How to Improve Your VCE General Maths Score: 2025 Examiner Report Breakdown

The VCE General Mathematics external assessment consists of two examinations, each testing the same four areas of study in a different way.

Examination 1 is made up of 40 multiple-choice questions. Examination 2 has short-answer and extended-answer questions worth 60 marks. Both exams allow an approved CAS calculator, so success depends on understanding the concepts, using technology accurately and following instructions carefully, especially rounding instructions.

This guide breaks down both 2025 examiner reports published by the VCAA, question by question. For the previous year's analysis, see our 2024 General Maths examiner report breakdown.

Key Takeaways

• In Examination 1, students averaged 69% correct. They performed best in matrices (78%) and worst in recursion and financial modelling (55%).
• In Examination 2, matrices was the weakest area: students averaged only about 40% of the marks, compared with about 58% in data analysis.
• The hardest Exam 2 questions were 13b.i (91% scored zero), 14c (89%) and 12b (87%), all matrix questions.
• In Exam 1, Question 38 split students evenly, with 47% choosing the correct answer and 47% choosing B.
• Many marks were lost through rounding too early, sign errors and not using the formal terminology from the study design.

Structure and Differences Between VCE General Maths Exams

School-assessed coursework makes up the remaining 40% of the study score (24% in Unit 3 and 16% in Unit 4).

Key Differences in the Exams

• Examination 1 rewards speed and accuracy across all four areas of study. With 40 questions in 90 minutes, students need to recognise question types quickly and use their CAS efficiently. Data analysis makes up 40% of the paper.
• Examination 2 requires students to show working, use precise terminology and follow rounding instructions exactly. Many marks in 2025 were lost on explanations and on answers that weren't given in the required form.

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Question Breakdown for VCE General Mathematics Examination 1

The table below shows each Examination 1 question, its topic, the correct answer, the percentage of students who answered correctly and the most common wrong answer, as published in the 2025 examiner report.

Source: VCAA, 2025 VCE General Mathematics 1 external assessment report. Topic labels are our own.

Key Takeaways from the Examiner's Report

• Strongest performance: Question 28 (communication matrices, 93%), Question 7 (two-way tables, 86%), and Questions 14 and 34 (time series features and bridges, both 85%) were answered best.
• Most challenging questions: Question 40 (39%) required building a project network with a dummy activity before finding a float time. Question 23 (41%) required converting an effective rate to a nominal rate. In Question 38 (47%), as many students chose B as the correct answer, A.
• Recursion and financial modelling was the weakest area: Six of the eight financial questions (17–20, 23 and 24) were answered correctly by 55% of students or fewer.

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Key Takeaways From General Maths Examination 1 in 2025

Examination 1 rewards fast, accurate reasoning across the whole course. The worked solutions in the 2025 report show which approaches worked best and where students went wrong.

Key Skills to Focus On

• Finance Solver fluency: Questions 22, 23 and 24 all required careful Finance Solver entries, including correct signs for PV, PMT and FV, the right compounding periods and a conversion between effective and nominal interest rates.
• Depreciation methods: Students needed to compare flat rate, reducing balance and unit cost depreciation (Questions 19 and 20).
• Data transformations: Log and squared transformations (Questions 11 and 12) and using the transformed equation to make a prediction.
• Seasonal indices: In Question 16, a seasonal index of 1.75 means dividing by 1.75, which is the same as multiplying by about 0.57, a 43% reduction.
• Project networks: Drawing networks from precedence tables, including dummy activities, and calculating float times.

Advice to Students

• Use your CAS for regression where possible: In Question 9, the assessment guide notes that reading two points off a graph gives only an approximate gradient (−0.176). Entering the data into a CAS gives the exact value (−0.178).
• Eliminate options systematically: The report's worked solutions for the matrix and networks questions (25, 28, 31 and 39) eliminate options one at a time. This is an efficient approach for multiple-choice questions.
• Remember correlation isn't causation: In Question 10, options B and C could be rejected straight away because causation can't be concluded from an association.
• Check what the question asks for: In Question 21, 20 years of payments equals exactly $250 000, so one more year is needed to exceed it.
• Work through every step of an algorithm: In Question 39, each wrong option came from applying the Hungarian algorithm steps in the wrong order or skipping a step.

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Common Mistakes

• Log scales (Q4): 30% of students chose C. The population density needed to be calculated first (8372.86), and then its log (3.92), which falls between 3.5 and 4.0.
• Seasonal indices (Q16): Half the cohort answered incorrectly. Deseasonalising means dividing by the seasonal index, and dividing by 1.75 is the same as multiplying by 0.57, a 43% reduction.
• Simple interest (Q17): About a third of students chose A instead of the correct expression for the balance after three years.
• Depreciation comparisons (Q19): Only 49% found that flat rate depreciation first gives the lower value after 6 years (solving 60 000 − 4000n = 60 000 × 0.92ⁿ gives n = 5.58…).
• Interest rate conversions (Q23): Students needed to convert the effective rate of 4.51% to a nominal rate (4.415%) before using the Finance Solver. 32% chose D.
• Shortest path (Q38): As many students chose B as the correct answer, A. Checking every possible route carefully is essential.
• Dummy activities (Q40): Only 39% recognised that the network needed a dummy activity between the end of B and the start of G, giving B a float of 8.

Question Breakdown for VCE General Mathematics Examination 2

Examination 2 has short-answer and extended-answer questions across the four areas of study. The table below shows each question's topic and the percentage of students who received each mark, along with the average mark.

Source: VCAA, 2025 VCE General Mathematics 2 external assessment report. Topic labels are our own.

Key Observations from the Examiner's Report

Averages are calculated from the published mark distributions and are approximate.

• Strongest performance: Questions 11a (96% full marks), 4a (94%), 7a (93%) and 15b (91%) were answered best. Students were confident identifying the order of a matrix, the explanatory variable, a loan's principal and using Euler's formula.
• Most challenging questions: Questions 13b.i (91% scored zero), 14c (89%) and 12b (87%) were the hardest on the paper. All three were matrix questions involving transition or permutation matrices.
• A reversal in matrices: Matrices was the strongest area in Exam 1 (78% correct) but the weakest in Exam 2 (about 40%). Students could recognise matrix types and operations but struggled to apply and interpret transition and permutation matrices in context.

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Key Takeaways From General Maths Examination 2 in 2025

Examination 2 tests whether students can apply the course in context, explain their reasoning in precise language and give answers in the required form. The 2025 report placed particular emphasis on rounding, terminology and showing working.

Key Skills to Focus On

• Regression and residuals: Finding r from r², interpreting the intercept and the coefficient of determination, calculating residuals and plotting them accurately.
• Time series: Naming the features of a time series using the study design's terms and calculating seasonal indices.
• Finance Solver and recurrence relations: Reading amortisation tables, finding the number of payments and interest rates, and writing recurrence relations with the correct signs.
• Transition and permutation matrices: Interpreting transition matrices in context, tracking groups that leave a system and understanding how repeated permutations cycle.
• Critical path analysis: Identifying critical activities, latest start times, float times and the cheapest way to crash a project.

Advice to Students

#### Rounding and Exact Answers

• Only round when instructed: The exam instructions state, "In all questions where a numerical answer is required, you should only round your answer when instructed to do so." In Question 3, the answer needed to be 83.85%, not 84%.
• Don't round in the middle of a calculation: In Question 13b.i, the expected number of children shouldn't have been rounded to 10 before the final step. The answer was 37.4%.
• Watch designated rounding questions: Questions 1c.i and 7c only accepted one exact answer ($346 466, and 2885.55 / 12 845.33 / 811 598.26).
• Interpret calculator notation: In Question 5a, many students misread values shown in exponent notation, such as 1.05E6 (1 050 000).

#### Terminology and Explanations

• Use the study design's terms: In Question 6a, the features were seasonality and irregular fluctuations, and there was no trend. Irregular fluctuations are present in all time series plots. The report reminds students that these features are clearly named in the study design.
• Refer to the explanatory variable: In Question 4d, the answer was extrapolation because 2 km lies outside the range of the explanatory variable. Referring to the sale price being outside the data range wasn't accepted.
• Use the information you're given: In Question 1c.ii, the question directed students to Table 2, so the comparison needed to use standard deviation. Using range or IQR wasn't appropriate.
• Only include correct extra information: In Question 18c, only activity F was needed. If an incorrect float time was also written, the mark wasn't awarded.

#### Showing Working

• Show every step in "show that" questions: In Question 4f.i, students needed to show both the predicted value (1 222 016) and the residual calculation (27 984).
• Show working for multi-mark questions: For Question 13b.ii, the report notes that an incorrect answer on its own can't receive any marks, but a method mark can be awarded for showing how the answer was developed.
• Be precise on grids: In Question 4f.ii, the residual point needed to be placed carefully, taking particular care with the scale.

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Common Mistakes

#### Data Analysis

• Losing the negative sign (4b): 79% of students scored zero, many by giving +0.284 instead of −0.284. They didn't notice that the least squares line in the question had a negative slope.
• Seasonal indices (6b): 74% scored zero. The seasonal index for September was 0.588 (or 0.587, as two methods were accepted).
• Coefficient of determination (5b): The correct interpretation was "75% of the variation in sale price can be explained by the variation in days."

#### Recursion and Financial Modelling

• Using the Finance Solver when told to use the table (7c): Students were instructed to use the values in the table. A Finance Solver gave a slightly different balance, which wasn't accepted.
• Counting payments (7d): The loan needed 60 payments, so there were 59 payments before the final one.
• Rule vs recurrence relation (8a.ii): Many students gave a recurrence relation again instead of the rule Vₙ = 40 000 − 8000n.
• Growth factor (9b.ii): R = 1 + 6.96/(100 × 52) = 1.0013. Students needed to show the calculation using their answer from 9b.i.
• Sign of the payment (10): Some students found the correct payment but wrote it as a positive value. In the recurrence relation, it needed to be −22 126.27.

#### Matrices

• Rows vs columns (11b): Many answers suggested the rows had been summed instead of the columns. The product gave the total enrolments for each day of the week.
• Diagonal matrices (11c): Many responses showed a poor understanding of what a diagonal matrix is.
• Forgetting groups that leave (12b): Many students answered 115 by including children who had left the centre. The answer was 50.
• Identity and permutation matrices (14c): Only 11% understood the effect of the identity matrix. The activities rotate on a four-day cycle, completing 10 cycles in the 40-day program.

#### Networks and Decision Mathematics

• Adding edges to a spanning tree (15d): Some students included an edge that wasn't in the original graph.
• Unknown values (16): The value of y was often given as 3 instead of 4.
• Eulerian circuits (17a): Answers needed to mention vertices and their degree. Two vertices (C and E) are of odd degree, but an Eulerian circuit requires all vertices to be of even degree.
• Crashing (18d): Only 21% found the minimum additional cost of $1400, which reduces A by 2 days and H and K by 1 day each.

Conclusion

The 2025 VCE General Mathematics examiner reports show that most students are confident with routine skills: reading statistics from tables, identifying matrix types and applying Euler's formula. The marks that separated students came from applying concepts in context and presenting answers exactly as required.

The most common reasons for lost marks were:

• rounding too early or when not instructed to
• sign errors, such as a positive correlation coefficient or payment
• not using the formal terminology from the study design
• misinterpreting transition and permutation matrices in context
• incomplete working in "show that" and multi-mark questions.

Working through past papers under timed conditions and checking your answers against VCAA reports is the best way to avoid these mistakes. For more preparation, see how one of our tutors scored a 50 in VCE General Maths, work through our 100+ practice General Maths multiple-choice questions, read everything you need to know about VCE General Maths, check our guide to VCE command terms and see the VCE exam timetable 2026 for this year's exam dates. Studying Maths Methods too? See our 2025 Maths Methods examiner report breakdown.

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Sources: VCAA, 2025 VCE General Mathematics 1 and 2 external assessment reports and assessment guides.