Comparison Of Function Questions In Mathematic College Entrance Examination Papers Before And After The New Curriculum Reform

Based on the condition of our country, the college entrance examination (CEE) is still animportant way to select talents. Mathematics, an integral part of both CEE and mathematicsubject, reflects the new idea and new thought of the curriculum content and design,becoming an important medium to evaluate students’ ability to acquire and apply mathematicknowledge. Therefore, it is very important to make a comprehensive study on teachingtheory and practice of mathematics in CEE. The present study mainly focuses on thecomparison of questions concerning functions in Shandong Mathematic College EntranceExamination (science) before and after the new curriculum reform.The main problems are as follows:To begin with, what changes have taken place in terms of the content tested before andafter the new curriculum reform? Take the mathematic CEE papers used in fourteen yearsbefore and after the reform for an example, the changes are:First, after the reform the key knowledge examined in the function part is relatively fixed.The graphs and properties of basic elementary functions, analyzing the properties of functionsby means of derivative appear every year.Second, after the reform, analyzing the properties of functions by means of derivativehas been added to the math CEE, avoiding unnecessary efforts and solving problems morequickly and directly when studying function.What’s more, what changes have taken place in terms of difficulty before and after thenew curriculum reform?After the reform, function questions in mathematic CEE are obviously more difficultthan those before the reform happened, especially the calculation and proof problems ofderivative whose solution is closely related to the thought of classified discussion. If thestudent wants to achieve a high score, he has to discuss every possibility to make sure thatthere is no repetition and no omission, which is very difficult for a student.Finally, what changes have taken place in terms of the number, type and scores ofquestions before and after the new curriculum reform?First, before the reform, there was one calculation and proof problem of function everytwo years while after the reform the calculation and proof problem appear every year. Second, the function part has always been in the form of multiple choice, gap filling,calculation and proof, involving all kinds of question types in mathematic CEE. After thereform, the calculation and proof problems of functions are related with derivatives, which isdifferent from pure application of functions before the reform.Third, before the reform, the function part accounts for16.2%of the total score whileafter the reform it makes up18.2%, two percentage points higher than before.The current study will analyze and discuss the function questions in Shandongmathematic college entrance examination papers from both macro and micro perspectives. Byrevealing the changes of function questions after the new curriculum reform, the author hopesto provide some valuable information for teachers and students’ reference.