ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Mathematics => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Mathematical Methods CAS => Topic started by: jane1234 on December 16, 2010, 02:16:37 pm
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Hello. :D
After being inspired by a similar thread on the biology board, I decided to write down all my tips and hints on how to get a 50 (or close enough).
Okay I'm not going to write a mass intro, but first off, getting a 50 in methods isn't actually as daunting as it seems. I don't go to a school particularly noted for VCE excellence, so all this about weak cohorts bringing you down: is. not. true.
Summer holidays:
If you feel you need to learn the entire course over the summer holidays, by all means go for it. It's not that necessary, as most of the course material for methods is simply a step higher from the content covered in Units 1/2.
What I did: We were given selected questions from chapter one to complete over the holidays. I didn't stick to the sheet, but instead did every question thoroughly from chapter one (including the review). By 'thoroughly' I mean corrected every question and made sure that I knew how to do them all, even the ones I got wrong. For every question I got wrong, I circled it and made a little note saying what I should have done instead. If you don't fancy scribbling all over the textbook, I highly recommend writing these mistakes down somewhere as one of the best ways to learn is through your own mistakes.
I started making chapter notes for chapter one, which I didn't continue for any others (I'll come to that next).
During the year (excluding SAC study):
Okay, let's be honest here. Maths is not all about memorizing vast amounts of information and definitions. I can assure you that they will not ask you to define 10 commonly used maths words in a paragraph of 50 words. It's just not that kind of subject. So I wouldn't waste my time re-writing notes or chapter summaries when your time could be used more productively.
Maths is all about being able to apply your knowledge, which is a skill that really only comes by practice. So make sure you have completed every question in the text book, even if it's not set homework. This ensures that you know how to do different types of questions that can be asked relating to the same topic.
Keep that record of your mistakes, because let me tell you that it is not just the people who get 50 that understand the course. The way that the top students will be seperated is through careless errors, though they all know the material. My philosophy is that the more mistakes you make and keep a record of during the year, the less ones you will make come exam time.
Also, try and keep on top of these questions. This is one mistake that I made, neglecting my textbook questions and realizing I had 200+ to complete in the September holidays!
SACs:
Like I mentioned earlier, a weak cohort wont necessarily bring you down, as long as you can manage to get the top ranking (or close enough). If you have the ability to get the top ranking in SACs, then do everything you can to get there, because it means that the actual SAC mark wont matter, as long as you can get very high on the exams. For example, if you have 80% average but rank 1 in SACs, and manage a 98% average on the exams, then your SAC grade will become 98% (if it's the top exam mark).
Preparation for SACs:
Generally you will have two types of SACs in methods, each which will be approached differently.
1. Tests:
It's easier to drop marks in these IMO, as they are under a pressured time situation. As I said before, the best way to prepare for these is to do practice questions! Google "methods practice sac" or sweet talk any older people into giving you their old ones (provided they haven't lost them). Doing any practise papers is probably the best way to prepare, as you will be more familiar with the types of questions asked.
2. Analysis/application tasks:
These are usually over more that one period, which gives a huge advantage. Unless your school is ultra-strict and will check your calculators as you leave, you can generally take home all the questions. This means you can spend all night pondering over one question, ask your tutor, google it, ask VN members or even discretely ask another maths teacher (not the one that wrote the SAC, obviously). However, you must be reasonably proficient in typing on those silly calculators, or else you will waste an entire period copying out all the questions. And of course, don't forget to type your answers back in the calculator to take into the SAC.
PREPARATION FOR THE END-OF-YEAR EXAMS!
This is the most important thing to prepare for obviously is the exams. Even if you have rank one SACs, you will not get a 50 if you don't ace these exams.
It's been said before, but I'm going to repeat it anyway: Do as many practice exams as you can get your greedy little paws on. Seriously, this is the secret (well, I guess not-so-secret) to getting a 50. If you have done enough exams, you shouldn't be surprised at any questions on the exams. I did around 30 for both exam one and exam two, starting at the end of the September holidays. I know this number isn't really possible if methods is not your only year 12 subject, so start earlier. Self-learn the end of the course, and start them as early as you can.
I kept all these exams in a folder, with all my silly mistakes scribbled across the front. That way, when I flicked through this folder I was constantly reminded of my most frequent errors (eg not simplifying fractions, forgetting the +c, drawing dodgey graphs etc etc). Eventually, as you do more and more papers, the same questions keep coming up again and again. This is because there are only so many questions they can ask while keeping (reasonably close) to the study design.
Also, don't worry if you aren't confident that you have thoroughly learnt everything on the course, just start doing practice exams anyway. Believe me, by the 48th exam you will know the course ridiculously well.
It's probably best to start off with the VCAA ones, and finish with them the day/night before. This way you will end with a more accurate indication of what the next day will hold.
Be fairly strict with your marking, because the more precise you are in practice the more precise you will be in the actual exam.
Even with thorough preparation, the VCAA bitches can still ask you a question that will throw you off (ie cone of death :) ) The best thing you can do is take a deep breath, calm down, and tell yourself that you can do this question. Why? Because you usually can. The cone of death was a simple linear max/min problem once simplified. I was freaked by this question this year, but I reminded myself that though they can disguise it, THEY CANNOT ASK YOU A QUESTION BEYOND THE STUDY DESIGN! So after staring at it for a good 10 minutes (during reading time) I was finally able to figure it out. This is why practice helps, but knowing how to apply all your knowledge in unfamiliar territory helps more. I think the best way to tackle hard questions is to try and simplify the problem down, and relate it to another question usually asked in a similar topic. I knew that the cone of death was max/min (by looking at later parts of the question) so I mentally sifted through all the questions I had done on this topic until I came to one that I could mould into the cone of death.
Good luck methods class of '11!!
I've probably forgotten some tips, so feel free to add more, but yeah this is how I got a 50 and how you can get one too :)
Oh, and I found a lot of exams here: http://www.mediafire.com/cleoxo#9,1 so thanks cleo for posting them all :D
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Great advice there, thanks! Awesome score by the way!!
Just a quick question...
Is it still possible to get a high study score even if you lose marks in sacs? And, if you don't mind me asking, what was your sac average?
:)
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So I wouldn't waste my time re-writing notes or chapter summaries when your time could be used more productively.
This is so true. A lot of the people in my Methods class were rewriting notes over the year for their bound reference. I found it a lot more effective to put together my bound reference at the end of the year, to kick-start my exam revision. I only wrote the vitally important sections, then worked through practice exams, then went over everything I got wrong/found difficult, and copied that into my bound reference.
To be honest, the only way to get good at Methods is by practicing, and then identifying and consolidating areas of difficulty. I didn't do as much preparation as jane1234; I started practice exams in late-October :P but that's not recommended.
Another thing - if in doubt, ALWAYS ask. It may be your teacher, or a tutor, or VN, but ask someone.
EDIT: @ech_93: My SAC mark for the whole year was 95.5/100. In the first SAC (which was my worst) I got 17/20, but then it was halved for the overall SAC mark, so 8.5/10. Apart from that, I only got perfect marks on one SAC. So yes, it is possible to get 50, having dropped marks on SACs, but it really depends on the difficulty of your school's SACs, and the standard of the cohort.
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Excellent summary jane1234. Follow her advice, and you'll be fine. I would also like to add that you should try and ground whatever you learn into its first principles (eg. where does the linear approximation formula come from? - this would have made last qn of 2009 exam 1 a doddle). Also, don't forget your year 9-10 work (eg. geometry), because forgetting that was what undid a lot of people on the "cone of death" - aptly coined by cypriottiger
Only technicality is the SAC scaling; if you are rank 1 your SAC score doesn't exactly scale up to your exam score, it becomes its equivalent (based on your z-score in the exam). If you manage 98% in the exams and you were rank 1, your SAC score would be most likely 100.
I concur with funkyducky. Writing summary notes...useless. Do questions.
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2. Analysis/application tasks:
These are usually over more that one period, which gives a huge advantage. Unless your school is ultra-strict and will check your calculators as you leave, you can generally take home all the questions. This means you can spend all night pondering over one question, ask your tutor, google it, ask VN members or even discretely ask another maths teacher (not the one that wrote the SAC, obviously). However, you must be reasonably proficient in typing on those silly calculators, or else you will waste an entire period copying out all the questions. And of course, don't forget to type your answers back in the calculator to take into the SAC.
That's what I call cheating. At my school, they only gave us the first sessions's questions in the first session, then only the second session's questions in the second session.
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Great advice there, thanks! Awesome score by the way!!
Just a quick question...
Is it still possible to get a high study score even if you lose marks in sacs? And, if you don't mind me asking, what was your sac average?
Smiley
Mine was 99/100 equal rank 1, but if you are ranked #1 in SACs then the highest exam mark of your cohort becomes your SAC score. So if you get 75/100 SAC score, but are ranked #1, and get 100% on both exams, then your SAC mark becomes 100/100 and you automatically get a 50 :)
So yes, you can get a high score losing marks on SACs, it all depends on your rank in the cohort.
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Only technicality is the SAC scaling; if you are rank 1 your SAC score doesn't exactly scale up to your exam score, it becomes its equivalent (based on your z-score in the exam). If you manage 98% in the exams and you were rank 1, your SAC score would be most likely 100.
:O My teacher told me wrong haha ...
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@funkyducky- Do you mean it will be harder to go well if you have a weak cohort? There is one kid in my class who is really good and my marks were just slightly lower than his. As for the rest of the class, they are all fairly weak... Could this have an effect on my scores?
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Good advice :) Hopefully this will help get a 43+ :D
Did you have an aim at the start of the year as in study score goal?
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@ech93: No, not necessarily. In fact, if you have a weak cohort, you're more likely to have a high SAC ranking. Generally, if you do better than most of your cohort on the SACs, then do really well on the exam, you can get 45+. At that end of the spectrum, whether your cohort is weak or strong doesn't make a massive difference. If, on the other hand, your SAC score is somewhere in the middle of the cohort, a strong cohort will drag it up, and a weak cohort will drag it down.
@swarley: My goal was 50, but I told myself "I'll be happy with 48+".
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hmm ill be happy with 43+ raw.
so do you think it is beneficial to do every questoino in the textbook??
i plan to try and learn the 3/4 course this hols, i have the essentials and heinamann textbooks. We use the heinamann at school, shold i do most if not all the questions in the essentials book?
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Good advice Smiley Hopefully this will help get a 43+ Cheesy
Did you have an aim at the start of the year as in study score goal?
Originally I aimed for 45+, because I thought that was most realistic and that's what I told people if asked.
But throughout the year, my goal kind of got higher and higher, as I'm a perfectionist and find it hard to aim lower than the best. So yes I aimed for 50, but I didn't tell anyone because they probably would have laughed in my face :) I think it's worth aiming high, provided it's halfway realistic. It certainly pushed me to work harder, and got me motivated for other 50s next year :)
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No, there's absolutely no point doing every question in the textbook. Use the Essential book, work through a few questions. If you're finding them easy, move on to slightly harder ones, and applications. Focus on your difficulties. Try the chapter revision questions. Also get Checkpoints, go through some questions from there at the end of each topic.
EDIT: I probably worked through less than 1/5 of the questions in the Essential Textbook, over the year.
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Alright thanks, ive got A+ exams, checkpoints and exambusters. Do you think there are any other books i shold buy?
Ill aim for 43+ but i wouldnt mind 46+
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The WERMS book is pretty good. Apart from that, there's Leading Edge and Insight, but I don't recommend them.
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50 in methods is minimizing silly mistakes on the exam
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and using correct notation
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and writing out steps for method marks.
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@swarley: My goal was 50, but I told myself "I'll be happy with 48+".
lololol when I did Methods, my goal was 50, but I told myself I'll be happy with 49+
And I'm not so sure about Methods, but I think a big part of getting 50 in Spesh is confidence in your own ability.
SACs I never prepared for...I just made sure that I had done all the relevant textbook questions. I couldn't be bothered with Checkpoints, and I would do Spesh SACs without having done any Spesh for the last week or so.
If you have done enough exams, you shouldn't be surprised at any questions on the exams.
So not true for Spesh =D
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it seems as though aiming very high pays dividends ;)
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it seems as though aiming very high pays dividends ;)
...and doing the work for it. That can play a part in it too. :P
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it seems as though aiming very high pays dividends ;)
...and doing the work for it. That can play a part in it too. :P
Sigh I did too much of the wrong kind of work for Methods =/ That's why I've developed the belief that hard work doesn't necessarily pay off. I probably did about half the work for Spesh that I did for Methods, purely because I was more aware of what study activities were useless wastes of time.
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@kyzoo- What would you classify as the wrong kind of work for methods?
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Great advice! :)
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Awesome tips guys!!
(Sorry for being the only non-50-Methods student here... ;))
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it seems as though aiming very high pays dividends ;)
...and doing the work for it. That can play a part in it too. :P
Sigh I did too much of the wrong kind of work for Methods =/ That's why I've developed the belief that hard work doesn't necessarily pay off. I probably did about half the work for Spesh that I did for Methods, purely because I was more aware of what study activities were useless wastes of time.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I certainly would have done a few things differently.
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I'm pretty much the same as how Kyzoo did; higher score in Spesh than in Methods. Yes I did a lot more work for Methods and there was nothing wrong with the approach I took in preparing. The only reason I didn't get the 50 is because on the day, I just made one too many errors for Methods, and made no errors in Spesh.
Minimizing errors incorporates a major factor of luck. I got 100% on many Methods practice exams and didn't get 100% for any spesh practice exams, so realistically I should've got the 50 in Methods and 48 in Spesh.
What I'm trying to say is do your best, prepare yourself as best as you can, but don't be disappointed if you make those few mistakes on the day, what matters is if you're happy with it
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@kyzoo- What would you classify as the wrong kind of work for methods?
LOL I wrote 100 pages of notes for Methods =.= I was really pedantic about rewriting all the theory in my own words when that's just a waste of time. And I also did every single question in the textbook, which is a waste of time since many of the non-yellow page questions get repetitive.
I was the same as jimmy999 =/ For Methods practice exams, I got 12 exam 1 100%s and 7 exam 2 100%s, yet for Spesh I only got 3 exam 1 100%s and 1 exam 2 100%.
Luck does play some part in avoiding careless mistakes. But I also think confidence in your ability to not make careless mistakes also contributes massively to avoiding careless mistakes.
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What is the maximum number of marks (or round about) which you can lose in the final exams and still can a 50?
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What is the maximum number of marks (or round about) which you can lose in the final exams and still can a 50?
Wouldnt it depend on the difficulty of the exam?
ie easy exam a few to no marks lost, or a harder exam you could afford to lose a few marks?
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What is the maximum number of marks (or round about) which you can lose in the final exams and still can a 50?
I'm not too sure - but I would imagine you'd be able to lose less marks in a Methods exam compared to a Further exam, to get a 50.
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What is the maximum number of marks (or round about) which you can lose in the final exams and still can a 50?
I'm not too sure - but I would imagine you'd be able to lose less marks in a Methods exam compared to a Further exam, to get a 50.
Depends on SAC marks and year. In 2009 I lost 2.5 marks in Methods to get 48.
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Why not just aim for full marks and not worry too much about how many marks you can afford to lose?
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Why not just aim for full marks and not worry too much about how many marks you can afford to lose?
haha, best attitude to keep. Problem is that aiming for full marks seems like an overly optimistic point of view to some people.
Doing well in Methods is all a matter of confidence, I reckon.
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Why not just aim for full marks and not worry too much about how many marks you can afford to lose?
This mindset is probably the best, becoz you wont allow yourself to make room for error.
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Why not just aim for full marks and not worry too much about how many marks you can afford to lose?
Yeh, this is the best advice to give. But note that it's not an easy thing to do. I certainly didn't have this mentatility and it really just adds to the amount of stress which VCE produces too much of all ready.
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What is the maximum number of marks (or round about) which you can lose in the final exams and still can a 50?
I'm not too sure - but I would imagine you'd be able to lose less marks in a Methods exam compared to a Further exam, to get a 50.
Depends on SAC marks and year. In 2009 I lost 2.5 marks in Methods to get 48.
2.5 MARKS TO GET A 48! Whoa.....
I just wanted to get a feel for how hard it is to get a 50 in methods, cos I know how in further you need to get like 100%.
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My friend last year dropped 2 on Exam 2 to get a 50, but another friend dropped 3 and got a 48.
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^ That would have to do with SACs.
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hi,
just wondering, did you do ALL the questions for the rest of the book (aside from chapter 1)? :P
EDIT: Which textbooks did you use to study for maths methods?
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^ That would have to do with SACs.
Actually not at all; both of them got 100/100 for SACs.
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Different schools? Or are you talking about moderated scores of 100?
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Different schools? Or are you talking about moderated scores of 100?
Moderated.
Like if I were to give some scores without disclosing names:
SACS (after moderation) Exam 1 Exam 2 Study Score
100 40 78 ---> 50
98 39.5 79 ---> 49
100 40 77 ---> 48
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Different schools? Or are you talking about moderated scores of 100?
Moderated.
Like if I were to give some scores without disclosing names:
SACS (after moderation) Exam 1 Exam 2 Study Score
100 40 78 ---> 50
98 39.5 79 ---> 49
100 40 77 ---> 48
Wow.. are you sure you have accurate values? If so, there must have been A LOT of people that got 77 and 77.5/80 for exam 2 because in order to get a 49, you would have to lose precisely 2.5 marks on the exams. That seems somewhat unlikely to me, since its usually a range of 1-2 marks, for which a single study score stands. However, if this was the case, it must have been a good year :)
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Not really; it depends on where you lose your marks. Losing 2 SAC marks is not the same as losing 2 Exam 1 marks or 2 exam 2 marks.
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Not really; it depends on where you lose your marks. Losing 2 SAC marks is not the same as losing 2 Exam 1 marks or 2 exam 2 marks.
Well, there are 40 marks in exam 1 (worth 22%) and 80 marks available in exam 2 (worth 44%). Therefore, each individual mark on an exam should (logically) be equivalent, no matter which exam you lose the marks on.
Therefore, my statement should hold, and you would have to lose 2.5 marks across both exams to get a 49. Correct me if I am wrong.
EDIT: I probably should have stated in my previous post that I was assuming 100% SAC scores. It just sounds odd that losing a precise 2.5 marks is a 49.
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Doing well in Methods is all a matter of confidence, I reckon.
+1, study for confidence!
EDIT: I think thushan means that losing 1 mark on a SAC is different to losing 1 mark on an exam. This is because SACs are 100 marks for 34% while the exams are 120 marks for the 66%.
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Doing well in Methods is all a matter of confidence, I reckon.
+1, study for confidence!
EDIT: I think thushan means that losing 1 mark on a SAC is different to losing 1 mark on an exam. This is because SACs are 100 marks for 34% while the exams are 120 marks for the 66%.
Haha, when they say 22% counts for Exam 1, that's not 22% of the mark you get out of 40, it's 22% of the z score you receive ( [score - mean]/standard deviation ). Same goes for SACs and Exam 2.
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Ah k, makes sense now.
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Doing well in Methods is all a matter of confidence, I reckon.
+1, study for confidence!
EDIT: I think thushan means that losing 1 mark on a SAC is different to losing 1 mark on an exam. This is because SACs are 100 marks for 34% while the exams are 120 marks for the 66%.
Haha, when they say 22% counts for Exam 1, that's not 22% of the mark you get out of 40, it's 22% of the z score you receive ( [score - mean]/standard deviation ). Same goes for SACs and Exam 2.
Wow. I never even knew how they calculate z scores. That makes more sense though, thanks for clarifying.
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jane1234 you are reminding me of someone I know very very well *cough, cough, cough*
Didn't get the 50 though, 49 for me =P
I fully endorse your study techniques and advice, they truly work!!
I have only one more thing to add - if you're doing two 3/4 subjects in year 11, the pressure will really be on. As a result, start exams sooner. I started in July.
The thing with a subject like Methods is that practice exams will really help fine tune your responses on exam questions. You can definitely see an improvement as you go. Some people feel that it's not effective study to go through so many exams but I beg to differ - the quality of your answers gets better and better and that's ultimately what gets you high 40s for the subject.