Skillo said:
The VCE is too easy. Not HSC
Then why didn't you go do the VCE and get a perfect ENTER?
The only real argument for the HSC being harder than VCE are based on the maths subjects. Even then, it is only because the topics that are taught in HSC maths are as obscure as high school maths in Australia can get. You
do realise that different states have different aims as to what they want their students to learn right? Just because induction (which is just about as much of plug and chug as VCE topics), or any other HSC topic for that matter, is not taught in VCE, it doesn't mean that HSC maths is harder. If it is then why do so few students achieve fulls marks on VCE exams? Because we're dumb? No, because if that was the case then
you could easily come down to Victoria and get a perfect ENTER now couldn't you?
More on the maths, which many HSC people foolishly think that they can ace(get 100% on) - I'm sure that some can ace them, but the majority are just trying to make sense of their crappy UAIs. You guys learn integration by parts in HSC maths, or should I say integration by plugging and chugging? On the other hand, we only learn integration by substitution so many area based questions require extra thinking - ie. use of symmetry, integration of the inverse etc. So no, VCE maths is not much, if at all, less challenging than HSC maths, given the content which is taught. We are required to do just as much thinking, if not more than that of HSC maths students in exams.
As for your other subjects, they are no more harder than the equivalent ones here. At least here, we don't study in such a way that the study design(ie. your subjects' syllabus) is like our bible. You guys can simply study off 'dot-points' rather than do
real study like we do, to get high marks. So really, your dogmatic assertion(or rather, assumption) that VCE is "too easy" is really senseless. HSC physics and chemistry are jokes in my opinion but then again, VCE science is heading down the road of HSC science which isn't exactly a good thing.
Irrespective of the perceived difficulty of any subject, to get a high score you still need to beat the majority of the student cohort. So skillo, since the VCE is
so much easier than the HSC why didn't you come down here and top our state? Also, even if you did get some good maths scores, and hence somehow deduce that you would ace VCE maths, it still does not mean that you will get a good score for the maths subjects down here.
Many HSC students think that just because they can get a raw/aligned/whatever final score of say 90% in a HSC maths subject, that they can do the same in VCE maths. Sorry but that isn't the case so stop suggesting that VCE subjects are easier. That is because our subject scores are normally distributed and range from 0 - 50(50 = top 0.2% of state). Based on past VCE statistics, you can get 90% overall for a maths subject and still only get a subject score of around 36/50. That is because the VCE has a
real ranking system which is much less likely to mislead students as to what their ability is. I just wanted to point that out to the people who over-rate their ability so that they do not continue to be blinded by their raw scores.
The pass rate means very little if anything at all. Anyone(not affected by some sickness or another related thing) who is not a complete idiot and pays attention in class can pass. Whether or not a subject is too easy is logically, based on whether or not 'excessively large' proportions of students are continually getting full marks and not whether some dumbass can pass a subject.
Many people seem to imply that subjects where you can learn everything and 'regurgitate' your acquired knowledge on the exam, are too easy. Well what do you expect? A system which ranks students on nothing other than their IQ? If so then their would be no point in having a HSC, VCE or any other ranking system which requires students to work. So really, the point of the HSC/VCE/whatever is not to act as a ranking system based on people's IQs. Rather, it is quite clearly a system which identifies those who have an aptitude for learning and those who put in the effort.