HSC advanced maths exodus adds up. But it points to another problem

April 22, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

The headline that thousands of students “dump” advanced mathematics between Year 11 and 12 each year is hard to ignore. But the deeper story is more complex than students simply walking away from maths. It is about how we misunderstand senior secondary schooling and what we expect of students navigating it.

First, this pattern is not unique to mathematics. Across the HSC, subject drop-off between Year 11 and 12 is common. Eight other subjects have similar or worse rates of attrition than advanced mathematics, according to NSW Education Standards Authority data. In total, a whopping 32 senior subjects lose at least one in five students over this period. This is not just a mathematics problem.

That does not mean it should be accepted as normal. As my colleague, Dr Ben Zunica, a fellow experienced mathematics teacher, has pointed out, if one in three students start a course and do not continue, it is a signal that something is not working as well as it should.

It is tempting to reach for easy explanations. Blame overambitious parents. Blame poor advice. Blame the course itself. But these overlook some important nuances.

For some students, advanced maths is approached with a “give it a go” mindset, with the idea of dropping to standard maths seen as a fallback option and the default maths course that “should” be done. But struggling in advanced is not a neutral experience. It can damage confidence and reinforce negative beliefs about ability in mathematics. If we are serious about improving participation, we cannot ignore that cost.

This idea that students can simply “drop” to standard maths is often misunderstood. Standard is not just an easier version of advanced. The courses differ in focus and content, meaning students who transfer may need to catch up on unfamiliar material quickly. The transition is not as smooth as it is often assumed, and students and parents need to be aware of this.

When students move, the language we use matters. It is often described as “dropping down”, when in reality it is a shift to a course focused on applied mathematics. This is often a much better fit for many of these students, particularly if not pursuing tertiary STEM pathways.

But this is only part of the story. There is another group of students who are capable of succeeding in advanced maths and choose not to continue. Ability is not the issue, so other factors are at play.

Across Year 11 and 12, students make strategic decisions about where to invest their time and effort. For many students, their primary goal is maximising their ATAR, and they will make changes to their subjects in pursuit of this goal. They weigh up subject difficulty, assessment demands, scaling, how each subject scales for their ATAR, and their plans for further study.

AI won’t kill the law degree. It will redefine it

Fleur Johns and Kevin Walton

If advanced mathematics is not required for their future career pathways, continuing in a demanding subject may not feel like the best use of their energy.

Students are not simply giving up. They are prioritising.

This is why the idea that students are leaving only because of a poor subject choice due to one reason or another misses the mark. In a high-stakes system, students are constantly calculating where their effort will have the greatest payoff. And right now, for many, the payoff for staying in a demanding course such as advanced maths does not feel worth the investment.

Rather than questioning students’ decisions, we should be questioning the system that makes those decisions feel rational. We need to better understand whether the system is signalling to students that the effort required for advanced mathematics is genuinely valued.

Even though relatively few university courses require advanced maths as a condition of entry, we know that a solid grounding in mathematics is helpful for success in STEM degrees as well as those related to business and finance. If students are opting out, it raises important questions about how the subject is positioned, recognised and rewarded within the system.

If large numbers of capable students are deciding that continuing with advanced maths is not worth it, the question we need to ask is not why students are leaving – it is why staying does not feel worthwhile.

Dr Bronwyn Reid O’Connor is a former high school mathematics teacher and a senior lecturer in secondary mathematics at the University of Sydney.

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

© The Age