• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

Is my physics exam unfair? (2 Viewers)

MATHmaster

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Messages
195
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Hello everyone I am very curious if the teacher is allowed to put several hsc past paper questions in a physics exam. Some people in my school have done all of them and knew the answers the whole time, providing model responses. Other people and myself haven't been exposed to as many as them. Is this system just?
 

nerdasdasd

Dont.msg.me.about.english
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
5,353
Location
A, A
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2017
Hello everyone I am very curious if the teacher is allowed to put several hsc past paper questions in a physics exam. Some people in my school have done all of them and knew the answers the whole time, providing model responses. Other people and myself haven't been exposed to as many as them. Is this system just?
Yes, he/she is allowed to do that. If you do not know the answer, it means you haven't prepared well enough.
 

Macqncheese

Banned
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
101
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
It is allowed though. Your fault though, you had equal chance to look up old questions.
 

Immortalp00n

Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
272
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2009
Hello everyone I am very curious if the teacher is allowed to put several hsc past paper questions in a physics exam. Some people in my school have done all of them and knew the answers the whole time, providing model responses. Other people and myself haven't been exposed to as many as them. Is this system just?
it's very fair and actually makes it much easier for u
most teachers just copy paste shit from old trials and stuff so nothing new there
and its not like you and the rest were denied access to these resources
u could have done the same work the others did, and found the exam easy.
 

brent012

Webmaster
Webmaster
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
5,290
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Questions are questions, not uncommon for teachers to reuse questions from past trials and stuff. Even though it it not a very fair exam if no students knew that past paper questions were going to be used then i don't think there would be any grounds for complaint. Past papers are a good form of study and your Physics teacher probably even reccomended you do them.
 

nerdasdasd

Dont.msg.me.about.english
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
5,353
Location
A, A
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2017
It is allowed though. Your fault though, you had equal chance to look up old questions.
Nicely said. My teacher once said, it is our fault if we don't do well, don't blame anyone else (but yourself).
 

MATHmaster

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Messages
195
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Do you think it would be fair if the HSC Physics exam 2013 is a collection of past paper questions?

My point is, although these resources are available, they are not the only resources. Questions can appear from any school paper, but this is just past hsc exams. How is the paper any original to distinguish between the rote-learners and intelligent students?
 

Macqncheese

Banned
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
101
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Do you think it would be fair if the HSC Physics exam 2013 is a collection of past paper questions?

My point is, although these resources are available, they are not the only resources. Questions can appear from any school paper, but this is just past hsc exams. How is the paper any original to distinguish between the rote-learners and intelligent students?
It is fair. It rewards the students who bothered to do old papers.

I don't understand why you are complaining. Unless the teacher told people beforehand that the questions will be from past HSC papers, the test would not in the slightest have bias/or an aspect of being unfair.
 

MATHmaster

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Messages
195
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
It is fair. It rewards the students who bothered to do old papers.
But what if they got all of the questions wrong and blindly remembered the answer? If they answer the question right the second time, and do not know have any clue what they are saying, is it really fair?
 

leesh95

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2011
Messages
487
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2013
If you have the knowledge then you should be able to do them
 

Macqncheese

Banned
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
101
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
They have been doing it for years.
Regardless. The simple fact is, if papers contain old HSC paper questions. It will rewards students who have bothered to do them in the first place. Although it is a poor method of developing papers, my point cannot be disputed.
 

Macqncheese

Banned
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
101
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
But what if they got all of the questions wrong and blindly remembered the answer? If they answer the question right the second time, and do not know have any clue what they are saying, is it really fair?
If they got them wrong? If so, they are pretty stupid then- assuming the question is exactly the same as previous.
 

Sy123

This too shall pass
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,730
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
It is fair. It rewards the students who bothered to do old papers.

I don't understand why you are complaining. Unless the teacher told people beforehand that the questions will be from past HSC papers, the test would not in the slightest have bias/or an aspect of being unfair.
It is not fair whatsoever

It doesn't reward people who want to sit and think. It rewards people who put in the hard work and don't think, and that is NOT the point of an exam. The point of an exam is to assess how well you know the subject, it isn't about how much stuff you can rote learn and spit out in 2 hours.
 

Macqncheese

Banned
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
101
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
It is not fair whatsoever

It doesn't reward people who want to sit and think. It rewards people who put in the hard work and don't think, and that is NOT the point of an exam. The point of an exam is to assess how well you know the subject, it isn't about how much stuff you can rote learn and spit out in 2 hours.
In some aspects I do agree with you. However, I believe you are missing the wider point. Your argument relations moreso to the general structure of HSC exams. In essence, any student can rote learn stuff.

However, the main point is is using old HSC questions unfair. And the answer is no, simply because it does not provide any disadvantage to students.

You cannot simply compare 'sit and think' to 'rote learning'. As in HSC, students can always simply rote learn.
 

MATHmaster

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Messages
195
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
It is not fair whatsoever

It doesn't reward people who want to sit and think. It rewards people who put in the hard work and don't think, and that is NOT the point of an exam. The point of an exam is to assess how well you know the subject, it isn't about how much stuff you can rote learn and spit out in 2 hours.
I agree. Although to some extent the use of past paper questions reward people who have bothered to study, the point is to differentiate the intelligent students from the stupid ones. If this year's paper was an compilation of previous papers, by all means, anyone can get full marks, even an idiot who just does past papers without any idea what he is doing the first time, such that he/she gets it on the second time. There should be no second chances
 

Macqncheese

Banned
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
101
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
I agree. Although to some extent the use of past paper questions reward people who have bothered to study, the point is to differentiate the intelligent students from the stupid ones. If this year's paper was an compilation of previous papers, by all means, anyone can get full marks, even an idiot who just does past papers without any idea what he is doing the first time, such that he/she gets it on the second time. There should be no second chances
But can't a 'idiot' simply rote learn the syllabus and achieve the same result without understanding the course work? You two are disputing the structure of HSC exams, which is flawed. However, to your original question, it is not unfair.
 

MATHmaster

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Messages
195
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
In some aspects I do agree with you. However, I believe you are missing the wider point. Your argument relations moreso to the general structure of HSC exams. In essence, any student can rote learn stuff.

However, the main point is is using old HSC questions unfair. And the answer is no, simply because it does not provide any disadvantage to students.

You cannot simply compare 'sit and think' to 'rote learning'. As in HSC, students can always simply rote learn.
You are right in that sense, however, it would be a roll of a die to know whether the student is doing past paper hsc questions as study, or past hsc questions from other schools. If the die rolls in favour of past hsc questions, how is it any fair to the student who was doing the hsc questions from various schools?
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 2)

Top