NSW education leaders have savaged the Board of Studies for "sabotaging its own syllabuses" by issuing "insanely difficult to read" documents to teachers outlining changes to the state's mathematics program.

Sydney Grammar's former master of mathematics, Bill Pender, has accused the board of copying and pasting material, neglecting basic principles, and warned that the board was in danger of losing its credibility as the authority responsible for mathematics education in NSW.

"Material from goodness knows where seems to have been cut and pasted into the drafts," Dr Pender said in a submission to the board. "It is unclear how 30 years of discussion has led to such a disaster."

Dr Pender is one of several prominent mathematicians who have signed a letter demanding the board withdraw the draft syllabuses. Another signatory is the principal of SCEGGS Darlinghurst, Jenny Allum.

"The drafts are appalling," Ms Allum said. "They should be scrapped and we should start again," she said, adding that problems began when the board was directed to use the national curriculum as the basis for the new syllabus.

"If you design a horse by committee you get a camel: there is a bit here and there, so every state feels there is a bit of them in it. You end up with a dog's breakfast."

She slammed a month-long consultation period that had been given to teachers. "Work is being done in a very quick time frame; that is no recipe for good curriculum design," she said.

The comments come as more than 57,000 students across NSW prepare to sit their HSC maths exams on Friday. The subject continues to suffer from declining participation rates across the state and experts have warned of a crisis in mathematical ability throughout Australia.

Dr Pender said it was sad to see the board issue a calculus-writing attempt that displayed so little knowledge of mathematics and the classroom. He cited concerns over how essential topics such as the demands for proof, Euclidean and co-ordinate geometry had been implemented.

He rubbished the board for "constant serious confusions in the use of mathematical language". 

Some sentences, such as, "determine that for the relation to become a function, the domain must be restricted," were meaningless.

"Why is the board enforcing such nonsense on the writers, and thus sabotaging its own syllabuses?" he asked.

"No one who understands mathematics would write these sentences," he said. "The board, whose standards must be higher than an individual teacher's, cannot issue documents with such poor language."

He said the proposed changes to assessment, which would include an increase in the number of take-home projects, would cheapen mathematics in the eyes of most students.

"HSC courses with projects already have huge problems with plagiarism, with assignments being traded on the web, and assignments being completed by tutors or parents."

Dr Pender argued it would be far more difficult to identify such practices with mathematics projects.

"These things would certainly occur routinely, leading to rank unfairness, accusations true and false within classes and cohorts, and great bitterness by students who are not cheating," he said.

The head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at UTS, Anthony Dooley, said the new syllabus would be a blow to education standards.

"It has taken NSW 30 years to get it to this kind of level and this sets us back several paces," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Board of Studies said the directions for the draft mathematics syllabuses were approved in 2014 following extensive consultation with mathematics experts.

"The board will consider the draft syllabuses at its meeting in November," she said.