Matric exams are terrifying.

Even all these years later, I’m still prone to those nightmares where you’re suddenly in an exam hall and woefully underprepared.

Then I remember that I’m no longer in school, and that I have a full-time job, and the terrors of being an adult set in.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that the idea of writing exams scares me, which is why I was keen to check out what a matric Maths Literacy Paper looks like.

Thankfully, IOL has delivered on that front.

I’m more than a few years out of high school, so excuse me if this is all content you’re familiar with, but this is not what I was expecting.

This screenshot is from the Mathematical Literacy Paper 1 2018. You can find the full paper here, if you’re keen to skip my running commentary (I don’t blame you), but let’s start right at the top.

Relax, we’re not here to mark your answers:

OK, now to the questions:

This seems a little, and excuse my elitism here, basic.

Question 1.2 is slightly more taxing, but on we forge to 1.3:

This is the kind of stuff that even Casper de Vries could help you with. I may petition for examiners to include something about a parrot next year.

Before we get too high and mighty about the demise of maths in South African classrooms (I can already hear the ‘in my day’ comments), you should know it’s not all plain sailing:

The mere sight of π is enough to escalate the heart rate.

Next:

The first thing to remember is that Aunt Abby has tripled the price of said cake, because it’s for a wedding.

Secondly, why is she using a cookbook from the colonialists?

Finally, someone at the wedding is going to complain about how there’s not a gluten-free option. Sorry, Abby, that’s just how it works.

If you would like to put your answers to the test, here are the answers.

There has been plenty of criticism for how South Africa’s government has made it easier for matrics to finish school with a Bachelor’s pass, and perhaps rightly so, but at least now you understand what a Maths Literacy Paper entails.

Some of the questions seem laughable to me, but I also don’t want to be that elitist who’s completely out of touch with the struggles faced by young South Africans.

I’ll leave that to our political parties.

[source:iol]