Underperforming the Norm in Maths Extension 2

Maths Extension 2 is the hardest subject for Year 11 and 12 students across Australia, requiring an average of nearly 20 study sessions to reach mastery and recording the highest rate of sessions ending below competency of any subject analysed, new data shows.

Student performance was tracked between January and April 2026 across all Australian states, measuring accuracy rates, concept mastery improvement, session duration and total time required to reach competency, revealing higher-level Mathematics subjects, Chemistry and Physics to be the subjects students consistently struggle with most. 

Maths Extension 2 records an average accuracy rate of 60.6%, the lowest of all analysed, and an estimated 19.93 sessions to reach mastery, equivalent to around 11.4 hours of study. An extraordinary 85.7% of sessions end below the competency threshold, the highest failure rate in the dataset by a significant margin.

Specialist Maths follows closely, with 78.8% of sessions ending below competent and an estimated 17.32 sessions to mastery. Both are classified as ‘very high’ difficulty, sitting in a class of their own above all other subjects.

Chemistry ranks third overall with an accuracy rate of 61.9% and an estimated 14.72 sessions, around 8 hours, to reach mastery of a concept. It records a session failure rate of 71%, the highest of all non-mathematics subjects.

Physics follows at sixth overall, with 46% of sessions ending below competent and an estimated 9.51 sessions to mastery. Together, Chemistry and Physics stand out as the most demanding science subjects for senior students.

At the lower end of the difficulty scale, Biology records an average accuracy rate of 76.3% and an estimated 9.24 sessions to mastery, with just 1.8% of sessions ending below competent. Maths Applications records the fastest mastery of all analysed, at an estimated 4.30 sessions,  around 2.2 hours, and a 24% below-competent session rate.

Overall across Year 11 and Year 12, the 5,934 sessions on the LearnCEL™platform recorded an average accuracy of 66.91%, with average mastery improving from 56% before a session to 60.08% after, representing an average improvement of 4.09 percentage points.

HSC subjects appear tougher than subjects in other states, maintaining an average accuracy rate of 65% across all subjects; which is followed closely by VCE (66.80%) and WACE (67.20%). This reflects the rigour of the NSW examinations and the difficulty of its STEM subjects, specifically.

To combat this, Sreeya Das at Excel Academics who generated the findings, reveals three study hacks Australian students can use in 2026 to help nail their next exams. She said, “The findings highlight clear differences in how students respond to complex subjects during senior school years.

“Higher-level Mathematics subjects and Chemistry consistently require more repetition and show lower accuracy rates compared to other senior subjects. But improvement doesn’t always come from studying longer; small, targeted strategies can help students revise more effectively.

"Subjects like Chemistry and higher level Maths have low accuracy rates precisely because they can't be memorised; they require genuine understanding. Students who shift their focus from remembering formulas to applying them tend to see the biggest gains in concept mastery over time.

"With 85.7% of Maths Extension 2 sessions ending below competency, students need to expect that mastery won't come quickly,  and that's okay. Spaced repetition is the most effective tool here. Students who engage consistently show the greatest improvement in concept mastery, even in the hardest subjects.

"The data shows that the gap between Year 11 and Year 12 mastery baselines is relatively small, just a few percentage points. That tells us students aren't closing weak areas fast enough between years. Identifying and targeting those gaps early, rather than waiting until exam pressure hits, makes a significant difference to final outcomes."