Financial Mathematics Assessment – Advanced Mathematics

Planning the Purchase of a Car

Weighting: 30% Duration: One Week

Marking criteria:

You will be marked on how well you

 Select and use appropriate technology, mathematical processes, and terms

 Construct arguments to prove and justify your results
 Organize your assignment and data you have collected within it
 Demonstrate an understanding of financial mathematics

Outcomes assessed:

 models and solves problems and makes informed decisions about financial situations
using mathematical reasoning and techniques MA12-2
 applies the concepts and techniques of arithmetic and geometric sequences and
series in the solution of problems MA12-4
 chooses and uses appropriate technology effectively in a range of contexts, models
and applies critical thinking to recognise appropriate times for such use MA12-9
 constructs arguments to prove and justify results and provides reasoning to support
conclusions which are appropriate to the context MA12-10

Rationale:

This assessment task is constructed for students to display the knowledge they have gained
from the Modelling Financial Situations topic. It is an open-ended task where there will be
as many possibilities as there are students, so no 2 should look the same. Students should
be able to justify their answers mathematically and provides written answers to explain they
arrived at their answers and final position.

This task provides students with the opportunity to work hands on with a task they might
soon be taking on in the real world and can help prepare them for various situations.
Budgeting for a car loan
In this assessment you will be creating a budget to determine the amount of savings you
may have left per week and using that to determine whether you will be able to afford your
dream car. Can you afford it now? Would putting extra money in a savings account for a few
years help? These a just a few things you will be working out. Each section should be
accompanied with screen shots of your choices, final decisions, or any spreadsheets used.
You should be able to explain all the circumstances, back up any assumptions make, and
provide justification with the necessary calculations.

1. Budgeting

Create a realistic budget using Microsoft Excel based on your own circumstances, someone
you know, or create one from scratch. This will be the basis on which you build the rest of
your assignment. As saving up for a car or paying off a loan for a car can take many years it
may be a good idea to think about hurdles you may face in the future when it comes to a
change in your financial situation.

2. Car loan

Find your dream car. Search the internet to find all the prices you think you are going to
need. Then, search around the internet looking for various car loans and rates. Use their
online calculators to determine payments, rates, and/or length of the loan. Is the car
affordable?

3. Savings account

Using the internet search the various different kinds of savings accounts offered by banks,
providing screenshots. How does this savings account stack up against the car loan? Is the
car still affordable? Will you still be able to buy the car in the same time?

4. Conclusion

Provide a detailed conclusion of everything you have found. Some questions you might want
to think about are:

 What are some of the advantages and disadvantages to each method?

 What things might you change in order to get a better deal?
Importance of assessment
Defined simply, assessment is the method of determining what children and young people
know, understand and are able to do (Parentzone Scotland, 2018). Assessment, however, is
much more than that and plays many more roles than people may realize. Assessment is a
way of measuring students’ improvement over time, it motivates study, and also helps
evaluate your teaching methods (Goos, Stillman & Vale, 2007; Jabbarifar, 2009).
Assessments can range from tests, to investigative assignments, to communication in the
classroom. Incorporating all these forms of assessment, especially in mathematics, can help
keep students engaged in the work. Especially when it comes to investigative style
assignments, students, not only find the work easier, but also tend to be more engaged
when they can see the link to the real world (Lowrie, 2004).

Assessment is an ongoing process and helps to inform the ongoing actions of stakeholders –
e.g. students, teachers, guardians, etc. – in the form of feedback (Goos, Stillman & Vale,
2007). It can inform students by letting them know where they need to improve and informs
teachers to aid in improving or updating future lesson planning. This process helps
determine where students may also need help which aids in providing feedback. When
providing feedback, we must always make sure it is understandable, encouraging, and offers
achievable goals for the student (Irons, 2009).

Assessment are generally split into two different types: formative (assessment for learning)
and summative (assessment of learning). Summative assessment is generally what is
thought of when reference is made to assessment. Summative assessment is used to show
the level of performance of a student, generally through grades or scores. While this form of
assessment is important for many reasons, it doesn’t really do much to help the student
with their learning or help one improve their teaching. This is where formative assessment
comes in. Formative assessment is what provides stakeholders with feedback. “The general
goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve
instruction and student learning while it’s happening” (Great Schools Partnership, 2014). It
is not necessarily about the design of any certain assessment, but rather the way it is used.

While assessment is an attempt to provide students with feedback, simply giving them a
grade to show how well they have done does not help. Where did they do good? Where
could they improve? It could be the case that a student just looks at their grade and is either
satisfied or dissatisfied with their result. Good grades are what they a seeking after all! In
this scenario there is no further investigation into how they could improve, only a joy or
annoyance at the score they have received. So, it is our job as teachers to make sure they
are continuing to learn rather than stop after receiving a grade. In his review on hundreds of
thousands of studies, representing over 50,000,000 students, John Hattie found that
feedback was the most powerful methods of improving student achievement. When you
provide effective feedback, students can see where they need to improve and what they
need to do to achieve a better understanding and, in turn, better grades.

It is obvious that we need to provide students with assessment to see how and what they
have learned, but it can often be overlooked that it is also extremely important for the
teacher. John Hattie believed that it was just as important that teachers seek to learn from
feedback, such as student responses (2007). By doing this, teachers can see patterns and
determine whether or not the wrong answers are failures of the students or a failure in their
instruction. This will help teachers to improve their teaching methods and, in turn, improve
student learning in the future.

Simply assessing the students’ knowledge is not enough, however, they need to see a link
between what they are learning and real situations they are going to find themselves in
outside the school setting. This brings up the third form of assessment, along with formative
and summative, which is using assessment as learning. Assessment as learning is where
students are monitoring their own learning by asking questions and selecting strategies. In
NSW our syllabus and accompanying support materials “promote an integrated approach to
teaching, learning and assessment” (NESA, n.d.).

So, what is the importance of assessment with regards to advanced math? As students in
years 11 or 12, they are getting to the end of their school life. They are about to be thrown
into the real world. How are we, or they, going to know they are ready to face certain
situations, especially when it comes to financial mathematics? Many of these students need
these skills in the real world and this is stated as such in the rationale for my assessment
task. We need to assess what they’ve learned to see if they have understood the content
and do what we must with the remaining time we have with them to make sure they do
understand.
Being able to competently navigate the real world may be a very important thing, however,
they are kids. They aren’t necessarily looking to far into the future. The most important
thing on their minds currently is the HSC. They want to get good marks, and when we, as
teachers, provide them with assessment tasks they might see this as practice. In this
assessment task I have created, I have given them opportunity to see the real-world links,
but I’ve also given them time to do their research. If there is math they don’t know, they
have time to look through the content they have learned to find the best strategies to apply.
In a sense they are also performing a revision.

When it comes to maths, especially advanced math, it can seem hard to create such
assessments. Many see math as being very straight forward; you either have a right or
wrong answer. It can be difficult creating such assessment tasks in mathematics, but all
maths is rooted in the real world. It’s just a matter of linking the content and outcomes to
instances students may soon encounter. In fact, in New South Wales, NESA has outlined in
its Assessment and Reporting in Mathematics Stage 6 that there may be up to 4 assessment
tasks of which only one can be in an exam style. This requires teachers to provide various
kinds of assessment that may be more than straight forward question and answer style
tests. In exams students are being tested on the knowledge they’ve gained, whereas in an
investigative style assessment task, students are applying the knowledge they gained to real
life situations. This not only provide teachers with a method of assessing what has been
learned, but also helps students see the link between the math they’ve learned and real life.
It gets them engaged and helps them practice for scenarios they may face in the very near
future.

In conclusion, it is clear that both students and teachers benefit from an ongoing process of
assessment, whether it is an assignment, exam, or simply communicating during class
(Guskey, 2003). The process of assessment it not as basic as many people may realise.
Assessment is not about providing a grade, but it is a process of evaluating learning
outcomes, providing feedback, communication between teacher and student, and a drive by
the student to improve. Assessment and feedback are skills that must be practiced by both
teachers and students to result in a good education (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).
References

Great Schools Partnership. (2014). Formative assessment. Retrieved from

https://www.edglossary.org/formative-assessment/

Goos, M., Stillman, G., & Vale, C. (2007). TEACHING Secondary School MATHEMATICS
Research and practice for the 21st century (pp. 127-129). Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.

Guskey, T. (2003). How Classroom Assessments Improve Learning. Educational

Leadership, (5), 6-11. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-
leadership/feb03/vol60/num05/How-Classroom-Assessments-Improve-
Learning.aspx

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review Of Educational
Research, 77(1), 81-112. doi: 10.3102/003465430298487

Irons, A. (2009). Enhancing learning through formative assessment and feedback (p.
23). London: Routledge.

Jabbarifar, T. (2009). The importance of classroom assessment and evaluation in

educational system. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of Teaching
and Learning (pp. 1-9).

Lowrie, T. (2004, June). Authentic artefacts: Influencing practice and supporting

problem solving in the mathematics classroom. In Mathematics education for the
third millennium: Towards 2010, Proc. 27th annual conference of the Mathematics
Education Research Group of Australasia, Townsville). Sydney: MERGA.

NSW Education Standards Authority. (n.d.). NSW Syllabus :: Advice on assessment.

Retrieved from https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/support-materials/advice-on-
assessment/

Parentzone Scotland. (2018). What is assessment, and when and how does it take
place?. Retrieved from https://education.gov.scot/parentzone/learning-in-
scotland/assessment-and-
achievement/What%20is%20assessment,%20and%20when%20and%20how%20does
%20it%20take%20place