General Questions

[conic curve]

Lol by the end of that i would be going  mod a -> mod b -> mod c -> aos -> drown out sorrows with bleach and give up on life/procrastinate
But i agree with you fully quote learning is so long and arduous...

I think this is one of the reasons why heaps of students dislike english. Because things like quote learning is so long and arduous and english itself is a subject which takes up a lot of time

[studybuddy7777]

I think this is one of the reasons why heaps of students dislike english. Because things like quote learning is so long and arduous and english itself is a subject which takes up a lot of time

Also why i didnt pick any history subjects as history is mainly dates quotes and people. Couldnt deal with all of that!!

[RuiAce]

I dropped my only other essay subject... SOR...

[studybuddy7777]

I dropped my only other essay subject... SOR...

Lol SOR is my only other essay subject.. Bible and Quranic quotes arent so bad though, as they tend to be more of a different style of english and hence easier to remember

[RuiAce]

Lol SOR is my only other essay subject.. Bible and Quranic quotes arent so bad though, as they tend to be more of a different style of english and hence easier to remember

Finding the quotes was what I didn't like

[studybuddy7777]

Finding the quotes was what I didn't like

Lol i loved finding quotes! My favourite ones were for ethics
"Any hand that reaches the navel shall be cut off"
"A man and woman shall cleave to one another and become one flesh"
"Be fruitful and multiply"
- dont you think these are great ways of describing 'the act'?

[isaacdelatorre]

Does anyone have any tips on staying motivated and maintaining concentration during the exam?
I had paper one today, and i got quite bored during the middle and found it hard to write more.
If anyone's got any tips on how to overcome this, that would be great

[RuiAce]

Lol i loved finding quotes! My favourite ones were for ethics
"Any hand that reaches the navel shall be cut off"
"A man and woman shall cleave to one another and become one flesh"
"Be fruitful and multiply"
- dont you think these are great ways of describing 'the act'?

Only heard of the third one before

Yeah I don't know how to find quotes. I have no skill at that.

Does anyone have any tips on staying motivated and maintaining concentration during the exam?
I had paper one today, and i got quite bored during the middle and found it hard to write more.
If anyone's got any tips on how to overcome this, that would be great

Does anything trigger your boredom? Or is it spontaneous?

If it's spontaneous then I don't exactly feel you since once my brain is switched on it is switched on until it is tired. It usually does tire out towards the end. When that happens rather than writing I just end up checking my previous responses.

I mostly get bored when I run out of things to write. Then I just have to force myself to think, what can I write? Sometimes I scribble on the qn booklet to figure that out.

(At uni though I've had times where my brain tired out halfway in. I... you don't want to know what I do then.)

[isaacdelatorre]

Does anything trigger your boredom? Or is it spontaneous?

If it's spontaneous then I don't exactly feel you since once my brain is switched on it is switched on until it is tired. It usually does tire out towards the end. When that happens rather than writing I just end up checking my previous responses.

I mostly get bored when I run out of things to write. Then I just have to force myself to think, what can I write? Sometimes I scribble on the qn booklet to figure that out.

(At uni though I've had times where my brain tired out halfway in. I... you don't want to know what I do then.)

Hmm, not really anything triggering it. More like, it's such a long time to stay focused and my concentration wavers a lot, if that makes sense. Seems arduous having to sit there for another 2 hours writing.

[RuiAce]

Hmm, not really anything triggering it. More like, it's such a long time to stay focused and my concentration wavers a lot, if that makes sense. Seems arduous having to sit there for another 2 hours writing.

Do the more rigorous writing based questions first, i.e. essays then. Then do any short response/multiple choice later because that requires less effort.

If it's English paper 2 however, that's something you just need to get used to. I'm not sure about you but I found that if I always had something to write, then my brain would not lose its concentration. And I also had a thing called go with the flow. The more I wrote, the more ideas came to me and the more I could write.

Also replicate exam conditions at home. You do need to do a sufficient amount of past papers in exam conditions so that your brain adapts to the necessity of thinking for so long.

(Can't offer full advice here, sorry)

[studybuddy7777]

Hmm, not really anything triggering it. More like, it's such a long time to stay focused and my concentration wavers a lot, if that makes sense. Seems arduous having to sit there for another 2 hours writing.

Haha I feel your pain completely! (Quite literally ) My suggestion is after you finish each essay to have a drink of water (helps if you brought your bottle in which i forgot for my last exam so ) and maybe up to 5 minute break if you are struggling to comcentrate. Think about something you enjoy, look outside (if possible) or gaze off for a few minutes if you are having trouble focussing in exams.

I'll just emphasise how important rui's post is. Do the full past paper at home, and replicate exam conditions. If you set a timer, its amazing how much more efficient you can work.

Totally agree with Rui as well in doing the hardest questions first and work back towards the easiest. With Maths this gets interesting, but generally start at the back of the paper because that is where the hardest questions are (as long as you wont burn out on the easier ones then).

At the end of the day, it all comes down to mindset (Elective 2 Mod C Advanced- sound familiar ) If you are really unable to concentrate or focus then just remind yourself of your ATAR goal or course you want to get into. Maybe even write it somewhere so you can have it on your desk with you, always there. This should help you focus more.

Sorry I couldnt really give much advice here, but this is what worked for me at least. Hopefully it works for you! Be sure to flick me a PM or post on here if you need any clarification, or want questions/concerns on here. But remember you are not alone. Lots of people face this issue of not being able to concentrate/remain focussed the entire exam. Hope i could help

[yxrulz]

Hi everyone, I have an urgent question for those who do/did a language subject:
I have a listening exam for French Continuers tomorrow, and I am in need of help. Although I tend to do above average in all other areas (speaking, writing, reading), I absolutely fail in listening. I'm more or less at the bottom of my class for this and tend to get less than 50%. I'm not really sure how to improve? I simply find it so difficult to translate in my head instantly and even if I do, the recording has already moved on to the next couple of sentences which I have missed. Please help? thanks in advance

[ATWalk]

Hi everyone, I have an urgent question for those who do/did a language subject:
I have a listening exam for French Continuers tomorrow, and I am in need of help. Although I tend to do above average in all other areas (speaking, writing, reading), I absolutely fail in listening. I'm more or less at the bottom of my class for this and tend to get less than 50%. I'm not really sure how to improve? I simply find it so difficult to translate in my head instantly and even if I do, the recording has already moved on to the next couple of sentences which I have missed. Please help? thanks in advance

 

The best advice I have is something I presume you're already doing: write notes. Absolutely cram the note-taking section of the listening paper with notes. If there's a word you're not sure of, just write it down and then look for it in the dictionary quickly if you have time (I assume that in French you're allowed a dictionary). And if the track moves on before you finish your answer, just go ahead and come back to it. Language exams, based on my experiences with Japanese, give you heaps of time to do your answers, so if you have good enough notes from during the listening, you can easily finish your answer later.
Also, 100% go on the BOSTES website and do all the listening sections of past HSC exams. When you run out of ones to do, look at VCE ones, which is what I did for my trial.
Also remember that, sometimes, just answering the question isn't really good enough. Often you have to include that extra info that isn't explicitly asked for in the question just to make you answer impressive because, above all, the markers want to see that you understood the text.
So basically:

• take notes of everything you hear
• if you hear a word you're not sure of, write it down and then quickly look in your dictionary
• get all the details of the text in order to make your answer impressive
• don't get caught up if you miss something minor; just move on because it's better to lose one mark than several

[IkeaandOfficeworks]

Hi guys! I have a question regarding the number of units i'll continue to have during the HSC examinations.

I was planning on dropping ext. maths and sticking with 10 units altogether. But the thing is that my English rank isn't the best and I'm afraid that having 10 units will result in a bad atar since English is counted automatically.

For ext. maths, my rank is pretty bad too, but my cohort for Ext. Maths is helping each other out to boost each others' atar. 

My question is, if I do bad in English, will Ext. Maths "cover"/ compensate for the bad marks for English, assuming that I do well in Ext maths. Thank you.

[RuiAce]

Hi guys! I have a question regarding the number of units i'll continue to have during the HSC examinations.

I was planning on dropping ext. maths and sticking with 10 units altogether. But the thing is that my English rank isn't the best and I'm afraid that having 10 units will result in a bad atar since English is counted automatically.

For ext. maths, my rank is pretty bad too, but my cohort for Ext. Maths is helping each other out to boost each others' atar. 

My question is, if I do bad in English, will Ext. Maths "cover"/ compensate for the bad marks for English, assuming that I do well in Ext maths. Thank you.

Keep in mind that (unless you did Ext 1 English), at least two units of English must count, and hence English Adv will inevitably count. If Ext. 1 Maths counts, it means that it replaced one of your other 8. So you need to do what's best for yourself.

You should keep Ext. 1 Mathematics if you feel it can replace one of your other units. And especially keep it and work hard in it if you need such level of maths for future studies. Not because it's going to "stave off" English setting you back.

(There's nothing wrong with doing just 10 units either.)