[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-205425-105":59,"doc-detail-205425-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","parabola-volume-51-issue-1-2015-editorial","Parabola Volume 51 - Issue 1 (2015) - Editorial","","Editorial discussion on changing student participation in senior high school mathematics in Australia, highlighting shifts from intermediate and advanced to elementary mathematics and the downstream effects for university STEM preparation. Examines concerns that scaling in the NSW Higher School Certificate may advantage General Mathematics students over calculus-based Mathematics, summarizing evidence from Associate Professor David Pitt and explaining how scaled marks and linear transformations work, while noting the conclusions are not straightforward.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":57,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/general/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/parabola-volume-51-issue-1-2015-editorial/205425/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/parabola-volume-51-issue-1-2015-editorial/205425.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"นรินทร์","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-23","2026-09-05",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What concern does the editorial raise about students choosing elementary mathematics instead of intermediate or advanced mathematics?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It warns that fewer students prepared for tertiary mathematics may harm readiness for university study, especially in STEM fields where intermediate and advanced mathematics are described as necessary.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What evidence is cited to discuss whether General Mathematics can lead to a higher ATAR?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The editorial summarizes a statistical analysis by Associate Professor David Pitt comparing School Certificate performance with HSC scaled scores for students studying HSC General Mathematics versus HSC Mathematics.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the scaling algorithm described in the editorial affect raw marks and scaled marks?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It applies a linear transformation to standardise top marks, standardises score distributions to fixed mean and standard deviation, then rescales each subject based on the average academic achievement across completed subjects.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},205425,1789969519,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":56,"category_name":57,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":81,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":24},2336475104957,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/22000c4c6bd8a5076e1?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1787554080175789136","Parabola Volume 51, Issue 1 (2015)  \nEditorial  \nDear Readers  \nWelcome to our first fully online issue of Parabola Incorporating Function.  \nThere has been a lot of press coverage and concern over recent months about the declining proportion of students taking intermediate and advanced mathematics subjects in senior years at high school. There has been a corresponding increase in the proportion of students studying elementary mathematics. A major reason for the concern is the possible downstream impact, with fewer students prepared for tertiary studies involving mathematics. This is a particular concern in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Elementary mathematics does not provide adequate preparation for tertiary subjects involving mathematics. Intermediate mathematics provides satisfactory preparation for some tertiary subjects involving mathematics but is generally not adequate preparation for physical sciences and engineering. Advanced mathematics provides preparation for tertiary mathematics subjects, including physical sciences and engineering. The descriptors, elementary, intermediate and advanced, relate to the syllabi and perceived difficulty of the material (Barrington and Brown, 2005) .  \nThe figure below shows the percentage of the overall cohort of senior secondary students in Australia who have been studying no mathematics, elementary mathematics, intermediate mathematics and advanced mathematics, using data from a report published for the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (Barrington and Brown, 2014) .  \n100  \n80  \n60  \n40  \n20  \n0  \nNone  Elementary  Intermediate  Advanced  \n1995  \n1996  \n1997  \n1998  \n1999  \n2000  \n2001  \n2002  \n2003  \n2004  \n2005  \n2006  \n2007  \n2008  \n2009  \n2010  \n2011  \n2012  \n2013  \nThere has been much speculation about the reasons for the trend away from intermediate and advanced mathematics and towards elementary mathematics. One of the most concerning suggestions is that students are opting for elementary mathematics subjects rather than intermediate and advanced subjects mathematics subjects because they believe that this will enable them to obtain a higher ATAR. A careful statistical analysis was recently carried out by Associate Professor David Pitt, Macquarie University, to examine if there was evidence to support the view that a higher ATAR could be expected by a good student if they opted for General Mathematics (Elementary) in the NSW HSC rather than Mathematics (Intermediate) . Professor Pitt examined the relative performance of students in mathematics in the School Certificate in 2011 and estimated scaled scores in HSC General Mathematics or HSC Mathematics in 2013 . The scaled scores feed into the ATAR score. Professor Pitt concluded that, on average, those students who studied HSC General Mathematics would have obtained higher scaled scores, relative to their year 10 School Certificate scores, than those who studied HSC Mathematics. An article by Eryk Bagshaw in the Sydney Morning Herald (May 19) picked up on this and reported that “the current scaling mechanisms that determine university admissions unfairly advantage general mathematics students, who study a simpler form of practical mathematics than those who undertake the calculus-based two-unit course”. This is interesting. Why would the scaling algorithm advantage students studying the easier course? After all, the very raison d'tre of scaling is to ensure that there is no advantage in taking easier subjects.  \nIt is an axiomatic fact that students with similar mathematical abilities would be able to perform better on easier exams in elementary mathematics than on more difficult exams in intermediate mathematics. But the scaling counters this. The scaled mark attempts to estimate the mark that the student would have received in a subject if all students had studied all subjects. The Report on the Scaling of the 2014 NSW Higher School Certificate, which is available for download from ","cbCaib2bXsRLHJ3j","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaib2bXsRLHJ3j","pdf",99259,"English","# Editorial\n## Shift from intermediate/advanced to elementary mathematics\n## Impact on STEM readiness\n## ATAR and scaling debate (General Mathematics vs Mathematics)\n## How scaling and standardisation work\n## Optimisation strategies and future study choices","[{\"question\":\"What concern does the editorial raise about students choosing elementary mathematics instead of intermediate or advanced mathematics?\",\"answer\":\"It warns that fewer students prepared for tertiary mathematics may harm readiness for university study, especially in STEM fields where intermediate and advanced mathematics are described as necessary.\"},{\"question\":\"What evidence is cited to discuss whether General Mathematics can lead to a higher ATAR?\",\"answer\":\"The editorial summarizes a statistical analysis by Associate Professor David Pitt comparing School Certificate performance with HSC scaled scores for students studying HSC General Mathematics versus HSC Mathematics.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the scaling algorithm described in the editorial affect raw marks and scaled marks?\",\"answer\":\"It applies a linear transformation to standardise top marks, standardises score distributions to fixed mean and standard deviation, then rescales each subject based on the average academic achievement across completed subjects.\"}]","Parabola Volume 51 - Issue 1 (2015) - Editorial | PDF",1788579397]