If you want to use Methods Past Exams for study, but are worried about the different curriculum, read on!

The recent curriculum change has been a bit of a drama so far! By far, the biggest issue has probably been the revision of text books (HA!)

Bit of a joke really. There isn’t anything scarier than doing a bunch of practice questions, and thinking you got half of them wrong when you check the back of the book.

Good old reliable BOB wasn’t so reliable.

The second hardest part is probably the fact that past exams might not be 100% reliable as study material anymore, seeing as content has been added and removed from the curriculum of all three Maths subjects in VCE.

So, to make your life a bit easier, I have compiled

a list of all questions that should be either removed or altered in the VCAA Past Exams for Maths Methods.

Based on the these changes:

• Modulus (absolute value) function has been moved into the Specialist Maths Curriculum
• Related Rates has been moved in the Specialist Maths Curriculum
• Calculation of normals is no longer required (although tangents still are)
• Matrices are technically removed from curriculum, but may still be seen in the context of transformations
• Markov Chains are not longer in the curriculum
• Euler’s rule of approximation is removed
• Statistical Inference (including population parameters, random sampling simulation and the common 95% confidence interval)  has been introduced as a final chapter in the curriculum.

The exams are definitely still a valuable tool for study, but now you can confidently go through them without having a melt down when you stumble across a question you can’t answer.

Visual representation of melt down

Click through the tabs below to see a summary of the effects of the curriculum changes. Points show with no explanation can be skipped. If there is an explanation after a dash, that question can be adjusted so as to still provide valuable practice.

Exam 1

• Question 7 (modulus)
• Question 10 (modulus)

Exam 2

• MC Question 4
• MC Question 7
• MC Question 10
• MC Question 11
• Extended Answer Question 1aii – remove modulus symbols
• Extended Answer Question 1d – remove modulus symbols

Exam 1

• Question 4 (related rates)
• Question 9a – find the tangent instead of the normal
• Question 9b – use $y=-2x+2$ as the equation of the line. You are not required to calculate this equation under the new curriculum

Exam 2

• MC Question 8 (modulus)
• MC Question 14 – remove modulus symbols
• Extended Answer Question 3c – Find the maximum value of both $f(x)-g(x)$ and $g(x)-f(x)$

Exam 1

• Question 6a – this question is still relevant despite the presence of the modulus function
• Question 6b

Exam 2

• MC Question 2
• MC Question 11 – use this function instead: $f(x)=\left\{ \begin{array}{lcl}x-1 & if & 0\leqslant x \leqslant 1 \\ 1-x & if & 1 < x \leqslant 2 \\ 0 & if & else \end{array}\right$
• MC Question 16
• MC Question 21

• Question 6
• Question 10

Exam 2

• MC Question 14
• MC Question 20 – remove modulus symbols
• Extended Answer Question 4c – use $\frac{dh}{dt} = \frac{9}{h^2}$ from question 4b

Exam 1

• No unnecessary questions

Exam 2

• MC Question 3
• MC Question 5
• MC Question 18
• Extended Answer Question 2d (both parts)

Exam 1

• Question 5 – use this formula instead: $f(x)=\left\{ \begin{array}{lcl}x-3 & if & 2\leqslant x \leqslant 3 \\ 3-x & if & 3 < x \leqslant 4 \\ 0 & if & else \end{array} \right.$

Exam 2

• MC Question 2
• MC Question 7
• MC Question 10
• MC Question 16
• MC Question 17
• Extended Answer Question 1c – use calculator to produce graph, then proceed as normal

• Question 5

Exam 2

• MC Question 9 – use tangent instead of normal
• MC Question 17 – answer question according to simultaneous equations: $\begin{array}{rcrcl}mx & + & 3y & = & 1 \\ x & + & (m+2)y & = & m \end{array}$
• MC Question 21
• MC Question 22

Exam 1

• Question 9b
• Question 9c – remove modulus symbols

Exam 2

• MC Question 8
• MC Question 12

Exam 1

• No unnecessary questions

Exam 2

• MC Question 7
• MC Question 20

Exam 1

• No unnecessary questions

Exam 2

• MC Question 18
• MC Question 20

Good luck!

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