HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT VCE! REQUIRE HELP PLEASE

[geek123456]

Hello there,I have no idea about the VCE system..atar..scaling etc can anyone explain it to me in detail so that I am all set up for school after the holidays?
Your help will be really appreciated!

[jamonwindeyer]

Hello there,I am new in Australia and recently shifted from overseas a week ago.I got enrolled in grade eleven for VCE and will start school from  second term after the term break.I have no idea about the VCE system..atar..scaling etc can anyone explain it to me in detail so that I am all set up for school after the holidays?Plus i have done my Olevels from the Cambridge board,will it be easy for me to cope up with grade eleven after that or not?
Your help will be really appreciated!

P.s I am a little bit scared about the prospect of VCE.Will joing in the second term of grade eleven and missing sacs( idk what they are,someone just said it) have any effect on my ATAR in the end ?

Hey! Welcome to the forums (and Australia!)

You've asked a loaded question - Not trying to sell you something, but in the interests of giving you (and equally any other family members or anything that want to understand the system) a really solid understanding of how VCE works, what different things mean, and the best way to approach it, you might want to give this a look. It's a $20 little book and it covers literally everything about the VCE, I think it would be perfect for you

I'll leave people who know more about VCE to lend a bigger hand, but just wanted to recommend that because I know it is a really handy resource

[geek123456]

Thank you
Umm Is a free PDF version of this book avaliable or do I have to buy it?

[jamonwindeyer]

Thank you
Umm Is a free PDF version of this book avaliable or do I have to buy it?

You have to buy it, it is worth it though!

Totally get that it might not be what you are looking for though - Just a suggestion! Lots of free stuff on the site to help you too that I'm sure someone more familiar with VCE can help you find

[geek123456]

  No problem!

[r3my]

Resource that pretty much explains everything about VCE: https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=168804.0.

With regards to starting in term 2, you really shouldn't be that disadvantaged but there obviously will be content that you have to catch up on. Do you know which subjects you are doing yet? I could provide more specific advice if I knew which ones you're doing.

[Joseph41]

Hello there,I am new in Australia and recently shifted from overseas a week ago.I got enrolled in grade eleven for VCE and will start school from  second term after the term break.I have no idea about the VCE system..atar..scaling etc can anyone explain it to me in detail so that I am all set up for school after the holidays?Plus i have done my Olevels from the Cambridge board,will it be easy for me to cope up with grade eleven after that or not?
Your help will be really appreciated!

P.s I am a little bit scared about the prospect of VCE.Will joing in the second term of grade eleven and missing sacs( idk what they are,someone just said it) have any effect on my ATAR in the end ?

Hey geek123456,

Welcome!

I think the link posted above would be your best bet. And if you have any further questions, please, please ask them either here or in that thread.

Great to have you around!

[vcestressed]

If you tell me the subjects you are doing and if i am familiar with those subjects, i can def help you with giving you info on the topics that we've covered so far ;')

[geek123456]

OMG I was not expecting such welcoming responses..Thank you guys and my subjects are following:
Physics
Chem
Bio
Mathematical Methods
English

[jamonwindeyer]

English{although my interest is in Literature..I know it is quite difficult and all but I really want to do it.Should I ditch English and go for Lit?I got an A plus in my cambridge board although it is my second language..do you think choosing Lit is a wise option or not?}

I have literally no idea about VCE English streams at all, so take this for what it is worth, but I'm reading this and I'm screaming in my head "PLEASE DO LITERATURE!" - Why would you not do it if you are so interested in it? Hard work will get you through any difficulty

[r3my]

OMG I was not expecting such welcoming responses..Thank you guys and my subjects are following:
Physics
Chem
Bio
Mathematical Methods
Psycology
English{although my interest is in Literature..I know it is quite difficult and all but I really want to do it.Should I ditch English and go for Lit?I got an A plus in my cambridge board although it is my second language..do you think choosing Lit is a wise option or not?}

Most of the stuff you have to pick up is pretty easy, such as mole calculations for chem and linear algebra for methods, so don't stress too much about it. With regards to either English or Literature, I would look at the past exams/study design for each subject to get an idea of them before choosing (links below).

English study design: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/english/EnglishEAL-SD-2016.pdf
English past exams*: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/english/englishexams.aspx
Literature study design: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/literature/LiteratureSD-2016.pdf
Literature past exams*: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/literature/exams.aspx

And if it interests you, the 2018 book list for Literature in which your year 12 texts will be chosen from if you do the subject: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/literature/VCE_LiteratureTextList2018.pdf

*Note: The exam format has largely changed for these subjects and the new versions will be sat for the first time this year  Look at the sample exams on the same page for a more accurate illustration of what you'll be doing.

[geek123456]

got it, thanks

[Joseph41]

OMG I was not expecting such welcoming responses..Thank you guys and my subjects are following:
Physics
Chem
Bio
Mathematical Methods
Psycology
English{although my interest is in Literature..I know it is quite difficult and all but I really want to do it.Should I ditch English and go for Lit?I got an A plus in my cambridge board although it is my second language..do you think choosing Lit is a wise option or not?}

Nice subjects! I can't comment too specifically on the English/Literature decision (I studied neither haha), but as a general rule, I'd definitely be pursuing the subjects in which you're most interested.

[patriciarose]

English{although my interest is in Literature..I know it is quite difficult and all but I really want to do it.Should I ditch English and go for Lit?I got an A plus in my cambridge board although it is my second language..do you think choosing Lit is a wise option or not?}

lit is so much fun! if you're a language person and really enjoy reading/analysis then i don't see why you shouldn't do it (: the only thing with lit is that generally the people who are good at english take it, so the competition is harder and it's more difficult to do well. but if you work at it and enjoy it then you'll be fine (: you could always try lit this year and then if it's not working for you, drop it for english next year? or vice versa tbh, i didn't do lit last year and i'm finding it fine so far.

definitely check out the practice exams/study design links too. study designs are a little wordy but you'll spend a lot of time looking at them next year (ugh) so you might as well start now (:

[vcestressed]

so far for chem:
- structure of an atom and its different models (schrodinger, plum pudding)
- we've done different types of bonding (metallic, covalent, ionic)
- electron configuration incl the shell configuration
- trends in the periodic table
- moles (molar mass, mass composition, empirical formulas)
physics:
basically just learnt the theories of big bang, did a bit of work on nuclear fission and now we're doing heat (latent heat, conduction, convection, radiation, specific heat capacity)
bio:
i'm not doing bio 1/2 but they did everything from aos 1 from the heinnmann bio book
methods:
Highly recommend you understand this because its super important for 3/4 :')
we've actually done 6 chapters from the methods book! so basically some coordinate geometry, quadratics, cubics, functions and relations, algebra, higher degree polynomials
english:
- we've done our creative writing piece. In my school, we just wrote a similar story from the ones our teachers gave us to demonstrate our knowledge of the story
- we are now doing a text (othello) and we have a persuasive speech coming up.
Hope this helps! feel free to pm me if you have any questions.