Vagueries of VCE

[Spreadbury]

I dislike my teachers never being able to tell me what we should or shouldn't know with certainty. I know VCE can ask anything they want related to the course, so technically we should know everything in the text book but some is so trivial, or too detailed and i'm not sure whether it's worth taking the time to note it and learn it.

I can't tell you how many times i've gone up to my teachers and asked "do we have to know this? *points to part of the text book*" and with a smile they just tell me 'I don't know, they could give you a question on it' and then walk off, or talk about something different.

it would be unreasonable to assume that VCAA would give you a definite list of everything you have to know, that would take all challenge out of VCE ad makes the whole year a bit pointless, turns into a memorising competition. but perhaps they could put some effort into regulating the text books a bit? that too would be detrimental since then there's no individuality in any of them and uniformity is frowned on by examiners... I don't know

haha I guess this is more venting than a debate, but anyone elses thoughts on this are welcome

[shinny]

It's frustrating in VCE, but this occurs even more so in uni given that there's often no clear cut study design and they can pull large questions on something very minor. Difference is, hopefully by uni you're in a course you actually want to learn that you don't care whether it's being assessed or not; you just learn something for the sake of learning more about something you enjoy. But for VCE, I find that most subjects will tend to be largely conceptual and that textbooks just write varying amounts or depth into these concepts, often providing plenty of irrelevant examples to illustrate such concepts. These examples are typically not needed, and in general, I'd say that the depth you need to go into is the least depth that is displayed in any of the major prescribed textbooks. This isn't foolproof as shown by the controversy a few years ago over the HHD exam where the main textbook only had 2 sentences on a major short answer question, but I haven't heard of any other major problems with this vagueness. In general, VCAA asks pretty fair questions from what I've seen so don't stress too much. Doing past papers will also give you a feel of what VCAA is likely to ask as well.

[Spreadbury]

I agree with you about Uni, when you're doing something you like and something that really matters learning it would be easier. but to me VCE appears to be a year that weeds out the lazy students. some subjects don't even require learning but rather memorisation. of course there's some application in the subjects I do (psychology, legal and history) but conceptualisation isn't a must. I find this a bit of a shame as what you 'learn' in these subjects doesn't necessarily apply to what you want to do in uni. it wouldn't be detrimental if it was related, but for so many courses for example law, doesn't need VCE legal studies. provided you meet the pre-requisites (which for most subjects doesn't extend beyond math or english for purely academic subjects) it doesn't matter what you do in year 12 which reinforces my belief that VCE is less about learning and more for just memorising the curriculum (once again, for some[i/] subjects)

[kyzoo]

IMO VCE is quite clear-cut, they even provide you with a list of concepts you need to learn.

[vexx]

IMO VCE is quite clear-cut, they even provide you with a list of concepts you need to learn.

Not in everything.
English Language for example, we need to know so much  that isn't mentioned on the study design particurly for unit 3, the course is ridiculous.
And Spreadbury- i feel the exact same way about some things (englang).
But uni is far better with this way as you can choose what you want to learn, disregardig others and still do amazing, VCE is about minimising mistakes and being 'perfect', it is the worst.
I'd love for VCE to make more detailed lists for each subject on what exactly we need to know (like how IB has) but this is not going to happen I'm sure..

[IntoTheNewWorld]

But uni is far better with this way as you can choose what you want to learn, disregardig others and still do amazing

lolwut

[vexx]

But uni is far better with this way as you can choose what you want to learn, disregardig others and still do amazing

lolwut

As in you learn so much in a subject, you dont have to learn it all, just choose waht you want to focus on and then do really well still because to get a D/HD you dont need to get perfect grades.. unlike vce where u focus on everything and have it nail it all.
uni=so much better.

[shinny]

But uni is far better with this way as you can choose what you want to learn, disregardig others and still do amazing

lolwut

As in you learn so much in a subject, you dont have to learn it all, just choose waht you want to focus on and then do really well still because to get a D/HD you dont need to get perfect grades.. unlike vce where u focus on everything and have it nail it all.
uni=so much better.

I've only got one written exam which assesses all my subjects, so I've had situations where I've scored in the top quartile (we only go by quartiles, no Ds/HDs etc.), but have failed 3 subjects within that exam which I couldn't be bothered studying (e.g. embryology - oh how I hate thou). I just managed to do well on the subjects which I did happen to study for so getting top quartile was still possible.