2020 OC preparation

This blog will take the load off the Mathemafix message board by hosting important information about 2020 OC preparation.

17 Jan
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Finally the OC result is out! After so much delay. There is no school marks so the raw test scores shows how the OC profile is related to the test scores. The average of the test scores influences the profile almost directly. English is scaled better than maths and GA. However, it shows a strange thing where the higher the scores are, the less increase in the profile is. 

There are some interesting observations. The averages for Eng, Maths and GA are Eng 69.5, Maths 76.8, GA 80.7. While it is not possible to use the figures for our students to talk about scaling of the marks across the entire NSW, however English does look quite lower and should be scaled better. Our high GA average might be because the impact of the extra GA stuff added to the website this year. The English scores for top kids also look good. It could be due to more effort we put in this year for English and the emotion type of English. The highest score in the state is 271 and that is lower than scores over 280 for the past years. Looking at the top raw scores, we can see that there is scaling down on test marks. The slightly lower profiles could be the effect of not having school marks.

OC profile versus Raw mark

Observations

05 Jan
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The OC test results will soon come out. It's expected that the results would be out by the middle of Jan so that's only just over one week away. As this OC test was still from ACER, the results should be similar to the previous 3 years. There should not be any surprise. The only surprise will be English reading scores as it was extremely unpredictable due to ACER's game to beat tutoring shops. 

When the results are out, parents can log on Mathemafix and update the scores so we can all have a picture of what the 2020 OC test performance for our students looks like.

A look back at the 2019 OC results

12 Nov
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This is the result of the last 3 OC trials when compared with past students in 2019. The last 3 tests were harder and probably more accurate to predict results. However, it also show that some kids with low scores managed a high OC profile (they were probably doing tutoring soomewhere and not too interested in doing OC trials here). We also see some kids get low profiles as they unexpectedly crashed on the day (especially in English).

Rankingby OC trials 6-8

 

Ranking by OC trials 1-8

 16 Sep

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After two delays, we are still no sure if the OC test will actually happen to plan or it will go online in Nov. If it goes online in Nov, it will surely be done at each school rather than in a hall at a high school as there won't be enough equipment.

This 2020 OC test will still be from ACER. It is expected taht the format will be the same as before and the English will be like the last 2 years. They will put a lot of questions about feelings to blunt the advantage of the students attending tutoring. It will favour older/mature students and the students who have strong empathy for others. It has been observed that a student who only read at year 4 level can beat those who read at year 6 level. The ones who read a lot of fiction with deep themes will be able to score well.

The other issue is that those who work hard right through Sep-Oct is likely to risk getting burnt out. For parents, having a courage to let kids rest and recharge is the quality that can help the kids to be at their best on the OC test day.

This OC test is like no others. It gives the slower kids a chance to catch up. It frustrates the strong perfomers who are ahead and ready for it since July. Many kids will face the risk of being burnt out. It gives kids a chance to avoid school marks which can be very unfair. If the 2020 selective test is any guide, teh OC test will have the same hard English and the maths will not be as easy as it was before.

- Students are advised to use the "resting time" now to read a lot of sad novels.
- Students should work matsh problem solving to get to the top level as maths will have more weight than before (even though the weight is less than English).

12 Mar
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Some schools will offer students at year 3-4 a chance to do Maths Olympiad competition. This is a hard maths competition where students get 30 minutes to do just 5 questions.

The maths series Mini Math Challenge Grade 4-5 is designed for this purpose. For year 3 students, it is just too difficult to participate in this competition. Year 4 students are advised to do this maths series and try to score around 80%. This means they actually have to spend about 25 minutes. They may be able to solve 4 problems in 10 minutes but one hard problem can take 15 minutes! This is why students must learn to be patient and parents must set them time between 20-30 minutes to do each test. There is no point to work on these tests the normal way spending only 10 minutes and guess what the answers.

The series Mini Math Challenge Grade Short Response 4-5 is teh harder version of Mini Math Challenge Grade 4-5. This is for really keen maths students.

10 Mar
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It looks like school disruption by coronavirus will happen frequently in the near future. It's a good idea for parents to plan for kids to do stay home and do work online rather than playing games at home. It's important to have a plan of work for days that they stay home doing a mix of reading, doing tests, review failed questions, learning vocab, writing, learning basic school maths, ... All of this is provided on Mathemafix website. Please read the OC G&T program guide for more information.

09 Mar
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The emphasis on English now is making OC placement a lot harder for kids who don't do well in English comprehension (and get good English marks at school).

There is a feature called Personal Wordlist. An English dictionary has been added to the system as well. Students can now collect the words they don't know well into a personal Wordlist to study. 

There is a guide called Enriching English Vocabulary on the page QUICK LINKS about this. This new feature will really help students get more out of the texts they do in English comprehension. They can go back to study the questions that have new words they need to learn.

03 Mar
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It's useful for parents to read the 2019 OC preparation blog where a lot of information and OC results are avialable.

https://mathemafix-users.blogspot.com/2019/01/2019-oc-preparation.html

Devices for ZOOM and online tutoring

ZOOM and online tutoring is becoming popular. However, the main two issues are slow Internet access and poor-quality laptop without an active pen.

Problem 1

Slow Internet access is often the result of 2 problems: poor wireless signal at home and poor Internet service speed. These two are separate problems. 

Solution:

See this article: wireless Speed inside the house

Problem 2

Poor quality laptops

Most parents would buy laptops in the range $500-$700 for the kids to use at school. The screen is awful with low resolution like standard HD at 1280 x 720 and very low brightness around 180 nits (versus good brightness level of 300 nits or better). You are lucky to get full HD at 1920x1080 which is still poor today. These screens tend to produce poor colours and faded texts unlike the crisp and vibrant looking quality of high-end devices. These laptops are also generally of poor quality and slow. After loading a whole bunch of bloat wares that manufacturers load on at the factory, the devices are so slow that they are unbearable to work with. Further more, there is a need for a touchscreen with an active pen for students to write on the screen to easily communicate their ideas duriing an online lesson. All of these cheap laptops do not have touch screen and active pen.

Solution 1 (best option, cheap and effective)

Look for a used Surface Pro 4 or higher on eBay. It has a bright and high resolution screen at 2736 x 1824. Even an old Surface Pro 4 with i5 CPU and 4GB memory would beat most of the cheap new student laptops by far. ZOOM software only use between 25%-40% of the power of this device. It can run a full Windows 10 OS and each device has a Windows 10 license built into its firmware. There is no need to worry about getting a Windows license. A used unit with keyboard and active pen would cost around $350-$400 on eBay auction. 

Solution 2

Get a used iPad Pro with Apple pen. The screen is nice and bright with a high resolution of 2732 x 2048. This is a pretty expensive option. Even used a good iPad Pro with Apple pen on eBay would cost around $650. A new unit would cost around $1500. The other problem is that this option does not offer a full desktop operating system for work like Windows or MacOS. The ZOOM software for iPad is decent but not as good as the one for Windows.

Solution 3

Get a new Microsoft Surface Pro. This is also expensive at around $1500 - $1800 depending on options. IT allows users to use Windows 10 and an active pen on a very nice and bright screen (Display Resolution: 2736 x 1824). It still looks the same like older models from 4-6.

 

Solution 4

Get a chrome book with a pen like the Samsung Chromebook Plus with bright and high resolution screen of 2400 x 1600. The price is quite reasonable even when new. It's hard to get a used chromebook on eBay. There are some chrome books with a pen and the prices are between $350 - $800. The most expensive ones offer much better screen at high resolution and brightess and more colours. You would need a chrome book at the price close to $800 to get touch screen and active pen. The hardware quality will be similar to those Windows laptops around $1500.

 

The only problem with this option is that ZOOM software on the device is of poor quality. ZOOM has different versions of its software on each platform. ZOOM is probably best on Windows. Then it is not too bad on iPad. But on chromebook and Android, it is quite poor. The support for pen and annotation is very poor at the moment. So, one should avoid these devices for now.

Of course, there are very expensive laptops supporting active pen as well. These are from Microsoft, HP, DELL, Lenovo, ... They costs between $2000 - $4000 and parents would not want to buy these for their kids. And they often do not provide the ability to lay them at the right angle for comfortable writing on the screen like the iPad and the Surface Pro. These laptops are more powerful and often have larger screens.

A final note is about Apple laptops just in case you wonder why they are not mentioned. They are not recommended because they do not offer touchscreen and pen. Perhaps, Apple wants to sell more iPad instead of Apple laptops which are already very expensive.

How to make sure you get the best possible wireless speed inside the house

The popularity of wireless communication in the house due to its simplicity has led to very poor performance. The house environment is now too noisy with electronic noise. When several devices are active in a house, the speed and reliability of connections just drop. People who live in apartments have interference from their neighbouring apartments too.

To improve the performance, people should look at the following options. The trouble is that many people are not confident with technology and won't learn how to buy and configure them. In this case, they should get a computer shop or their Internet provider to send a technician to help out.

Dual-band routers 

Make sure you use both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. 2.4Ghz band has the ability to communicate over longer distance and can go through walls and doors better than the high speed 5Ghz band. It's simple to create 2 wireless connections on your router. The devices far away from the router would need to use the 2.4Ghz connection. The ones close to the router will need the 5Ghz connection. If you do not have a dual band router, it's time to get one. Also make sure you have the password for the router. If you don't have it, get your ISP provider to help.

 

 WiFi Boosters, Repeaters and Extenders

A WiFi repeater or extender is used to extend the coverage area of your WiFi network. It works by receiving your existing WiFi signal, amplifying it and then transmitting the boosted signal. With a WiFi repeater you can effectively double the coverage area of your WiFi network - reaching far corners of your home or office, different floors, or even extend coverage to your yard.

However, it gives the house a lot more electronic noise in the air and there will be some speed loss in the whole environment.

 

 

Boosters, Repeaters and Extenders are slightly different in how they work but the goal is exactly the same. So, manufacturers often use the terms carelessly without saying how the device really work. As the effectiveness is pretty much similar, people don't quite care about the technical details. A notable difference is the wifi repeater which has 2 routers inside it. It creates a new wireless network and piggyback on the existing one. This means a lot of electronic noise. It's better to get a dual-band unit that receives signal in 2.4Ghz and broadcast in 5Ghz.

Add access points

For people living in a big house with 2 floors. It's impossible for the signal to travel well across floors and then further walls and doors.

An access point is a device (could be just another router or even old router). You need to run a network cable(s) from the router to another far away location(s). Then plug another router to this cable and set it up as an access point.  This option gives really good signal strength to all parts of the house with less electronic noise.

Most modern houses tend to have network cables laid to all rooms when they are built. All the cables tend to come from one place like the garage to all the rooms. This means one just need to buy a network switch and plug all these cables in the gararage to create a local area network. If you don't mind hooking your laptop to the network socket on the wall, you would already have the best speed. If you want the freedom of wireless access, you will need to set up wireless access points. 

Often just one extra wireless access point is enough to cover a typical house. You would need another one to cover the outdoor alfresco. It's cheap to get used routers on eBay to set up access points. 

This appproach also creates a local wired area network (LAN) for devices that don't get moved around. These devices can enjoy high speeds from 1Gbits/s to 10 Gbits/s making it possible to do backup via the LAN. People often install a central storage device call NAS (Network Attached Storage) to allow alldevices to store and access data from one central file server. This effectly convert the house into an office workplace.

The main trouble is that you have to run network cables for an old house and that is not easy and you often have to pay a processional electrician to install the cables. It might not be too bad if you run just one cable and try to hide it from view.

Power-line network adapters 

For older houses, it's hard to run network cables. You should if you can. However, if you cannot, you can only use signal boosters (not good) or try power-line network adapter which makes use of the copper electricity wires as "network cables".

 

The speed tends to be low and the noise from electronical devices would make the network performance unreliable. And then you have to install an access point as well. This option requires a pair of power-line network adapters and one extra router/access-point device.

For old houses, the best option is still to try to run a network cable (cat 6) and try to hide it as best as possible inside the ceiling or use the cable colour that can be blended into the colour of carpet or wall. Then install an access point. A lot of used routers could be found on eBay at cheap prices. Just make sure these routers support access point mode and both bands 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz (dual bands)

Upgrade to NBN

Finally, people should upgrade to NBN service to get faster speed and more reliable connection to Internet. If one has 4G or 5G mobile phone, this can be used as a hotspot for imergency when the fixed line is down.