Further maths and careless errors.

[ReVeL]

I am beggining to think further and carelessness are bound to eachother, at least for me.

Is anyone else as concerned as I am with the amount of mistakes they're making this close to the exam?

We did the 2007 exam II earlier in the week and my teacher gave us back our marks today, I got 50.5/60. I just went through it and I made some of the stupidest mistakes(like just arithmatic errors and plotting graphs wrongly, easy shit).

I was pretty dissapointed to say the least. My SAC's have been good(99/100), but I'm really shitting myself now and am convinced that I am going to fuck up the exam. Further is the subject I expected myself to really succeed in. Not so sure anymore...

Does anyone else feel like this?!?

[jsimmo]

I've made heaps of careless mistakes aswell.. What I do is after every exam I write down what I got wrong (including the careless mistakes).. and everytime I am about to begin a new exam I read what I have done in the past so that I don't make the same mistakes again. It would be good to have in your summary book mistakes that you have made so that you can check your answers to see if you havent made that same mistake in the exam.

[Amnesiac]

I agree with jsimmo. it's an excellent way to study. i have done it with every module. Firstly, i rewrote my notes, and then did every question possible on both exam 1 and 2 relating to that module and pasted the ones i got wrong into my book that i'm taking into the exam. the questions won't vary a lot this year, and you can basically predict what they are going to ask you. Revel, i wouldn't worry. I am making careless mistakes too, but if you employ the strategy that jsimmo suggested, you will gradually begin getting less questions wrong. At the end of the day, you are the only one who can determine whether or not you are prepared, so take no chances. study what works for you, but if you're strategic about it i wouldn't be wasting time learning the really easy info at the start of the modules - they'll only give 1-2 questions on it, and basically everybody in the state gets them correct. I'd be focusing on, for example, seasonal adjustment and transforming to linearity for CORE, purely because they are bound to ask questions on it.

hope this calmed you down a bit lol... we are all shitting ourselves though so don't worry!
peace.

[ReVeL]

Cheers guys - good advice.

I also think problems I have is racing through exams like I've got no time at all, then finish with a good half hour left and just focus on afew questions when there are others that I've made mistakes on. Something to work on.

[plato]

Maybe you could set a time by which you would expect to have completed half the marks for the exam. This will then give you a shorter-term target to aim at and which will let you monitor your progress during the exam. Allow time at the end to quickly review your solutions to make sure you answered all questions fully.

In both exams, you could aim to complete the Core plus one module by the 40 minute mark. If you finish them in, say, 20 minutes, use some time to carefully review your full solutions for the Core and this first module only. Then use the next 40 minutes to complete the next two modules.

You seem to be studying well but are concerned about making errors that can be very costly in Further. Don't stress - you are on target and now also with some suggestions to help overcome your main worry. Go get 'em.

[RD]

I am beggining to think further and carelessness are bound to eachother, at least for me.

Is anyone else as concerned as I am with the amount of mistakes they're making this close to the exam?

We did the 2007 exam II earlier in the week and my teacher gave us back our marks today, I got 50.5/60. I just went through it and I made some of the stupidest mistakes(like just arithmatic errors and plotting graphs wrongly, easy shit).

I was pretty dissapointed to say the least. My SAC's have been good(99/100), but I'm really shitting myself now and am convinced that I am going to fuck up the exam. Further is the subject I expected myself to really succeed in. Not so sure anymore...

Does anyone else feel like this?!?

Haha I need calming down...

ehh.. 50.5 isnt too bad, compare that to me 35/60! (Yeah, I suck at further)

[icedark]

Yeah I really hate this, I keep doing the same thing.
I'm going over my answers too, seems like a good strategy.
But I notice I seem to make more careless errors when I'm stressed out or in a panic, so I'd say probably try to calm down, read the question over more than once, and then go for it.

[Amnesiac]

Exactly icedark. It's purely commonsense, that is what i have discovered. None of the questions have extremely difficult hidden meanings. The answers can all be acquired through simple calculations. This is an illusion that weaker students fail to realise. They overcomplicate their answers, when in fact the solutions can be readily reached through a simple process. I tell myself this when i complete every question, and it seems to help. It may for everyone else too.   

[/0]

Exactly icedark. It's purely commonsense, that is what i have discovered. None of the questions have extremely difficult hidden meanings. The answers can all be acquired through simple calculations. This is an illusion that weaker students fail to realise. They overcomplicate their answers, when in fact the solutions can be readily reached through a simple process. I tell myself this when i complete every question, and it seems to help. It may for everyone else too.  

Occam's Razor ftw
The simplest solution is often the correct one.

[ausyid]

Always read the question again straight after you have answered it. Most careless mistakes are because people don't read the question properly.

[doboman]

Cheers guys - good advice.

I also think problems I have is racing through exams like I've got no time at all, then finish with a good half hour left and just focus on afew questions when there are others that I've made mistakes on. Something to work on.

Just something about finishing further exams early-
At home, you usually finish the exam in 50mins-however, in the exams you'd notice a big big difference. You'd JUST make it. Trust me. So dont go too fast that you finish with half an hour to spare- but dont go slow (trying to make things perfect) cos you'd be surprised  how time flies in VCAA exams.

[vce01]

Cheers guys - good advice.

I also think problems I have is racing through exams like I've got no time at all, then finish with a good half hour left and just focus on afew questions when there are others that I've made mistakes on. Something to work on.

yeah we had a trial exam at our school about a month ago, i only just finished the exams on time. did a vcaa 07 last night tho and had 25-30 minutes to spare.
although i think it is possible to finish with time to spare, (i didnt know anything at all when i did the trial exam therefore i took more time) because you have 15 minutes of reading time you don't allow yourself at home as well. ill be looking to finish with 20 minutes to spare minimum anyway, id rather finish quickly and have time to check over than spending extra time on certain questions and having to rush at the end. 


Just something about finishing further exams early-
At home, you usually finish the exam in 50mins-however, in the exams you'd notice a big big difference. You'd JUST make it. Trust me. So dont go too fast that you finish with half an hour to spare- but dont go slow (trying to make things perfect) cos you'd be surprised  how time flies in VCAA exams.

[ausyid]

I always finish very early, both at school in practice exams and at home. My problem is that I just want to know what I have got and can't be bothered checking over my answers thoroughly. The only exam I didn't finish very early in was the 2008 Neap Exam 2. I have done 17 exams but no VCAA ones yet and I'm yet to get 100% (Got one mark off a few times)

[vce01]

ive done one vcaa and a couple of heffernan and MAV exams, vcaa was by far the easiest. i know MAV had some stuffed up business maths questions. hopefully the trend continues as i get more of them done..