ATAR Notes: Forum
Administration => Announcements => Topic started by: enwiabe on June 08, 2008, 01:13:55 pm
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As you wind up your revision and begin the mental preparation for your mid-years, I feel it is important to ensure that all of you have, at least, the following knowledge about taking exams.
1) Nerves aren't a bad thing!
Everyone gets nervous before such events. Try not to focus on them or even to get rid of them, because they do serve a useful purpose! When nervous, you tend to be cautious, and being cautious is a fantastic way to prevent the dreaded 'silly mistake'. If you're overconfident, it's likely that you'll overlook something and forget to check it. Thus, it is a good thing to balance nerves and confidence in a combination that is ideal for your purposes.
2) If the exam seems extra difficult during reading time, DON'T panic.
If you get into reading time and start seeing questions that look foreign or are testing arcane (rare) knowledge, blank them out of your mind. Go through, systematically, and do all the questions that you do know how to do. Once you've answered those to the best of your abilities, tackle the difficult questions. When you're on those questions, if you really can't understand them or what they're asking, deconstruct it! Whip out the highlighter and go over the key words. If you don't know the knowledge it's testing, just guess. You don't get marks off.
3) Pace yourself.
Ensure that you allot enough time to each question. I'm sure this has been covered many times in your schooling life, but if you're stuck on a question, as in 2) leave it, go onto more manageable questions and come back to it later.
4) If you finish early, do NOT leave. Check your working!
I'll give you an example of this. In 2006 in Maths Methods exam 2, I finished with 30 minutes to spare. I could've walked out, but instead I went and re-did the multiple choice. I found THREE errors that I made. That would have been 3 marks just gone. Turns out I'd lost 3 marks in the extended response of that exam. In that year, the A+ distribution was messed up, and having lost only 3 marks over both exams, I got 44. If I hadn't have picked up those extra 3, it would have been 6 all up and that easily would have translated to <40. CHECK YOUR WORKING/ANSWERS. There's no greater feeling than picking up an error, fixing it, and then walking out. Trust me.
5) It is not the end of the world if you don't do as well as you'd like.
The mid-years for all of these subjects are only worth 33%. You have 67% more assessment to turn that mark around! If you are really depressed about it, do not suffer alone. I highly recommend seeking counsel from your school's appointed psychologist. They will keep your strict confidentiality and you won't have to face your parents to have an adult to confide in. There is no end to how much this can help you. You *can* contact the staff of this site for help, but compared to the alternative, this is inadvisable. We will try to help, but we are far from qualified and probably will not be able to offer anything more than an ear with which to listen. We will, however, endeavour to assist as much as is possible. But in any case, keep your chin up and work towards the end-of-years. It's not over yet!
And, finally, to all users of this forum:
Be DELICATE in your discussion of the exams afterwards. The one thing I will not tolerate is being mean to or being intolerant of those who didn't do well. You can be braggarts if you've done well, but nobody will like you for it. Be warm and accepting of others.
Also, a personal request... if you're feeling kind, please tell your friends about the discussion that will be going on here. I'm really hoping to get a massive influx of members in this exam period. It's not the top priority, but if you remember, it'd be awesome. :)
On behalf of the VN staff, I wish you all good luck and hope that you achieve your respective goals, and try to have some fun. :D
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i love u enwiabe
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you rawk enwiabe! Good Tips ;)
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-related to 2: Have an achievable minimum goal.
I was "so going to get 75/75" for VCE French. The very 1st mark I lost, [listening], which shook me, and definitely contributed to me losing more marks; I ended up with about 65/75. If my goal from the start had been 65-75/75 I might have achieved 70/75. Having a relatively low minimum aim doesn't preclude you from maximum achievement
-Know a routine to get yourself "in the zone". Whether it involves going for a run, eating particular foods, doing mind excercises, or debating on a forum such as this [works for me].
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Good luck everyone =]
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Get those A+'s guys! :)
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4) If you finish early, do NOT leave. Check your working!
I'll give you an example of this. In 2006 in Maths Methods exam 2, I finished with 30 minutes to spare. I could've walked out, but instead I went and re-did the multiple choice. I found THREE errors that I made. That would have been 3 marks just gone. Turns out I'd lost 3 marks in the extended response of that exam. In that year, the A+ distribution was messed up, and having lost only 3 marks over both exams, I got 44. If I hadn't have picked up those extra 3, it would have been 6 all up and that easily would have translated to <40. CHECK YOUR WORKING/ANSWERS. There's no greater feeling than picking up an error, fixing it, and then walking out. Trust me
lol we're not even allowed to leave before the exam time ends, not even for the GAT.
thanks for the good tips though
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4) If you finish early, do NOT leave. Check your working!
I'll give you an example of this. In 2006 in Maths Methods exam 2, I finished with 30 minutes to spare. I could've walked out, but instead I went and re-did the multiple choice. I found THREE errors that I made. That would have been 3 marks just gone. Turns out I'd lost 3 marks in the extended response of that exam. In that year, the A+ distribution was messed up, and having lost only 3 marks over both exams, I got 44. If I hadn't have picked up those extra 3, it would have been 6 all up and that easily would have translated to <40. CHECK YOUR WORKING/ANSWERS. There's no greater feeling than picking up an error, fixing it, and then walking out. Trust me
lol we're not even allowed to leave before the exam time ends, not even for the GAT.
thanks for the good tips though
That's horrible. Most people leave the GAT an hour before.
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4) If you finish early, do NOT leave. Check your working!
I'll give you an example of this. In 2006 in Maths Methods exam 2, I finished with 30 minutes to spare. I could've walked out, but instead I went and re-did the multiple choice. I found THREE errors that I made. That would have been 3 marks just gone. Turns out I'd lost 3 marks in the extended response of that exam. In that year, the A+ distribution was messed up, and having lost only 3 marks over both exams, I got 44. If I hadn't have picked up those extra 3, it would have been 6 all up and that easily would have translated to <40. CHECK YOUR WORKING/ANSWERS. There's no greater feeling than picking up an error, fixing it, and then walking out. Trust me
lol we're not even allowed to leave before the exam time ends, not even for the GAT.
thanks for the good tips though
That's horrible. Most people leave the GAT an hour before.
the GAT is fun :D
[well, only the multiple choice part :P ]
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My aim is to do better in all my GAT sections this year =)
Fuck mid year exams LOl
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4) If you finish early, do NOT leave. Check your working!
I'll give you an example of this. In 2006 in Maths Methods exam 2, I finished with 30 minutes to spare. I could've walked out, but instead I went and re-did the multiple choice. I found THREE errors that I made. That would have been 3 marks just gone. Turns out I'd lost 3 marks in the extended response of that exam. In that year, the A+ distribution was messed up, and having lost only 3 marks over both exams, I got 44. If I hadn't have picked up those extra 3, it would have been 6 all up and that easily would have translated to <40. CHECK YOUR WORKING/ANSWERS. There's no greater feeling than picking up an error, fixing it, and then walking out. Trust me
lol we're not even allowed to leave before the exam time ends, not even for the GAT.
thanks for the good tips though
That's horrible. Most people leave the GAT an hour before.
the GAT is fun :D
[well, only the multiple choice part :P ]
i love the multiple choice! i thought it was fun too lol
except for the icky science stuff- i just pulled out the trusty "if in doubt, circle C" method.
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good luck guys hope you all do well.
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Good luck everyone- especially psych students *shifty eyes*
Nicely said, Enwiabe.
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Nice advice enwiabe. Good luck everyone!
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I particularly liked enwiabe's first point, because I think it was especially true with me.
Another tip regarding point 2 is to read the difficult questions thoroughly during reading time, making note of all the given pieces of informations and essential parts of the questions, that way you can subconsciously solve the problem while you work on the easier problems (this problem solving technique is called incubation).
In any case, I wish you all good luck. :)
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yup good advice --- anyways goodluck to vce ppl and university students who have exams now or coming up!
Don't stress too much, all the ppl on this forum are like super smart so you'll all do fine, i seriously studied last minute and not too much and i got an 80... like ppl who do 10+ practice exams im sure will get like 90+...
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Good luck everyone, just try your best^_^ great tips btw
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aww! enwiabe is sooooooooo cute!!
greatest advice EVER!! THANX!
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hey thanks for the tips, they are really helpful (i needed that)
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Bumping this thread for this year's cohort.
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Good luck physics cohort!
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Good luck everyone :D
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Good luck everyone :D
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Good luck everyone :D
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Good luck everyone :D
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Good luck :)
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Good luck :)
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Good luck to people with exams tomorrow
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Good luck, don't forget sleep and brekky.
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good luck everyone !!!!
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NEW USERS: Forum Necromancy. (Revival of Dead Threads) MUST READ
:P
edit: but yeah, good luck everyone. Get off ATARNotes and start studying.