Bit of advice pls

[_inspire45]

Hey guys!

So for methods I just go myself a bit ahead of my school holiday homework and I'm in year 12 this coming year. I attempted to do a few Vcaa questions but had trouble doing them . Is it expected that I'm able to do them already or is it a bit too early to start? Please help, thanks

[ekay]

Hey _inspire45,

It's great to see that you're working proactively!

If I were you, I wouldn't be too worried at this point if I found some of the VCAA questions hard, especially some of the questions from Exam 2's (I found them hard at first as well!). They're designed to be a bit trickier since you have a CAS available, but as you expose yourself to more questions throughout the year and consolidate your understanding of each topic, you'll get better at interpreting and hence answering these kinds of questions

[Smashby]

My best advice would be to save the VCAA questions until closer to the end-of-year exam. These things are like gold, and give a great indication of what you need to brush up on once you've completed (most of) the coursework. It's fine to have a go at a couple, just make sure you don't burn through all of them, and have a good amount left to smash through during September-November!

[zsteve]

Hey guys!

So for methods I just go myself a bit ahead of my school holiday homework and I'm in year 12 this coming year. I attempted to do a few Vcaa questions but had trouble doing them . Is it expected that I'm able to do them already or is it a bit too early to start? Please help, thanks

Well of course you're not expected to be able to do them! They are for the end of year exam. I'd say work through the textbook (I'd recommend doing most or all of the questions if you have time), and once you've covered the coursework, move on to VCAA and commercial papers. You can also try Checkpoints throughout the year for SAC preparation (what I did).

^ That is, work through the textbook on your own. Don't worry about your school, try to finish by September to start practice exams at the latest (disclaimer: my opinion only)

[Swagadaktal]

um I did my first prac exam at the start of the year and I only lost 3 marks
like cmon man you are about to start classes as if u cant do them

im jking
relax fam
I'd recommend waiting a little before going into vcaa exams.. I did some questions prematurely and it ruined the experience of doing it for the first time
textbook and practice sacs should suffice you for your sacs... or wait to do the exams after u finish a topic
glhf
xx
all the best
say hi to the wife kids for me

[Sine]

Well of course you're not expected to be able to do them! They are for the end of year exam. I'd say work through the textbook (I'd recommend doing most or all of the questions if you have time), and once you've covered the coursework, move on to VCAA and commercial papers. You can also try Checkpoints throughout the year for SAC preparation (what I did).

^ That is, work through the textbook on your own. Don't worry about your school, try to finish by September to start practice exams at the latest (disclaimer: my opinion only)

What are yours and anyone elses thoughts on chapter reviews?

[Swagadaktal]

What are yours and anyone elses thoughts on chapter reviews?

chapter reviews are the best fam - where a lot of the learning happens
exercises are simple and straightforward, chapter reviews (especially essentials) test your knowledge, they aren't as good as practice exams but definitely good enough for sacs.
I'd highly recommend emphasising chapter reviews whilst studying methods

[Swagadaktal]

Well of course you're not expected to be able to do them! They are for the end of year exam. I'd say work through the textbook (I'd recommend doing most or all of the questions if you have time),

bad idea imo, unless you are doing methods in year 11 or u wanna no-life it, doing every question is not a good use of your time
I did it for unit 3 and i really regretted it, i noticed a jump in my marks when I did less exercise questions more chap review/exam q's
HOWEVER, if u want u can do every chap review q

[ekay]

What are yours and anyone elses thoughts on chapter reviews?

As Swagadaktal said, chapter reviews are probably the best sections of the textbook (especially the Essentials textbook). They contain harder questions that make you think a bit differently (rather than the straightforward exercise questions), so it's good practice for deciphering questions to see what they want you to do and then applying your knowledge to them.

If you feel comfortable with particular topics, I'd say that doing all the textbook questions for that topic is a waste of time. You won't really learn anything from them and you'll just be doing them for the sake of doing them. I always tell people to judge for yourself how many questions you need to do; if you're good with trig, do less trig questions and if you struggle with probability, do more of those. At the very least though, have a look through the chapter review questions as they're the most beneficial.

As a friend of mine once told me, study smart not hard

[Orson]

My best advice would be to save the VCAA questions until closer to the end-of-year exam. These things are like gold, and give a great indication of what you need to brush up on once you've completed (most of) the coursework. It's fine to have a go at a couple, just make sure you don't burn through all of them, and have a good amount left to smash through during September-November!

Don't leave them too late though...I left the last methods VCAA one because I ran out of time, and it turned out to be the most important one.

[Elucidator]

In addition to the other posters' input on textbook questions: I would say as a general rule that chapter exercises should only be needed to familiarise yourself with the specific concept of the exercise. Of course, different people learn such skills in varying amounts of times. Usually the last few questions of each exercise are the hardest - if you can do those, then you can move onto the chapter review. Like what the others have said, the chapter review questions (especially extended response - almost always challenging application questions) not only test your ability to apply your knowledge, rather than simply comprehend, but are generally also most similar to practice exam questions. Note: this is for the Essential Mathematics textbooks.

[she0071]

My best advice would be to save the VCAA questions until closer to the end-of-year exam. These things are like gold, and give a great indication of what you need to brush up on once you've completed (most of) the coursework. It's fine to have a go at a couple, just make sure you don't burn through all of them, and have a good amount left to smash through during September-November!

Hi I don't really know how to use this website yet and don't know how to correctly post stuff so I don't know if where i'm posting is right..
but um I'd like some help on this question:

An aircraft, used for fire spotting, flies from its base to locate a fire at an unknown distance, x km away. It travels straight to the fire and back, averaging 240km/h for the outward trip and 320km/h for the return trip. If the plane was away for 35 minutes, find the distance, x km.

thanks! Its from methods and from topic 'linear equations' I don't really get it.

[Swagadaktal]

Hi I don't really know how to use this website yet and don't know how to correctly post stuff so I don't know if where i'm posting is right..
but um I'd like some help on this question:

An aircraft, used for fire spotting, flies from its base to locate a fire at an unknown distance, x km away. It travels straight to the fire and back, averaging 240km/h for the outward trip and 320km/h for the return trip. If the plane was away for 35 minutes, find the distance, x km.

thanks! Its from methods and from topic 'linear equations' I don't really get it.

If you look at the top of this page, underneath the "Logout" symbol, you should see a hyperlink that branches out into "Mathematical Methods CAS" - Click there, and look through the topics at the near top of that page, and you should find a Methods 3/4 Questions thread - go ask the question there