UPDATE: If you are looking for the latest exam solutions, you can find them here: Worked Solutions to the 2023 HSC Mathematics Standard 2 Exam
Each year, as soon as the paper is officially published, I work through the solutions to the latest HSC exam while we wait for the official solutions to be published. You can find my complete handwritten solutions to all questions on the 2021 HSC Mathematics Standard 2 Exam here:
2021 HSC Mathematics Standard 2 Exam Worked Solutions
Any corrections made to the answers will be posted here. If you find what you think may be an error, please let me know!
Very soon we will upload videos of detailed explanations for all questions on this latest test. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified when they are published, or check back here!
2021 students – congratulations on finishing Standard maths!
Thoughts on the exam
I think the 2021 Standard 2 exam was pretty balanced, with a mix of easy, medium, and difficult questions. As usual, the test writers had some creative ways of framing questions to test the various parts of the syllabus. In particular, I thought Question 36(c) and Question 41 were interesting questions. Of course, 41 was a difficult and involved question being 4-marks as well as the last one on the exam.
As we’ve seen lately, skills in using formulae, creating equations, and solving equations were important to many of the questions from all aspects of the syllabus. I thought Question 27(b) was particularly tricky in this regard, but it could be solved with a table of values (which would take more time).
I expect Question 30 stumped a lot of students. If you see the solution it is not particularly difficult, but the set up would throw a lot of students off.
If you took the 2021 Mathematics Standard 2 exam, I’d love you hear your thoughts!