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VCE Stuff => VCE Mathematics => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Specialist Mathematics => Topic started by: interessant on November 27, 2019, 12:00:22 pm

Title: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: interessant on November 27, 2019, 12:00:22 pm
Hi guys,
I'm planning on doing spesh 3/4 next year, and I was wondering what to do during the holidays in preparation? I've been doing textbook questions, but that didn't get me far in methods 3/4 this year :( Thanks
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: Tau on November 27, 2019, 12:34:19 pm
Hi guys,
I'm planning on doing spesh 3/4 next year, and I was wondering what to do during the holidays in preparation? I've been doing textbook questions, but that didn't get me far in methods 3/4 this year :( Thanks

If you aren’t fully confident with them yet, you could try shore up your knowledge on 1/2 content that’s useful and assessable. So trig identities, vector algebra and proofs...

As a complement to the textbook questions, and if you’re feeling ready for it, check out vic maths notes. He has arranged VCAA questions by topic - dating back to around 2000! So if you work on your trig identities for example, you could then check your understanding and apply them to the VCAA questions.

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: angrybiscuit on November 27, 2019, 01:04:06 pm
If you aren’t fully confident with them yet, you could try shore up your knowledge on 1/2 content that’s useful and assessable. So trig identities, vector algebra and proofs...
What type of proofs? Circular geometry? Trig identities? We did so much of them it was ridiculous and they were difficult too... which ones do we specifically need for 3/4?
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: Tau on November 27, 2019, 01:10:55 pm
What type of proofs? Circular geometry? Trig identities? We did so much of them it was ridiculous and they were difficult too... which ones do we specifically need for 3/4?

The study design mentions some vector proofs explicitly (concurrency of medians of triangles...), but I doubt they’d ask anything as specific as that. However, having a good working knowledge of properties of quadrilaterals, vector tests for parallelism or perpendicularity is crucial (see this year’s exam for example).

You should be comfortable manipulating trigonometric expressions and applying trigonometric identities. To get a feel for what is required, check out past papers or the VIC Maths resource.
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: Sine on November 27, 2019, 04:18:58 pm
What type of proofs? Circular geometry? Trig identities? We did so much of them it was ridiculous and they were difficult too... which ones do we specifically need for 3/4?
Circle geometry is relatively important imo as vector proofs are quite useful for them. Do learning the circle theorems is advisable during the holidays.

As for textbook questions why do you think they did not work for methods this year?
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: interessant on December 01, 2019, 10:53:01 am
Thanks everybody!
As for textbook questions why do you think they did not work for methods this year?
Mmm they were helpful but because the exam has application questions and not direct questions, I feel like I should have focussed a lot more on checkpoints and past papers instead of extended response questions from the textbook. Just my opinion though.
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: jborn007 on December 01, 2019, 01:33:40 pm
Pray
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: milanander on December 07, 2019, 11:35:59 am
Pray
lmao wut
God is deaf to my prayers :'(

I'm doing 3/4 spesh next year, what are some good commercial resources to buy? I got cambridge checkpoints for methods this year but they didn't seem really helpful as they just spoiled the VCAA questions when I got to doing past exams. Should I expect the same for spesh? Cheers.
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: Sine on December 07, 2019, 11:52:12 am
lmao wut
God is deaf to my prayers :'(

I'm doing 3/4 spesh next year, what are some good commercial resources to buy? I got cambridge checkpoints for methods this year but they didn't seem really helpful as they just spoiled the VCAA questions when I got to doing past exams. Should I expect the same for spesh? Cheers.
When I did spec I didn't want checkpoints to spoil the recent VCAA exams so I bought an older checkpoints edition (2006) so it had questions from the 90s/early 00s which were still quite relevant - I still ended up doing some of the earlier exams but had many newer exams fresh.
Title: Re: Preparation for spesh 3/4
Post by: milanander on December 07, 2019, 12:03:00 pm
When I did spec I didn't want checkpoints to spoil the recent VCAA exams so I bought an older checkpoints edition (2006) so it had questions from the 90s/early 00s which were still quite relevant - I still ended up doing some of the earlier exams but had many newer exams fresh.
Thank you! This is a great idea.