Students are abandoning the more complex 2-unit HSC maths course in favour of the simpler ''general'' course in an attempt to maximise their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), but then find themselves ill-equipped to cope at university, teachers have warned.

Shore School director of studies David Whitehouse said an increasingly difficult HSC examination paper was partly to blame for the number of students renouncing 2-unit mathematics, a calculus-based course.

Teachers have raised concerns about students abandoning the more complex 2 Unit Mathematics course for the HSC.

He said the 2-unit exam had become excessively difficult, with many questions pitched beyond the abilities of students studying that course and designed to differentiate them from those studying the ''extension mathematics'' courses.

''Just over the past days, there have been many cases of current year 11 students who have changed from mathematics 2-unit to general mathematics after the negative feedback received from disaffected year 12 students following last week's HSC mathematics 2-unit examination,'' he said.