In September, after Year 10 Assessment 3, the Mathematics Department will place each Year 10 student in the Year 11 course that best suits their mathematical ability and performance at that stage of their schooling, and enables them to have the highest chance of success in the HSC. A letter will be sent home in September communicating this placement, although class streaming within these levels will still be dependent on final Year 10 marks at the end of the year.
Should a parent or student wish to request a different course of Mathematics, they may contact Mr Hanlon one week after the final Semester 2 assessments in November to discuss a potential adjustment.
Secondary School Mathematics Pathways:
Contact
Head of Department: Graham Hanlon
Email: [email protected]
Overview of Mathematics Advanced
- 2 Units for each of the Preliminary and HSC courses.
- Prerequisites: The Year 10 Pathway to Advanced or Extension Mathematics course at Barker College.
- Exclusions: Year 11 Mathematics Standard
At the end of Year 10, there is no pathway for students to move from Year 10 Pathway to Standard Mathematics into Year 11 Advanced Mathematics. Therefore, Year 10 students who are currently studying the Year 10 Pathway to Standard course and wish to be considered for the Year 11 Advanced Course must nominate their interest prior to the end of Term 2 2026, by submitting a subject change form. This form can be found on the Senior School Student Portal and must be completed by the student. Students wishing to make this transition must use the July holiday period to prepare for a transition into the Year 10 Pathway to Advanced course at the beginning of Term 3. Any transition to the higher‑level course requires the Head of Department to be satisfied that the student has demonstrated the capabilities needed for success at Advanced level.
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 a report grade of A or B in Year 10 Pathway to Advanced Mathematics, or a report grade of C, D or E in Year 10 Pathway to Extension Mathematics at Barker College should undertake the Mathematics Advanced 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
- Working with functions
- Graph transformations
- Trigonometry and measure of angles
- Trigonometric identities and equations
- Introduction to differentiation
- Exponential and logarithmic functions
- Probability and data
HSC Course Topics
- Further graph transformations and modelling
- Sequences and series
- Differential calculus
- Integral calculus
- Applications of calculus
- Random Variables
- Financial mathematics
Assessment
The assessment for Mathematics Advanced will include a mix of in-class tests, investigation-style tasks and an examination.
