WACE Mathematics Applications: data, finance and networks

The Applications exam

Applications is the most real-world of the WACE ATAR mathematics courses, and the exam reflects it: stimulus can be a table of data, a diagram, a graph or a media extract, and questions often end with a conclusion in context. The brief lists two sections.

Reading time is five minutes before Section One and ten before Section Two. Section One allows no special items. In Section Two you may bring notes on two unfolded A4 sheets and up to three calculators, which can be scientific, graphic or CAS, and the supervisor provides a formula sheet. Questions above two marks need working.

Unit 3 and Unit 4 topics

Both statistics topics are taught inside the statistical investigation process, so you are asked to describe, analyse and communicate, not just calculate.

Worked examples

A recursive growth model

A savings account holds $2000 and earns 5% interest each year, compounded. The rule is Vₙ₊₁ = 1.05Vₙ with V₀ = 2000, so after three years:

The balance is $2315.25. Notice that the sequence is geometric, with a common ratio of 1.05, so a table of V₁, V₂ and V₃ (2100.00, 2205.00, 2315.25) is a good way to show the pattern in Section One.

Interpreting a correlation

A scatterplot of hours studied against test score has correlation coefficient r = 0.90. The coefficient of determination is r² = 0.81, so about 81% of the variation in scores is explained by the variation in study time. The remaining 19% is due to other factors, and the association alone does not prove that studying causes higher scores.

Can the route be walked in one go?

An Euler path uses every edge exactly once. It exists when a connected graph has exactly two vertices of odd degree. Here A and C each have degree 3 and B and D have degree 2, so an Euler path exists, and it must start at A and finish at C (or the reverse). There is no Euler circuit, because that would need every degree to be even.

Probability practice that supports the statistics half of Applications is in the Probability course, and a regression sum can be checked in our Linear Regression calculator.

School marks and the ATAR

SCSA sets the school weightings for Year 12 Applications at response 40%, investigation 20% and examination 40%. Schools give A to E grades and a school mark out of 100, which is moderated against exam marks at the school, averaged with the exam mark, and then used by TISC in the ATAR calculation.

Dates

Use the daily paper as a trial

SCSA does not publish a trial exam, so your school sets its own. The Year 12 Statistics daily paper is a short timed trial of 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, marked as you go. It is not a full WACE paper.

• It matches: correlation and regression, and interpreting data presentations.
• It does not match: its rotation also includes hypothesis testing, the normal and binomial distributions and conditional probability, which are not in Applications, and it has no financial mathematics, recursion, time series or networks. Those you will revise from class notes and the formula sheet.
• Do the first questions by hand to practise for the calculator-free section.

Exam answers

Answers and a worked mark scheme come with each daily paper once it has been marked. They are Uni-Sine's own, not official SCSA answers.

Mistakes in Applications

• Quoting r when asked for r², or the other way round.
• Describing a seasonal index without saying whether it is above or below average.
• Giving a loan answer without the payment period, so the interest rate is applied per year when it should be per month.
• Stating that a correlation shows cause.

Read next

Australia · WACEWACE Maths Applications formula sheet: the SCSA sheetThe SCSA Mathematics Applications ATAR formula sheet: all 12 lines, what it leaves out, the notes rule, and finance and statistics examples.