Mathematics Advanced

2 Units for each of the Preliminary and HSC courses.

Prerequisites: The Year 9 & 10 5.2 course and all relevant topics from the Year 9 & 10 5.3 Mathematics course.

Exclusions: Mathematics Standard

The Mathematics Advanced course is a “pure” Mathematics course and requires students to possess highly advanced algebraic and curve sketching skills. In addition to the study of Calculus and its application to real world problems (which forms the majority of the course), other topic areas include Trigonometry, Functions, Statistical Analysis, Probability and Financial Mathematics.

The course quickly builds in intensity and difficulty with each new topic requiring an excellent understanding, grasp and recall of all of the previous concepts studied in order to have a good chance of success. Even highly capable students who do not apply themselves appropriately can find this course a significant challenge. It is strongly recommended that only students who have gained either a Barker report mark in excess of 70% in Year 10 5.3 Mathematics (or in excess of 90% in Year 10 5.2 Mathematics) should undertake study of this particular course.

The Mathematics Advanced course explores separate topics to those studied in the Mathematics Standard course, i.e. the Mathematics Standard course is not a subset of the Mathematics Advanced course. If a student wishes to change to the Mathematics Standard course after the start of Year 11, a significant amount of material from the Mathematics Standard course will need to be caught up. Thus, it is important that students and their parents choose wisely before deciding which of the two 2 Unit Mathematics courses they will begin. Any change from the Mathematics Advanced course to the Mathematics Standard course must occur before the beginning of Year 11, Term 4. In addition, a position in an appropriate Mathematics Standard class timetabled at the same time cannot be fully guaranteed.

Preliminary Course Topics

• Functions
• Trigonometry and Measure of Angles
• Trigonometric Functions and Identities
• Introduction to Differentiation
• Logarithmic and Exponential Functions
• Probability and Discrete Probability Distributions

HSC Course Topics

• Graphing Techniques
• Trigonometric Functions and Graphs
• Differential Calculus
• The Second Derivative
• Integral Calculus
• Modelling Financial Situations
• Descriptive Statistics and Bivariate Data Analysis
• Random Variables

Assessment

The assessment for Mathematics Advanced will include a mix of in-class tests, investigation-style tasks and an examination.