I READ various complaints about the recent Higher Maths exam ("Teachers say Highers 'too hard'", The Herald, May 23, and Letters, May 23); from my viewpoint point as a GTCS-registered teacher with many years' experience in both the secondary and higher education sectors, I beg to differ.
In my opinion, the exam was well set and within the syllabus, but in a few questions it unusually expected the candidates to undertake the painful process of thinking - even under examination conditions.
The Higher Maths exam (along with the so-called Advanced Higher) had become seriously typecast : many, if not most, of the questions had been reduced to a near standard routine where little mathematical thinking was required and the challenge to obtain a good grade was more a matter of the candidates' ability to write quickly than to demonstrate a modicum of reasoning, given that an accompanying "formulae list" supplies what used to be a trivial piece of recall.
I suppose that it brings into question what exactly the purpose a mathematics examination is intended to achieve; hopefully it should place greater emphasis on reasoning ability rather than parroting routines from which any departure is greeted with complaints.
Dr JC Davidson,
48 Hatton Road, Luncarty, Perthshire.
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