Learning from VCE subjects

[for_icarus]

Hey guys

So basically I'm really interested in maths/science (specifically chem+phys) so I was wondering if anyone had tips on learning certain concepts and methods. Essentially, I'd love to learn more on organic chem, calculus and just anything that can help me be more prepared for VCE subjects: chem, physics, methods + spesh.

I'll be honest, I tried learning things like organic chem nomenclature and integral calc but I kinda gave up because I just didn't understand it (which is expected ofc). But I do have concepts like matrices, unit circle trig and etc down (haha well kind-of)

Overall, I guess what I'm asking is that is there a way to learn these concepts a little earlier? And how can I go about doing so, while making sure that I'm actually learning the info, and not just memorising and forgetting (that has happened with a lot of the things I tried learning from vce subjects, unfortunately)? For people currently doing any of those subjects, what has been helpful and is there anything you'd recommend specifically? Oh, and my apologies if this is kinda confusing, any help would be much appreciated though.

Thank you so much  xx

[ashmi]

Hey for_icarus!

Totally understand where you are coming from here (I love this question you have asked) and there are a few good things you can actually do! (Especially for Physics).

Physics

I'll start with Physics because this is one of the 'weird' subjects. The best piece of advice I can give you is understand. I don't think I can stress this enough, but learn to understand. It sounds pretty simple at first (and took my whole VCE journey to finally realise) that the key to doing well in Physics is to understand where things come from, how it happens and why it happens. In conjunction with this, what I'm about to say is quite childish in a way, but just play, question everything and enjoy learning. (Every morning before school, I just go to the Physics room and play with anything I can get my hands on).

The one good thing about this subject is that nearly everything you learn can easily be demonstrated in real life and I highly recommend that you try doing everything you learn and applying it to real life. In terms of preparing yourself for VCE Physics, it's probably just getting your basic maths up to scratch (you really only need Year 9/10 maths) and if you want maybe a little headstart, understanding words like position, velocity, acceleration, speed, displacement etc. I went into VCE Physics with 0 Physics knowledge (I still have no clue what made me pick it) but I can 100% guarantee that you will be fine!

An example of what I mean

Pretend you throw a pencil up in the air; is the pencil experiencing a force? what is the acceleration the pencil is experiencing? What is the velocity at the top? Are they the same? Why/why not? Can you tell me why the pencil comes back down and doesn't continue to keep going straight up?
Questioning everything and trying things out for yourself rather than listening to someone/looking at a textbook gets you very far in this subject.

Chem

For Chem, the best thing to do is get your foundations sorted. This might be balancing chemical equations, how the periodic table works etc. Before you try and do anything else, it would be super beneficial that you take the time to hammer down your foundations well so when you do get to bigger things, you can link back your knowledge of previous concepts (which again will make you see the bigger picture rather than memorising things). There are some pretty cool apps and websites when it comes to showing things in a 3D, visual perspective if that's something that helps you learn. (I love MolView)

I would say Unit 1 is a pretty good starting point if you would like to study ahead (I had very little Chem knowledge and found it fine) and just take the time to understand what you are doing rather than memorising it and putting it away. For me, visual and 3D models where my best friend and really understanding why things happen helped make it easier.

Methods

*See Physics above because it's the exact same thing*
For Methods, the more you understand where and why things happen, the better you are going to do. For example, when you get a formula sheet, where did those relationships come from? How can I get them without memorising it? Why does this work?
I think for Methods, try and only rely on the given VCAA formula sheet. (This stops you from writing unnecessary things and helps you focus on practise questions which are meant to test your knowledge). Make sure you have your basic foundation knowledge sorted before you try to do anything else! I loved visually representing things (e.g. graphs) as it helped me understand things better. Baby steps are the best way to go around and probably starting at Unit 1 then moving forward little steps at a time will be good.

To sum up, everything I was saying, understand, play, and have fun! (And plenty of prac questions to consolidate knowledge)
Hope that sort of helps!

[GodNifty]

Hey guys

So basically I'm really interested in maths/science (specifically chem+phys) so I was wondering if anyone had tips on learning certain concepts and methods. Essentially, I'd love to learn more on organic chem, calculus and just anything that can help me be more prepared for VCE subjects: chem, physics, methods + spesh.

I'll be honest, I tried learning things like organic chem nomenclature and integral calc but I kinda gave up because I just didn't understand it (which is expected ofc). But I do have concepts like matrices, unit circle trig and etc down (haha well kind-of)

Overall, I guess what I'm asking is that is there a way to learn these concepts a little earlier? And how can I go about doing so, while making sure that I'm actually learning the info, and not just memorising and forgetting (that has happened with a lot of the things I tried learning from vce subjects, unfortunately)? For people currently doing any of those subjects, what has been helpful and is there anything you'd recommend specifically? Oh, and my apologies if this is kinda confusing, any help would be much appreciated though.

Thank you so much  xx

Wow great job. As a year 9, you're definitely very ambitious - the unit circle trigonometry took me forever to learn as a year 11 so congrats to you

My advice is to just take baby steps. Ask your maths + science teachers of the timeline for your subjects so you can study ahead. Once you smash them out and are confident with it, move on to year 10 work.

You really need to understand the absolute fundamentals of those subjects. So I'd advise to perfect your algebra skills, basic physics concepts (like Newton's law), atoms stuff. Just look up videos on them.

ETA: ashmi has provided better advice

[for_icarus]

Wow thanks so much for the advice ashmi and GodNifty! I appreciate it so much

[davsalooki]

ashmi's advice is fantastic. a few things to add on here:
don't EVER get behind (try not to)! once you're behind, the work stacks on more and more. I've seen people 3 chapters behind once.

main thing to take away is: UNDERSTAND!!!!