Main image via Champion Tutor + Malay Mail
Every SPM season, there’s one paper that students dread sitting for, no matter how hard they’ve studied for it. That paper? Additional Mathematics aka Add Maths.
But this year, the students had every reason to worry as the paper was so tough that even the teachers were having a hard time trying to answer it!
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The Star reported that this year’s Add Maths questions were “so tough that they left some student in tears after sitting for the papers.”
The standards of the questions were even higher than Singapore’s O-Levels, said a seasoned mathematics teacher.
According to the maths teacher, who did not want to be named, it took him nearly an hour just to complete two questions in Paper 1!
“Most Add Maths teachers (in the country) will struggle with those questions, which are harder than Singapore’s,” he said. “It was definitely very challenging for students to finish 12 questions in two-and-a-half hours.”
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The teacher noted that most of the students who sat for the paper, were only able to complete up to half of the questions on the Add Maths paper.
While he believes that it’s a good move on the government’s part to incorporate and foster high order thinking skills (HOTS) questions, he noted that it would only work if the students and teachers were trained to handle them.
Designing difficult questions could cause students to lose confidence in the subject and they could then decide to drop the subject.
“It cuts off a lot of potential career paths,” the teacher said. “For example, Add Maths in A-Levels is needed to pursue medicine, pharmacy, psychology and more.”
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Steven, an SPM candidate from Selangor, said that the questions were totally different from the usual and that caused him to be confused.
“My heard sank as many of the topic I could score with were questioned in a peculiar manner that I could not understand,” he said. “Many students worked extremely hard for Add Maths but many cried after sitting for the paper.”
“Add Maths broke me,” said Delilah, a consistent top 10 student in her form who was aiming to score straight As to apply for scholarships.
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Did you sit for the SPM Add Maths paper this year or know someone who did? What was the toughest part of the paper? Let us know!
Info via The Star