercises.”
4. Know your assumed knowledge: ”For the HSC exam and trials, revise formulas from Year 11 that are ‘assumed knowledge’ – things like the angle sum of polygons.”
5. Work with friends: ”My peers and I would always help each other with explaining questions and topics. Doing this only reinforces your own understanding and skills.”

Want to know more about the common content in Maths Standard 2 and Advanced exam? Watch this:

Top tips from an HSC Maths teacher

Michael Murton, Bowral High School
Member of NSW Government Quality Teaching Practice Unit

To solve an HSC exam problem, look carefully at the information in front of you. Everything you need is there, however, correct understanding and interpretation are your keys for success.

Here is a question from the Mathematics Advanced exam:

Apply your skills and understanding

For HSC exam problems, plan a strategy based on what you have and where you need to get to, thinking about the steps between. Break down the question in this way rather than just trying to go straight to the solution.

To solve the given problems, determine the percentage rate per time period (per month in Option 1 and per quarter in Option 2) and the corresponding number of time periods required. Substitute appropriate values to find the values for Option 1 (using the future value formula provided on the reference sheet) and Option 2 (using the annuity table).

You should also have a reasonable estimate of the values of both investment options as you would expect both answers to be somewhat larger than the $40,000 invested, given the interest rate and time.

Check the reasonableness of your answer

Carefully look over your working and assess whether your answer makes sense in regards to the information in the question. Also, importantly, re-read the question to check that you have answered what has been asked. Use a concluding statement with your answer. In the given HSC question, a concluding statement could be:

“The difference between Option 1 and Option 2 is $40.87 ($45 097.17 - $45 056.30)“. Ask yourself, “Does this seem reasonable and answer the question?”

Most importantly, carefully and critically re-read your answers to ensure that they would make sense to a marker.