Mathematics Extension 1 trial papers and questions

Andrew's default Extension 1 structure is a 70-mark paper. Section I is multiple choice, Questions 1 to 10 at one mark each, answered on the multiple-choice answer sheet. Section II is extended response, Questions 11 to 14, worth 60 marks, answered in writing booklets: the instructions tell students to answer each question in the appropriate booklet, that extra booklets are available, and that responses should include relevant mathematical reasoning and/or calculations. When the writing-booklet option is on, the cover adds the instruction to start a new booklet for each Section II question.

The mark split across the four written questions is planned so the section totals exactly 60, and the cover's per-section summary (marks, questions to attempt, time to allow) is lifted from the section's own instructions, so the cover and the section page can never disagree. The cover also carries reading time, working time and the standard calculator line.

Four written questions, three difficulty zones

As shipped, the written questions fall into three zones:

• Opening, Questions 11 and 12. Nothing below difficulty 5 on the course's own scale; most parts sit at 5 to 7 with some at 8 or 9, and a 10 may appear at most once across the two questions.
• Challenge, Question 13. Nothing below 6, the middle of the range equally likely, and a real chance of a 10.
• Finale, Question 14. The last part is forced to a 10, the hardest thing on the paper, and its other parts stay at 8 or 9.

Section I ramps too: it starts at the preset's floor and climbs monotonically, and the last multiple-choice item is always a 10. The scale is course-relative. A 10 is as hard as the hardest question an HSC Extension 1 paper has carried, reached through deeper reasoning within the Extension 1 syllabus, never through Extension 2 techniques.

Under the 2017 edition of the Stage 6 syllabus, the version examined in the HSC today, Mathematics Extension 1 has seven areas of study: Functions, Proof, Vectors, Trigonometric Functions, Calculus, Combinatorics and Statistical Analysis. Each question in Andrew's bank is tagged to a dot point inside one of them; the generator's topic picker is organised by area of study, then subtopic and syllabus dot point, and the table below lists the NESA topic codes those areas correspond to in Andrew's syllabus registry:

A teacher starts by choosing one of the four difficulty presets. Standard HSC is calibrated to typical HSC exam difficulty and starts Section I at difficulty 1. Above Average is a challenging public school trial level and starts at 2. Selective School is a selective school trial level and starts at 3. Elite Selective is a top selective school level and starts at 5, so even the opening multiple-choice items demand some work. The written zones keep their shape under every preset; the preset changes the style guidance for the written questions, not the zone targets.

Topic selection works at the level of an area of study or an individual NESA topic. A full trial samples every area; an assessment task after the Vectors unit can be confined to the Vectors area, with Section I sampling across the chosen topics and each written question primarily testing one topic. The generator keeps each section's marks summing to its declared total, renders the paper with KaTeX on screen, and compiles it to PDF with pdflatex, with a Worked Solutions section after the questions.

Worked solutions are checked by a computer algebra system where available and carry the Verified · CAS label; proofs, including induction, can additionally carry a Verified · Lean 4 label when they have been formally checked. The labels and their limits are described on how solutions are verified. Teachers remain responsible for reviewing AI-generated content before using it in a formal assessment. For homework and revision rather than an examination, the worksheet generator draws on the same bank, and the question bank can be searched by topic directly.

A department that writes the Mathematics Advanced trial as well as the Extension 1 trial can generate both from one place, on the same bank. The Mathematics Extension 2 page covers the course the strongest students of Extension 1 continue into, and Mathematics Standard 2 completes the set. For the 2024 syllabus, first examined in the HSC in 2027, see the new syllabus page.