What does it take to get a 50?

[ValiantIntellectual]

So I am about to embark on my year 12 vce journey, I just want to know ( preferably from past 50ers) what it takes to get a 50 in a subject. I am the type of person that needs a really high goal to strive for in order to actually study. So this year I am aiming to get a 50 in all my subjects, will this happen? Hell no. But i am going to give it my best shot and hopefully I might even get a 50 in one subject if i am lucky. So with that in mind, i have a few questions for 50ers
1) How many hours did you put in to your subject? more importantly, how did you ensure you were effectively studying?
2) Was the subject you got a 50 in your first priority out of all subjects?
3) did you learn the content before the school ?
4) what are some ways to separate yourself from the crowd?
5) How did you approach sacs and sac revision?
6) did you expect your 50?

[psyxwar]

Hey, I think getting a 50 probably requires a bit of luck on your side (that is, having a good day on the exam) for most people. Of course there are the super talented who get 50s for every subject, but for most of us you could know the content inside out and still get say, a 47, simply because of a stupid mistake here and there. I got 50 in methods.

1) No idea, and I don't think going off how long you study is a good metric for success anyway. It's all about quality>quantity, making sure you're understanding everything and that you're comfortable with exam-style questions and the time constraints of an exam

2) Nope, English Language was my first priority for obvious reasons (needs to be in my top 4 and I was always a strong maths/science kid, and not so strong in English)

3) I was a bit ahead of my school syllabus, but nah nothing crazy. I only ended up finishing the course around mid-term 3 or so, which was maybe a week or two ahead of my school? Of course there's no harm in going ahead, I just never felt the need.

4) Be meticulous? Just aim to full-mark everything for maths subjects, do trial exams timed so you're good with time management on the big day.

5) N/A I didn't really take SACs seriously

6) Yeah, after the exam I was expecting either a 49 or a 50. Maths is objective though so you know when you're right. For humanities subjects it's harder to be as certain.

[Zealous]

I got a 50 in Further and Physics during VCE and as Psyxwar said, a lot of it comes down to the exam day. You basically need to beat 99.8% of the state in your subject and that can often come down to how compatible you are with your exam.

1) During term 1 and 2 I didn't spend too much time outside of class (at home) working on the subject. But during class I pretty much worked nonstop - since I was stuck in class I thought I may as well put in the effort. Term 3 onwards I started practice exams so I spent more time on the subject at home to get through those. Physics was a pain because the exams were so long...

I think you are studying effectively if you feel you are always learning something new. In the last week before the physics exam I stopped doing practice exams timed and just skimmed through them because doing them would be ineffective (I wasn't learning much from them because they were repetitive).

2) Back when I did Further, I only did two 3/4 subjects so I had plenty of time so I didn't really have to prioritise or anything. For physics, I put a lot of focus on it because I wanted another strong subject in my top 4 - I was happy for two maths to be in my top 4 after receiving results in year 11 then to finish the top 4 with English language and physics in year 12.

3) Yeah. I finished both courses by term 3. I don't think it was necessary but I went ahead to give me a bit more exam revision time and also because I was getting bored in class because I felt it moved too slowly. Funnily though, I got bored early in the year because class was moving too slow, but then I got bored at the end of the year because I was too fast.

4) Just work very hard to be the best you can be at the subject. Make sure you keep referring to the study design and you are confident in everything on it. There's really no secret to it, just put in the effort in the right places and you will be fine.

5) Just like any other piece of assessment. Just aim as high as possible and put in the necessary work to get your goals. Talk to your teacher and make sure you know what can be assessed on the SAC and use study guides and practice exams for extra questions. If you're going for a 50 then rank 1 is super useful (in weaker cohorts like mine) so really push for a good ranking.

6) Not really. I didn't check my answers for any of my subjects after the exams so I didn't know how I went. Also in further if you lose 2/100 marks and 4/150 marks in physics you pretty much go down to a 49 so I couldn't really be sure. But I was pleased come result day that I hadn't done anything stupid on the exams.

Hope this helps and all the best for 2015!

[heids]

I'll come from a different angle as someone who got a 50 in HHD, an 'easy', non-maths-science subject with less competition (i.e. I'm not a nerd), and only ever expected it for the one specific subject that I knew I could do well in.  I think how to get 50 differs a lot based on your subjects...

1) Have to say, not that many hours. AN always makes it sound like you have to do a million hours and practice exams; chill out a bit, just make sure that everything you do has quality rather than being an hour-count.
Effective study tip #1: always do something active to synthesise the information while studying, like reading it out loud, rewriting/typing it (but rearranging or adding information rather than just copying), or getting a study design dot point and writing or speaking everything I can think about it without notes.  Don't let yourself just read silently and NEVER lie down while you study!  And don't think that checking AN is studying...

2) I actually did far less in my 50 subject than in my 45 and 46.  But right before SACs and the exam it was top priority; I crammed to make sure I didn't lose anything in serious assessments.

3) Don't know - most of the year I was overseas so had to direct my own learning   There's no point getting drastically ahead if you don't learn it well – going more slowly often means you consolidate it better.

4) Really knowing how to achieve that 50 for that subject – feeling like you could be the teacher, you could write the exams, you are on top of the subject and can deal with anything they give you.  Get onto this early – know the study design inside out, go over VCAA exams a million times to really get a feel for the sorts of questions they ask and exactly how to answer.  Be the boss of your subject.

5) I took them seriously, both for their marks and for practising for the exam.  They were just mini-exams.  (Rethink: this was true for my OTHER subjects, but for my 50 subject I did almost no work for 3-4 weeks and then wrote notes and learnt the content for an outcome within the three days leading up to the SAC.  The fruits of self-directed learning!)

6) I'd been aiming for it the whole year but was scared of the lost mark here and there that might land a 49... That's the stress of the 50.  You won't be devastated if you aim for 47 and get 46, but aiming for a 50 and getting 49 would be a huge disappointment.

Aiming for a 50 in some ways takes more stress than it's worth, as you need to be ready for ANY question they can throw at you; you can't afford the chance mark and thus have to know so much more than someone aiming for a 48.  Too much effort for the extra 1-3 score!
But it definitely gives you something clear to aim for, which is really worthwhile.  Keep it up.

[lzxnl]

So I am about to embark on my year 12 vce journey, I just want to know ( preferably from past 50ers) what it takes to get a 50 in a subject. I am the type of person that needs a really high goal to strive for in order to actually study. So this year I am aiming to get a 50 in all my subjects, will this happen? Hell no. But i am going to give it my best shot and hopefully I might even get a 50 in one subject if i am lucky. So with that in mind, i have a few questions for 50ers
1) How many hours did you put in to your subject? more importantly, how did you ensure you were effectively studying?
2) Was the subject you got a 50 in your first priority out of all subjects?
3) did you learn the content before the school ?
4) what are some ways to separate yourself from the crowd?
5) How did you approach sacs and sac revision?
6) did you expect your 50?

My path to VCE was VERY weird. Through self-study in years 9 and 10, I had already covered Methods and Spesh 3/4. My school offered advanced year 11 physics and chemistry classes which helped prepare me very well for 3/4. My year 10 physics teacher got me to read through the first year uni physics course and I probably made sense of...half of it? Then, I was accepted to the Australian Science Innovations Chemistry Summer School, which introduced me to 1st year uni chemistry over 2 weeks time. Essentially, through many weird paths, I'd unknowingly prepared myself for Methods, Spesh, Physics and Chemistry 3/4 before starting year 12. Having cleared Chinese 3/4 in year 11, my only 3/4 remaining that I was worried about was English Language. That was the one subject I spent all my time on.

1. My study for Eng Lang was NOT effective. But I had so much time to spare it didn't matter (studying for one subject only is easy in comparison). I'd spend about the whole Sunday on EL and an hour or two of study a night for it.
2. EL was my priority in year 12; didn't really pay much attention to chemistry in comparison as first year uni chem makes VCE chemistry a LOT easier to learn (you're not meant to learn stuff that way around ). In year 11, where I got a 50 in Methods, that was by far NOT the priority for me (Chinese 3/4 and EL 1/2 were my priorities) and I just went off my knowledge from year 9, the year I self-studied Methods 3/4.
3. EL? Nah. Everything else? Yeah. Methods and Chem, I pretty much knew before the year I sat the exam.
4. Methods? Get all the questions right. There's generally a limited number of ways of doing Methods questions; you just need to see one of them. Chemistry? Similar idea. EL? Make your essays insightful, go deep in your discussions, use quotes, write clearly and fluently, write a well-structured essay, practise doing exams under timed conditions...those will help. Certainly helps to bug your teacher every week with a few essays. I did like 8 essays in 2 days in the term 3 holidays once. Use your teacher as a resource!
5. SACs for Methods/Chem? For Methods, it was just like, 'oh make sure I get enough sleep before that day'. For Chem, I thought 'let's actually write up some notes now before the SAC'. For EL, I thought 'need to write more essays...MOAR essays/analyses...MOOOOAAAAARRR'. It was a combination of writing lots and getting lots of feedback. Find extra topics if needed.
6. Methods and Chem? To be perfectly blunt, I was expecting something around the 50 mark. For EL, well I had a hunch I'd get a 50 but really, I'd have been fine with a 45. I only wanted a high enough EL score for the ATAR that I got, and well, I was quite surprised when I found I did better in EL than in physics or spesh, but that's VCE for you. You never know what you'll get until you get it.