Your Examination Experience

[brenden]

Upon getting my result I've been doing some reflection and working through the varying emotions that accompanied 'A'. At first I was absolutely devastated, especially because I walked out of the exam room knowing the mistakes I'd made that were just ridiculous, and of course at the sense of "failure" that came along with it.
However, whilst bitter, I'll still be better. I've acknowledged that getting and A will probably be the best thing for my Psych study score. Had I got an A+, I would have said "Semester one; that's the best I can do - it got me an A+" and put limits on myself which I may or may not have met in Unit 4. Either way there would probably have been little improvement. Receiving an A, I now know that I did not do my best, and I'll have to push myself more, increase my limits and meet them and make sure I absolutely ace the Unit 4 exam. At the start of the year, I was aiming for Psych dux. There was one A+ in my year level, wasn't me, but I'm keeping the goal. Rather than study 'harder', I'm going to eat better, sleep better, exercise more, study more efficiently and cosistently (and yes, admittedly a little bit longer).
~The only limits you have are the ones you set on yourself.
So, what did everyone else take from the exams? Please share your disappointment, happiness, learning, and please keep any silliness locked in a proverbial cage.

[nisha]

I think you said it all. For my pathetic Chemistry mark, I have sulked infront of the TV and eaten icecream, complained quite a lot and thoroughly been unhappy for the past two days. I honestly think thats enough. No more moping. Just study as hard as I did before. Atleast, at the end of the day I can say that after doing 50+ practise exams, checkpoints, neap, lisachem and thushan's book- there was really not that much I could do. I did the best I could under the circumstances. I wanted to be chemistry dux as well. That may not happen, but I know that I do not need marks to dictate how much I love a subject and how much effort I have to put in it. I still love chem, and want a career in it, so I shall perservere.

Physics=WOW. I am so happy with this mark, its actually ridiculous. Theres a small chance this baby is coming to my top four, so as of today I am not going to sit with my friends in class (and draw on random pieces of paper and gossip and chat and play hangman and colour in the worksheets given) and sit at the front, open my textbook -and painful as it may be- read the damn thing. Do extra practise exams, and write my own cheat sheet.

Rather than study 'harder', I'm going to eat better, sleep better, exercise more, study more efficiently and cosistently

I need to keep this in mind.

[brenden]

What were your grades respectively? I've definitely had my share of Coles Banana Choc-Chip today haha.

[nisha]

What were your grades respectively? I've definitely had my share of Coles Banana Choc-Chip today haha.

Chem B+, Physics B+

[Surgeon]

My head was spinning, I could barely open my eyes to stay awake, couldn't stop yawning, felt high, kept coughing every 60 seconds and felt a searing pain in my head and chests with each cough.

Not the best experience

[Soul_Khan]

My head was spinning, I could barely open my eyes to stay awake, couldn't stop yawning, felt high, kept coughing every 60 seconds and felt a searing pain in my head and chests with each cough.

Not the best experience

Wow. You need to relax!

[charmanderp]

I worked painfully slowly and fastidiously during the actual exam, especially in comparison to how I generally worked during practice exams (ie. 75 minutes to complete the exam whereas practice exams took me 45-60). Still managed to somehow make non-chemical careless errors which prolly cost me about 2-5 marks all up but obviously didn't have much time to pick up on these

So I guess it's about trying to be as natural as possible and not to approach the VCAA exam any differently to how you'd complete it under non-exam conditions. Which is easier said than done.

Surgeon, that sounds like a nightmare haha. I was pretty sick going into my exam but barely coughed/experienced discomfort at all due to how pure adrenaline

[charmanderp]

My head was spinning, I could barely open my eyes to stay awake, couldn't stop yawning, felt high, kept coughing every 60 seconds and felt a searing pain in my head and chests with each cough.

Not the best experience

Wow. You need to relax!

He had chronic fatigue iirc.

[Shenz0r]

First exam: Biology

I got to school pretty early, was in that state of mind where I knew I had done enough preparation for the exam. It kind of felt like I was going to school as normally as I would, and I didn't feel too concerned at all.

I knew that the round rooms which we have our exams in would be fully crammed with stressed Year 11s (probably because it's their first 3/4 exam), so I kinda just chilled with the other Year 12s for the remainder of the lead-up to the exam.

The exam seemed easy while I was doing it, and I remember that when time was up, I closed my paper, satisfied. And then we all came out and the Year 11s were already asking "oh did you get the answer for this, oh nah but oxygen is not a compound, oh what'd you get for IgG and IgM" and all those questions. I wasn't planning to listen to them, but I did in the end, and I thought that I had made a shitload of mistakes. The stress began to kick in, as I calculated how many marks I thought I lost in total (it went from 5, to 7, to 9, to at least 10), and I started to get a really big headache. I couldn't stop thinking about the exam because I had convinced myself I did badly. I really stressed throughout the night, and I was hoping that Chemistry would be my saviour.

Later in the night, before we went to bed, my friend and I decided to pump each other up. There's no harm doing so, we thought, so we were literally typing "OK WE ARE GOING TO SMASH THIS EXAM. WE'RE GOING TO SMASH THIS. WE WILL GET OUR 50S NO PROBLEM! WE ARE GOING TO LOSE LESS THAN 5 MARKS ON THIS EXAM, BECAUSE WE WILL SMASH IT!"

Second exam: Chemistry

I had blocked the thought of that Bio exam from my mind, and I had to admit, I was looking forward to the Chemistry exam seeing as I realllly wanted to smash it up. I saw my friend in the library and we decided to pump each other up again, but I think I was a bit internally stressed LOL, the ruler I was holding snapped because I had inadvertently pressed and bent it too hard. Whoops.

The exam looked hardish during reading time, and I was a little nervous. But then again, I knew that was how I felt before every practise paper I did.  Then writing time started; everybody flipped over to the multiple choice sheet while I just immediately got stuck into the Short Answer section, which I had always practised during trial exams. I did the Short Answer section first (while leaving the ones I was unsure of) and then went through the multiple choice, and then filled in the Short Answer I wasn't sure of before checking all my working again (in the latter end of the practise exams I did, I started to check every answer as I was doing the question)

Coming out of Chemistry, I felt a lot better than I did for Biology.

Results:
I was pretty confident about my Chemistry score, but Biology, I feared. I feared that I'd get an A (pretty good, but I wanted a mid A+ initially). But hey, things turned out for the better, and I was really relieved and glad and felt like shouting all night.

I think my exam preparation was thorough and effective enough, but who knows whether I can repeat the same with 5 subjects at the end of the year.

[charmanderp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkcboMSv5Dc I listened to this song all morning too haha. Last year before Lit I completely pigged out on junk food all day, this year I couldn't eat anything before chem except coffee. Also had a sleepless night.

[link125]

My examination experience at the midyears was literally a piece of shit

For accounting I was aiming for a really high 40.

So coming mid-years, I was ranked about 2nd in my cohort, done the 15+ practice exams (ALL done under exam conditions, marked harshly, determined my score and improved each time), done more than half of checkpoints, 90% of exercises and review questions in the text book.

Still wasn't cocky, kept my cool.

In the actual exam about 30 minutes in, I was feeling good about myself. I knew how to respond appropriately to most of the questions and felt I was on a roll. Then about 3 pages away from completion, the bitch says you have 10 minutes left. WHAT THE FUCK

I immediately rush to half complete questions, just to get as many marks as I could. Missed out on two questions which were worth 6 marks.

So when I got my mark back. B

B for big fuckup

It's going to be so hard to get a 40 now. Pretty much have to get the perfect score on the end of year. My backup option, methods, is looking pretty good now as a candidate for my top 4.

Excuse the language

[max payne]

 midyear exam was pretty smooth, it kinda felt like a normal test...but i know that was due to my past experience in year 11 where, admittedly, I was nervous as hell. So yeah, first exam is always nerve-racking because you think to yourself "it all comes down to this" kind of thing but then when you go for the second and third, etc your kinda like "meh"

[Genericname2365]

I find I'm always messing the time up. On my end of year exam last year there was 15 minutes more than I thought there was, resulting in me rushing, and in my Psych exam I did the same thing (although thankfully it didn't throw me off there). I think it's the reading time that I keep forgetting.
But agreed with max payne, I wasn't too stressed by my exams when I did them; I think it helped that the teachers didn't talk as if it was a big deal on the day, as well as deep breathing etc. It's a pity there's another exam on the same day as my psych one in November - I wonder if I'll be stressed then.