ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => Topic started by: lacoste on October 05, 2008, 02:04:42 pm

Title: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: lacoste on October 05, 2008, 02:04:42 pm
Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?

No subject is easy to get 50's in, therefore, {if you had to pick the subjects}




Edit:

and why??



Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: lacoste on October 05, 2008, 02:06:38 pm
hmmm.


legal studies possibly,

because my friend said that it is pretty much rote-learning and reading many many many case studies and examples from the newspapers. and you must be good at essay writing supposedly..
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: danieltennis on October 05, 2008, 02:10:46 pm
Multimedia and IT Applications. I hear people can cram a few days before the exam/SAC and can still achieve over a 40. Furthermore, theres less competition.
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: brendan on October 05, 2008, 02:24:08 pm
further
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: ReVeL on October 05, 2008, 02:40:19 pm
further

I don't know... from what I've heard Further is very competitive and just one careless mistake and there goes 50.
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: vce01 on October 05, 2008, 02:44:43 pm
+1 for further

it's competitive sure but seriously, you should be kicking yourself for making any mistakes. all it takes is practice IMO. it's half the workload, if not less, compared to any other subject and the majority of stuff you have learnt in year 9. if you don't practise though then it sucks, as ive found with my sacs <_<
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: costargh on October 05, 2008, 02:49:52 pm
No way Legal. Whoever told you that obviously hasn't got a 50. (Damn ill look like a fool if they did)
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: ninwa on October 05, 2008, 03:10:35 pm
business management
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: lacoste on October 05, 2008, 03:13:02 pm
further

I don't know... from what I've heard Further is very competitive and just one careless mistake and there goes 50.
so you last year you had to get 100% in both exams for further to get 50 ss??






No way Legal. Whoever told you that obviously hasn't got a 50. (Damn ill look like a fool if they did)
nope. lol didnt get a 50 but 48.(thats why i said possibly legal)
 i think it was just luck!!  
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: ReVeL on October 05, 2008, 03:19:59 pm
so you last year you had to get 100% in both exams for further to get 50 ss??

Nope, by memory I think you could lose 2-3 marks.

But one careless mistake can mean more than 1 mark lost depending on the question. So most likely if you made two mistakes each worth a mark over both exams you'd still get a 50.
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: lacoste on October 05, 2008, 03:24:27 pm
business management

got no idea what the exams are like or the sac's... what makes business management easy?
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: jsimmo on October 05, 2008, 03:32:14 pm
business management

got no idea what the exams are like or the sac's... what makes business management easy?

It's just an easy subject to pick up the key concepts and if you take an initiative to like the subject and listen in class you'd easily be able to get 40+. For a 50 you'd need to learn how to structure your responses so that they really stick out - it's very possible.



However, my vote is with further as the "easiest" subject to get a 50 in. 
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: vce01 on October 05, 2008, 03:32:28 pm
BM is just like legal studies in that you have to rote learn a whole heap of stuff (definitions and examples especially) if you want 50. that's pretty much all there is to it.
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: Eriny on October 05, 2008, 03:33:59 pm
For me, I guess it was Psych.

It depends what you're good at/what interests you.
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: Toothpaste on October 05, 2008, 03:35:35 pm
I've heard (from unreliable sources lol) Health and Human Dev was an "easy 50" ... but I wouldn't vouch for the validity of the claim :\
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: costargh on October 05, 2008, 03:59:09 pm
BM is just like legal studies in that you have to rote learn a whole heap of stuff (definitions and examples especially) if you want 50. that's pretty much all there is to it.

I disagree. I you look at the task words for BM and legal, they are quite different and require differnt skills to address the question.
Eg. Legal has a lot of evaluate, critically evaluate, discuss.
BM has more of Identify, Explain

Even the point of rote learning to me doesn't hold up. The way you learn things is differnt for a subject if you have to evaluate it while in BM mainly explaining is just the rote learned bits.
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: cara.mel on October 05, 2008, 06:20:58 pm
This thread is stupid
For me I didn't study for chem at all unless it was food chem (uber hard topic, spent lots of time on that) the rest I just listened in class and learnt all those stupid cells/industrial processes first go, so I would say that is an easy 50. :P
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: Amnesiac on October 05, 2008, 07:44:38 pm
I agree. This thread is stupid. Am i mentally ill or does the thread name not even make sense?
I was confused from the beginning.
Title: Re: What are the "easy" to achieve in getting a 50 in a subject?
Post by: *Roxxii* on October 05, 2008, 07:47:41 pm
LOL, i didn't understand the thread title either :P
So no, there's nothing wrong with you...i hope :)

And for which subject, wouldn't it be different for everyone??
There are the "easy" subjects, such as further...but although it is easy, its very competitive...
So it would  probably just depend on which subjects you are naturally good at i guess...
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: rocothoco on October 05, 2008, 07:56:57 pm
pretty sure all the subjects r hard - u gota work hard for everything ....if there was an easy subject then everyone would do it n that would make it competitive n so rly hard again.....
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: lacoste on October 05, 2008, 08:08:19 pm
lol. slept at 4am last night and had hardly no sleep.
i was trying to write an essay that is due tomorrow as well.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: ReVeL on October 05, 2008, 09:16:50 pm
Bottom line is, getting a 50 is not easy in ANY subject in VCE.

Anyones best chance in getting a 50 is most likely going to be from doing a subject they enjoy.

If you're just average at maths, then further won't be an easy 50 at all. It is entirely dependant on what you are good at.

And judging by the title, there won't be any 50's coming up in english for you haha jks.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: melaniej on October 06, 2008, 10:07:22 pm
P.E is comparatively easy, and also not that much competition (i.e. 50 last year = 89% in the exam) - also Health isn't too bad.
But again, a 50 required a hell of a lot of work, in any subject!

Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: ilovesuck on October 06, 2008, 10:16:46 pm
(i.e. 50 last year = 89% in the exam)

wow
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: ganges on October 12, 2008, 08:45:41 pm
Specialist Maths.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: 123abc on October 12, 2008, 10:50:50 pm
Specialist Maths.

lol totally.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ahmad on October 12, 2008, 11:14:49 pm
Specialist Maths might not be the easiest subject to get a 50 in, but it is certainly a subject in which one has a high chance of systematically achieving a 50.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ichigo_Kurosaki on October 14, 2008, 06:52:32 pm
Bottom line is, getting a 50 is not easy in ANY subject in VCE.

That is not entirely true. There are a few exceptions. These include Japanese, Chinese and basically all other languages offered for VCE. This is why international students come to Victoria, to take advantage of this.

Hmmm... PE seems pretty easy too. And I'm not sure, but wouldn't ESL be easy too for VCE? I used to be in ESL, but got promoted to English (no doubt because of my extreme ability in speaking English). Though if I stayed in ESL, I would have easily got the highest SAC mark and possibly the highest exam mark also for Victoria.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: bubble sunglasses on October 14, 2008, 07:01:48 pm

 
 If you are experienced enough in the subject area even before the year begins, then you could get an "easy 50"
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ichigo_Kurosaki on October 14, 2008, 07:10:24 pm
If you are experienced enough in the subject area even before the year begins, then you could get an "easy 50"

Even for Specialist? You LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: enwiabe on October 14, 2008, 07:12:51 pm
Bottom line is, getting a 50 is not easy in ANY subject in VCE.

That is not entirely true. There are a few exceptions. These include Japanese, Chinese and basically all other languages offered for VCE. This is why international students come to Victoria, to take advantage of this.

Hmmm... PE seems pretty easy too. And I'm not sure, but wouldn't ESL be easy too for VCE? I used to be in ESL, but got promoted to English (no doubt because of my extreme ability in speaking English). Though if I stayed in ESL, I would have easily got the highest SAC mark and possibly the highest exam mark also for Victoria.


Yes, international students come to Australia to exploit the VCE language system. Not, perhaps, because Australia has one of the best education systems in the world for its price tag, and, not to mention the generally high quality of life offered in Victoria (and, indeed, the rest of Australia).

Furthermore, VOLTMAN, your arrogance is quite unfounded and your proclaimed "success" in English and ESL is difficult to believe considering some of the less than intelligent things you have posted on this forum.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Damo17 on October 14, 2008, 07:14:09 pm
If you are experienced enough in the subject area even before the year begins, then you could get an "easy 50"

Even for Specialist? You LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not that hard to believe that if you know the course already before the year starts then one could assume that it just might be easier to get a 50 in spesh.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: humph on October 15, 2008, 05:53:08 pm
Bottom line is, getting a 50 is not easy in ANY subject in VCE.

That is not entirely true. There are a few exceptions. These include Japanese, Chinese and basically all other languages offered for VCE. This is why international students come to Victoria, to take advantage of this.

Hmmm... PE seems pretty easy too. And I'm not sure, but wouldn't ESL be easy too for VCE? I used to be in ESL, but got promoted to English (no doubt because of my extreme ability in speaking English). Though if I stayed in ESL, I would have easily got the highest SAC mark and possibly the highest exam mark also for Victoria.

Not necessarily, with regards to ESL. One of my friends was from Hong Kong, only had been in Australia for two years, though obviously spoke pretty good english. He would get 9-10/10 on lots of his text responses done in class, but still only got 40 in ESL.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: bubble sunglasses on October 15, 2008, 06:11:34 pm
Bottom line is, getting a 50 is not easy in ANY subject in VCE.

That is not entirely true. There are a few exceptions. These include Japanese, Chinese and basically all other languages offered for VCE. This is why international students come to Victoria, to take advantage of this.

Hmmm... PE seems pretty easy too. And I'm not sure, but wouldn't ESL be easy too for VCE? I used to be in ESL, but got promoted to English (no doubt because of my extreme ability in speaking English). Though if I stayed in ESL, I would have easily got the highest SAC mark and possibly the highest exam mark also for Victoria.


Yes, international students come to Australia to exploit the VCE language system. Not, perhaps, because Australia has one of the best education systems in the world for its price tag, and, not to mention the generally high quality of life offered in Victoria (and, indeed, the rest of Australia).

Furthermore, VOLTMAN, your arrogance is quite unfounded and your proclaimed "success" in English and ESL is difficult to believe considering some of the less than intelligent things you have posted on this forum.

 LOL ;D   Voltman, eh?
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: monokekie on December 10, 2009, 02:24:02 am
Bottom line is, getting a 50 is not easy in ANY subject in VCE.

That is not entirely true. There are a few exceptions. These include Japanese, Chinese and basically all other languages offered for VCE. This is why international students come to Victoria, to take advantage of this. 
Hmmm... PE seems pretty easy too. And I'm not sure, but wouldn't ESL be easy too for VCE? I used to be in ESL, but got promoted to English (no doubt because of my extreme ability in speaking English). Though if I stayed in ESL, I would have easily got the highest SAC mark and possibly the highest exam mark also for Victoria.

gee....-_-lll
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: /0 on December 10, 2009, 02:32:20 am
If you are experienced enough in the subject area even before the year begins, then you could get an "easy 50"

Even for Specialist? You LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not that hard to believe that if you know the course already before the year starts then one could assume that it just might be easier to get a 50 in spesh.

Haha, if you're talking about a scaled 50, I would argue that spesh is the "easiest" subject to do in order to achieve that.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: EvangelionZeta on December 10, 2009, 10:37:48 am
@ the international students thing, some of them don't even end up getting 50 anyway.  A person I know was considered really good at Chinese in China, came here to do Chinese First Language and scored a 44.  There was also a girl at MacRob last year who came over from France and got 46 in French (and 99.95 to boot).  etc.

In terms of "easiest to get 50", I wouldn't say it's Spesh either.  Latin goes to 50 from 35, and if you look at results from elite private schools you'll find that a LOT of kids achieve that in such institutions.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on December 10, 2009, 01:56:13 pm
50 isn't easy in any subject. It requires work and effort.

However, I agree that it is easier to get 50 in some subjects than in others, but this is subjective, as different people find different subjects easy.

Generally, if you're very accurate and good with Maths, you could have a shot at 50 in Further.

If you're interested in Sciences and you're good with memorising small details, Psych 50 might be possible.

But you do need to work to get 50...
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: ngRISING on December 10, 2009, 02:29:36 pm
psychology. i didnt bother in semester one. 68/100. semester 2, i put my brains to it and my unit 4 score 94/100
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: kyzoo on December 10, 2009, 02:38:33 pm
Maybe the easiest subjects to get 50 in are the ones which have the most 50's - like English.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: monokekie on December 10, 2009, 02:41:12 pm
psychology. i didnt bother in semester one. 68/100. semester 2, i put my brains to it and my unit 4 score 94/100

you did it last year?? o.O so how cm your Signature differs...
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: ngRISING on December 10, 2009, 02:50:26 pm
did it this year. . 2009 ; psych. estimated :P . could be more . idk xD
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: NE2000 on December 10, 2009, 03:58:22 pm
Maybe the easiest subjects to get 50 in are the ones which have the most 50's - like English.

It's still top 0.2%, it's just that everyone does it.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: monokekie on December 10, 2009, 04:30:53 pm
did it this year. . 2009 ; psych. estimated :P . could be more . idk xD

lol, :)
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: appianway on December 13, 2009, 05:43:18 am
A 50 really depends largely on luck - what stupid mistakes you make on the day. Personally, I don't think that someone who scored 46 is inherently worse at a subject than a 50 scorer - perhaps if it'd been a slightly different paper or another essay question, the scores would be reversed.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: naved_s9994 on December 13, 2009, 09:06:43 am
Bottom line is, getting a 50 is not easy in ANY subject in VCE.

That is not entirely true. There are a few exceptions. These include Japanese, Chinese and basically all other languages offered for VCE. This is why international students come to Victoria, to take advantage of this.

Hmmm... PE seems pretty easy too. And I'm not sure, but wouldn't ESL be easy too for VCE? I used to be in ESL, but got promoted to English (no doubt because of my extreme ability in speaking English). Though if I stayed in ESL, I would have easily got the highest SAC mark and possibly the highest exam mark also for Victoria.


Yes, international students come to Australia to exploit the VCE language system. Not, perhaps, because Australia has one of the best education systems in the world for its price tag, and, not to mention the generally high quality of life offered in Victoria (and, indeed, the rest of Australia).

Furthermore, VOLTMAN, your arrogance is quite unfounded and your proclaimed "success" in English and ESL is difficult to believe considering some of the less than intelligent things you have posted on this forum.

Actually, in countries like India and China, courses such as Specialist Maths, would be something a
student there would do when they are in Yr 10 or (14 Years of age)... But yes, I do agree
on the language aspects!
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: EvangelionZeta on December 13, 2009, 11:06:33 am
^^Actually, I think even Methods is considered Uni level in China.  We cover more "breadth" than they do - it's just that the Chinese maths courses go a lot deeper into their topics.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: kyzoo on December 13, 2009, 12:49:40 pm
A 50 really depends largely on luck - what stupid mistakes you make on the day. Personally, I don't think that someone who scored 46 is inherently worse at a subject than a 50 scorer - perhaps if it'd been a slightly different paper or another essay question, the scores would be reversed.

That probably depends on how many people do the subject. For English 46 is a bit far, maybe 48? But for something like Classics or Latin, that's probably right.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: m@tty on December 13, 2009, 02:19:38 pm
A 50 really depends largely on luck - what stupid mistakes you make on the day. Personally, I don't think that someone who scored 46 is inherently worse at a subject than a 50 scorer - perhaps if it'd been a slightly different paper or another essay question, the scores would be reversed.

That probably depends on how many people do the subject. For English 46 is a bit far, maybe 48? But for something like Classics or Latin, that's probably right.
I think 46 translates to ~9,9,9.5 [27.5/30 am I right??] on the exam. Someone who can write 3 near perfect essays could probably on a good day have written perfect essays.  This would apply even more so to a 48 [roughly 9.5,9.5,9.5 28.5/30 ?? is this correct I am guessing] As three examiners thought he had written a perfect essay.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: EvangelionZeta on December 13, 2009, 02:33:09 pm
I think 9, 9, 9 is actually closer to 48.  29/30 is generally 49 or 50.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: m@tty on December 13, 2009, 02:33:40 pm
I think 9, 9, 9 is actually closer to 48.  29/30 is generally 49 or 50.
really?? I thought that was 45 :o
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: EvangelionZeta on December 13, 2009, 02:38:09 pm
Maybe 9, 9, 10 is 48 then.  Still, from experience the difference between people most who get 46 and people who get 50 in English IS often relatively hefty.  Of course, there are potential 50-students who get 45 or whatever, but from what I've heard they're the minority.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on December 13, 2009, 02:41:39 pm
Okay, panic attack.

dlfjalifl;rnclajiowefre;f

Need 9, 9, 9 to get 45???

Goodbye, 45.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: m@tty on December 13, 2009, 02:45:56 pm
I wasn't sure, I was just guessing. I have no evidence at all.
EZ what do you think constitutes a 45?

EDIT: My only knowledge of 45 in English is a guy who got stuffed up by SAC's but got 28.5/30 for the exam.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: EvangelionZeta on December 13, 2009, 02:51:39 pm
I guess it depends on the cohort.  I was under the impression that 26/30ish was enough to get 45 though.  I'm sort of guessing too, just that my head of English said people in the past have gotten 50s with 29/30, and even 28/30.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: m@tty on December 13, 2009, 02:54:18 pm
Highest English score at my school was ~35 xD So I have no anecdotal evidence.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: minilunchbox on December 13, 2009, 03:03:27 pm
Highest English score at my school was ~35 xD So I have no anecdotal evidence.

Someone asked our english teacher around how many people would get 40+ for english every year at our school and he just laughed.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: m@tty on December 13, 2009, 03:06:09 pm
That would suck!
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: mba on December 13, 2009, 04:21:17 pm
Three 9s for English would be more like a 48 I would think, definitely not 45. As long as your SAC marks for strong too.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: humph on December 13, 2009, 10:25:19 pm
I guess it depends on the cohort.  I was under the impression that 26/30ish was enough to get 45 though.  I'm sort of guessing too, just that my head of English said people in the past have gotten 50s with 29/30, and even 28/30.
The way we used to think of it was that 58/60 would get you 50, then every mark you drop from that is down one in your study score, so that 53/60 is a 45, 48/60 is a 40. And in my experience, there's very little to distinguish between someone who gets 46 and someone who gets 50 - it just depends on how you did on the day. When I came out of my english exam, I had no idea what I'd got, and figured it could be anything from 43 to 50 (thankfully it was the latter :P).
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: maine on December 14, 2009, 04:57:55 pm
outdoor education, i think 3 people got it this year, in my school
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: lynt.br on December 15, 2009, 04:52:38 am
If it means anything, I got a 50 for IT:SD this year and did about 3 practice exams.

A friend of mine got the same SS for IT:Apps with apparently just as much study.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on December 15, 2009, 03:43:01 pm
Gahh God has blessed me with 3 49s...so I guess luck does come in the way of a 50 :P
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: turley on December 16, 2009, 10:01:48 pm
it is incredibly difficult to get raw 50 in any subject
however, due to scaling, getting 50 is quite achievable with spesh maths, languages (in particular LATIN)
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: stonecold on December 17, 2009, 02:23:43 am
I have changed my stance on Further Maths.  50 is nigh impossible, unless you can go through a 40 and 60 mark exam without making one mistake, don't expect a perfect SS.  Some years you may get lucky with difficult exams, which could mean you can drop 1-3 marks and still pull a 50, however I wouldn't count on it.  If you are a good maths student and wan't to maximize your scores, then the methods/specialist path is the way to go.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: appianway on December 17, 2009, 05:33:50 am
I really don't think the students with the most talent always get the highest marks. Not at all.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: lynt.br on December 17, 2009, 09:30:00 am
I really don't think the students with the most talent always get the highest marks. Not at all.

That is because you can't quantify talent. It works the other way as well. Sometimes people get high marks while truly knowing nothing about the subject. I managed a 50 in Software Development while knowing shit all about coding. There were people in my class who got SS in the 30-40 range who have stacks more practical IT knowledge than I do.

I think it works the same in maths subjects too. Even though I'm far from good at maths, I didn't really think there was anything on the methods exam that was completely beyond my understanding. For the maths geniuses, the exams must really be a piece of cake which probably means the 45+ range is determined mostly by who made the most silly mistakes. I doubt there is much noticeable difference between ability once you reach that score range.

I have changed my stance on Further Maths.  50 is nigh impossible, unless you can go through a 40 and 60 mark exam without making one mistake, don't expect a perfect SS.  Some years you may get lucky with difficult exams, which could mean you can drop 1-3 marks and still pull a 50, however I wouldn't count on it.  If you are a good maths student and wan't to maximize your scores, then the methods/specialist path is the way to go.

A lot of people had the idea that if they were very good at maths, they could take FM for an easy 50. The problem is, the ease of getting a 50 is unrelated to subject difficulty. You still need to outperform the same percentage of people as any other subject so in actual fact, picking an "easy" subject like FM could have been detrimental to people who are good at maths because differentiating students at the high end most probably came down to luck with careless errors.

Also remember a lot of people had the same idea of trying to do FM after a more difficult maths subject like Methods or Spec. This meant that to score a 50, you would still need to outperform specialist level students.

it is incredibly difficult to get raw 50 in any subject
however, due to scaling, getting 50 is quite achievable with spesh maths, languages (in particular LATIN)
A little aside; according to the scaling report this year the mean scaled SS for Latin was a whopping 45, probably brought about by the fact that a 30 raw in Latin scales to that score anyway.
 
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: kyzoo on December 17, 2009, 11:40:55 am
I disagree with what you propose regarding the lack of "noticeable difference between ability." IMO there is a wide range of mathematical ability within the 45+ range. The thing is, you only need to be good enough at Maths to be qualified for a 45+. Once you're past "good enough," any extra mathematical ability is irrelevant to your chances of 45+. Instead, it becomes a matter of who has the best exam technique, i.e., who is able to manage their mental state, and who has developed an exam procedure, such that the probability of avoidable errors is 0. This also means that it isn't who does the most practice exams who gets the 50, but it is who derives the most benefit from each individual practice exam that does.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: kenhung123 on December 17, 2009, 11:56:51 am
Is a spesh 40 or further 48 easier?
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: /0 on December 17, 2009, 11:59:47 am
You probably won't find many people who have done both subjects... but I will say spesh 40. You can simply look at the number of people who get high scores in Spesh and Further, and with a spesh 40 you can afford to drop down quite far in the ranks, but with a further 48 you still need to be very near the top.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on December 17, 2009, 12:03:50 pm
Stonecold, I agree. I lost only 1 mark, to give 49. I was really counting on 50 in Further the whole year, as a sort of cheer up for having really bad SAC marks.

I agree now that if you feel strong with Maths, don't take Further unless you're really really accurate/good under time pressure. Spesh would be a better option, although I didn't take it - wish I had though.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: kenhung123 on December 17, 2009, 12:07:14 pm
You probably won't find many people who have done both subjects... but I will say spesh 40. You can simply look at the number of people who get high scores in Spesh and Further, and with a spesh 40 you can afford to drop down quite far in the ranks, but with a further 48 you still need to be very near the top.
But what if you take into account the amount of time and effort required for spesh? Such that you may sacrifice some time from studying for physics, chem or english.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on December 17, 2009, 12:09:17 pm
Yeah, fair point. You'd need to consider that too - I got 49 relatively easily for Further this year - with less work that I did for Methods. But then again, the mark I got was the same for Methods - I reckon a 40 in Methods might need about the same work as a 49 in Further?
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: kyzoo on December 17, 2009, 12:10:47 pm
I really don't think Spesh is hard enough such that it takes away time from Physics, Chem, or English. Actually Chem is harder than Spesh.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: vexx on December 17, 2009, 12:11:23 pm
Yeah, fair point. You'd need to consider that too - I got 49 relatively easily for Further this year - with less work that I did for Methods. But then again, the mark I got was the same for Methods - I reckon a 35 in Methods might need about the same work as a 49 in Further?

although i don't do further, i beg to differ.
since further 45+ requires a lot of practice, i, personally, would need to spam prac exams to get 49 in further, or even 47.
but for 35, it would be achievable with barely any work all year for methods.

maybe thats just me, but im sure there are others like me here?
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: Ilovemathsmeth on December 17, 2009, 12:12:57 pm
Nah I'm comparing it to the work I did :P

I did heaps of practice exams for Further to get 49 - I just did even more to get the same mark in Methods :P People got away with doing 8-10 exams for a 40 in Methods, so I think that's more what I meant.
Title: Re: Which subjects should you do to get an "easy" 50?
Post by: kenhung123 on December 17, 2009, 12:14:43 pm
So does anyone know how many marks you can lose for a 50 and 40 for spesh? So that a comparison can be made?