Interest, depreciation, annuities and loans: the mathematics a student will actually use as an adult, and the one most easily got wrong by applying the wrong formula.
These are the statements the Mathematics Standard 2 syllabus makes about Strand: Financial Mathematics. Dux records each one against the questions you answer, so you can see which of them you have actually been tested on and which have never been asked.
Percentage change, discounts, GST and wages, including the compound effects of successive percentage changes.
Simple and compound interest, and depreciation, with the difference between them established from the formula rather than by memory.
Recurrence relations for annuities and reducing-balance loans, and the meaning of the repayment split between interest and principal.
Credit cards, fees and effective rates: distinguishing the advertised rate from the rate actually paid.
Taxable income, the marginal rate structure and the difference between the marginal and average rate, plus deductions and the Medicare levy.
Using an index or a percentage increase to compare money across time, and explaining why a nominal pay rise can be a real pay cut.
HSC Mathematics Standard 2 - Trial Paper Shape is 100 marks in 150 minutes. Questions on Strand: Financial Mathematics are not one shape repeated: the command word decides what the marker is looking for, and the mark value decides how much of it. These are the ones Mathematics Standard 2 uses.
Dux writes practice for this module in exactly these shapes, so the drill is the same task the paper sets — not a general knowledge quiz with the module name on it.
Strand: Financial Mathematics is module 3 of 6 in Mathematics Standard 2. Students routinely lose marks because a question spans two modules, so the neighbouring modules are worth reading next to this one.
Dux diagnoses Mathematics Standard 2 dot point by dot point, then writes questions in the shape this course marks. Written answers come back marked against the bands.