VCE General Maths: a 40 question Exam 1, a 60 mark Exam 2 and what the four areas of study ask

VCE General Maths Exam 1 and Exam 2

From the VCAA examination specifications for General Mathematics (from 2023), checked on 11 November 2026. The VCAA sets the exam dates each year and publishes them in its examination timetable; the 2027 dates were not available to check.

All questions are compulsory. In both exams you may bring approved technology with numerical, graphical, symbolic, financial and statistical functionality, one scientific calculator, and one bound reference, which can be a textbook, a bound lecture pad, an exercise book or permanently bound notes without foldouts. The formula sheet is the same for both exams. Exam 1 tests your knowledge of models and techniques; Exam 2 tests how you select and apply them to extended problems.

Areas of study and SACs

The study design for Units 3 and 4 gives the four areas, and every outcome is examined: data analysis, recursion and financial modelling, matrices, and networks and decision mathematics. The two exams add to 60% of the study score, so School-assessed Coursework makes up the other 40%.

Worked examples

Recursion for savings

You start with $5000 in an account paying 3% per annum compounded monthly and add $200 at the end of each month. The monthly rate is 0.03 ÷ 12 = 0.0025, so:

That gives V₁ = $5212.50 and V₂ = 5212.50 × 1.0025 + 200 = $5425.53. In Exam 1 you pick the matching rule from the options; in Exam 2 you also use the financial solver and state the inputs.

A steady state with matrices

A transition matrix says 80% of customers who use Shop A stay, 20% move to B, and 30% of B customers move to A, 70% stay. In the long run, with x the share at A, the share that leaves A each step equals the share that arrives: 0.2x = 0.3(1 − x), so x = 0.6. The long-run split is 60% at A and 40% at B.

Outliers and Euler trails

A data set has Q1 = 12 and Q3 = 20, so the IQR is 8. The upper fence is 20 + 1.5 × 8 = 32, so any value above 32 is an outlier. For networks, a connected graph with exactly two vertices of odd degree has an Euler trail that starts at one and ends at the other.

Use the daily paper as a trial

Each daily paper has 8 original questions and 25 to 35 marks, a short timed trial of 35 to 45 minutes, not a full VCE exam. Schools run their own trial exams, and our VCE trial exams guide explains when and how they count.

The Year 12 Statistics paper only matches the data analysis area, through its data presentation and interpretation, measures of location and spread, and correlation and regression questions. Recursion, matrices and networks are not on it, so use the VCAA's past exams and examination reports for those. Skip its hypothesis testing, binomial and sampling questions.

Exam answers

Answers and a worked mark scheme for the daily paper come with today's paper once it's marked. They are ours: the VCAA publishes its own examination reports.

Common mistakes in VCE General Maths

• Using the annual rate in the recursion. Divide by the number of compounding periods.
• Trusting the bound reference too much. Exam 1 has 40 questions in 90 minutes, so you have about two minutes each.
• Leaving out the interpretation. A slope or correlation needs a sentence about the variables.
• Missing the long-run behaviour. Steady-state questions need the whole system, not a single step.

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Australia · VCEVCE General Maths formula sheet: the VCAA sheetThe VCAA VCE General Mathematics formula sheet for Exams 1 and 2: all 13 lines, what is missing, the bound reference rule and worked examples.