How to improve on practice exam marks and time?

[Ematuro]

Currently I'm going overtime for every single prac exam I'm doing for methods. For other subjects I have like half an hour left and get good marks. But for some reason, I'm not improving in methods at all. I'm getting about 80% average for both exams UNTIMED. Not ideal considering I want to get over 40. I've noted down all the mistakes I'm making and I've listed them all on the front page of the exam I made the mistakes on. But, I see little improvement in my actual marks. Can anyone point out why? How do you guys make progress? I don't want to do 1000000 exams and get nothing out of it so yeah.
Cheers guys.

[b^3]

If you are not improving I'd say go over the fundamentals of the whole course, then go a bit more in depth for the areas you are having more trouble with.

1. Are all the mistakes you are making from the same particular area, if so then maybe go back and do say the LHS of the textbook for
those couple of exercises.

2. Are you making the exact same mistake twice? If so then when you are writing down you mistakes, first do the actual question again, then write down in what way you did it wrong, and by that I don't mean the actual numbers, I mean the theory behind what you did wrong, say not putitng the x in front of mean when intergrating probibility functions. Then make a list of all the things that you seem to repeat making the same mistakes and write it in the front cover of your bond reference. Mine has forgetting to convert degrees into radians when differentiating as the diffing of cos and sin are different if it is in degrees.

3. Are you doing the exams say late at night or when you are say down and exhausted? For me I can have about a 15% difference between exams that I did when I was refreshed in the morning and other when I was hopelessly asleep.

4. As for time. If you are strapped for time, do the questions that you find easuly first. It will give you confidence and time to think about the other questions that you haven't quiet got figured out yet.

For me, to revise the areas that I continue to lose marks on, I have been doing the NEAP smart study books for methods, they have good questions in there that test how you understand the theory and not just repetitive questions. There is also checkpoints although this year's checkpoint for methods was pretty dud and full of mistakes.
As for me making progress, see the attached images. I'm currently at 21 exam 1's and 10 exam 2's.

EDIT: 600th post

[paulsterio]

Well I'm just adding what I do in practice exams, although b^3's methods are pretty good

First of all you need to ask the "why" questions - why you're making these mistakes - either it was:
- a careless mistake, i.e. you know the answer but you made a careless mistake (something like arithmetic or algebraic errors) - but if you do it again, you can do it
- conceptual error, i.e. you know how to do a particular type of problem by concept, but somehow you didn't see that when you were doing the question - if you do it again, you'll eventually get it after multiple tries
- you can't do the question, i.e. you don't have the knowledge required to do the question, you don't understand it...etc - if you sit there forever, you still won't be able to do it

Personally, after this, I would address the type 3 questions first, again asking what is the reason why I can't do them
- if it's an interpretation that i can't do - then maybe do more extended type questions
- if it's a theory or method that i don't know, then go back to the theory of it in a textbook and do short answer questions on it first before coming back
- also try to think about what you exactly don't get - cause "not getting something" isn't a statement that will help you - you're looking for "i don't get how to do general solutions of trig functions cause I don't understand how to add and subtract multiple integers of periods correctly" (for example) - then you know that you can solve trig functions to get the first two primary solutions, but its the periods thats the issue, then you go back to the theory/examples with a focus on that

Also, rather than looking at your performance on exams alone, it's important to see an improvement with your understanding, you should be finishing each study session with a better understanding of a particular concept or more experience at something than before - it's this gradual change in understanding that will see you do better 

I guess that you need to also see that it's not all about practice exams, you can do 100000 of them, but it won't help you unless you learn something from each one, so do what b^3 suggested, try to re-do each question - seeing where you went wrong, or if that doesn't work then do it with the solutions by your side, seeing where it is that you lose track of what they're doing - always a good way to learn

And lastly - how is your usage of the CAS, are you proficient? cause that will have a BIGGG impact on exam 2

hmm, I'd actually suggest that you try to improve your Exam 1 scores to about 90% first - but 80% for exam 2 actually isn't THAT bad - in fact it's quite decent (might be an A - im not sure)


Anyway, it's a bit to read there, but I hope I've helped out - I'm actually an aspiring maths teacher, so I enjoy explaining and helping - but my parents don't think that teaching is a good career choice - so medicine it is

[abeybaby]

I very much agree with paulsterio, using your calculator correctly will cut down your time by a lot. And conceptually, exam 1 is almost never difficult, do if you're finding that you're losing marks on exam 1, I'd say that probably means something isn't right at the fundamental level. I'd go back through the exam 1s that you've done and really nut out what went wrong and consciously try to apply what you've learnt from them in your next exam. Good luck!

[Ematuro]

Okay, if I go with what you guys say, do you think I can improve a lot before the actual exams? Also, which trial exams should I do first? Easy ones like TSSM? Or hard ones like TSFX open book?
So far I've done all the TSSM ones and a Heffernan exam, and STILL not getting an ideal mark which is quite sad

[thatricksta]

I haven't read other replies because I can't really be bothered tonight but my best advice would be to do checkpoints or something like that - you wont benefit fully from exams right now as you are clearly not prepared for the level you want to be at (not trying to offend you but if you are aiming for 40s, you need to be better prepared prior to doing exams).

There are tricks you will pick up along the way but I think you need to learn to use your calculator well in exam 2 and in exam 1, half the issue is recognizing the route to the solution - PRACTICE

hopefully thats a little bit of help, keep up the work though - you are already ahead of most of the state if you are revising already. people are lazy!

[paulsterio]

Okay, if I go with what you guys say, do you think I can improve a lot before the actual exams? Also, which trial exams should I do first? Easy ones like TSSM? Or hard ones like TSFX open book?
So far I've done all the TSSM ones and a Heffernan exam, and STILL not getting an ideal mark which is quite sad

TSFX are dodgy exams - I personally believe that they make their exams dodgy so students sign up for their lectures and courses
TSSM and Heffernan are both good exam companies, and I think they are quite indicative of VCAA standards - so you can just work on them

Your improvement really depends on you if you're willing to work hard and take b^3, abes22 and my advice and put in the effort to improve
I believe that if anyone tries and puts in effort, they will do well - so stay positive

and i agree with "thatricksta" - checkpoints or other books such as that will definately help (:
and they're absolutely right that you're already ahead of others who haven't even started revision yet

[tram]

Okay, if I go with what you guys say, do you think I can improve a lot before the actual exams? Also, which trial exams should I do first? Easy ones like TSSM? Or hard ones like TSFX open book?
So far I've done all the TSSM ones and a Heffernan exam, and STILL not getting an ideal mark which is quite sad

I think that whatever exam you're doing now doesn't make a heap of difference, just mix it up, do some of the hard ones, do some of the easy ones. Also i just do the papers as you would in the exams in regard to notes (i.e. exam 1 with nothing, exam 2 with notes/calc), if you're making mistakes, deal with them later when you're correcting the exam, you want to do the exams as similarly as you can to how they'll actually be.

I really wouldn't worry about the marks you're getting at this stage. Generally the first 10ish papers are just there for the learning experience. They need to be done because they have high education value, they allow you to go over the concepts and get into the rhythm of doing exam style questions (even if you've done checkpoints and everything, doing exam papers is a different experience). You would actually be surprised, you're probably not doing any worse than usual, i mean who gets all the exercises right when you're doing textbook work? It's only now that you're counting and taking into account all the mistakes you're making and scoring yourself that you're aware of the mistakes and they add up which means frustration builds-we've all been there.

I think the advice given so far has been excellent. My one piece of advice is that after you finish a paper and score it/mark it DO NOT move on unless you are 100% confident if you sat that paper again right then you would get 100%. If you do not feel this way you should not be moving on as you're not getting the full worth out of the practice paper. Doing ten papers PROPERLY is far more important than doing dozens badly. Once you've finished about your 10th paper you'll be recognizing tricks and so many questions you'll be  "yup, seen that questions know how to handle that" and just have two or three questions you have to really work on per paper. From then on it will be more of a case of ironing out all the kinks with your exam technique, rather than knowledge.

This advice for exam papers holds true for ALL MOST subjects (well.... at least the ones i can think of) and i think is important to recognize this before diving head first into exam papers.

The first 10 papers are the hardest, but i promise you from there on, providing you've done the papers correctly, you'll start seeing much more consistently high scores, getting there is the hard (but by no means impossible) part!

good luck!

[Ematuro]

Wow, thanks for all the great tips. I just did a Heffernan one properly and got 39/40! Major confidence booster. I was probably just lucky that it had everything I knew and nothing I didn't know but still very happy
Also do you guys think I should make a bound reference as another way to revise?

[abeybaby]

don't waste time on a bound reference - take all your notes for the year, staple them to your text book, then run duct tape down the spine. then do more practice exams!

[paulsterio]

Wow, thanks for all the great tips. I just did a Heffernan one properly and got 39/40! Major confidence booster. I was probably just lucky that it had everything I knew and nothing I didn't know but still very happy
Also do you guys think I should make a bound reference as another way to revise?

Haha, it's the placebo effect just believing that you'll know more actually leads you to be able to access more of your memory and believing you are better at something will actually make you better - because it improves your thinking processes - that's why its good to be positive

And I don't think that it's luck, try doing some more Exam 1's and you'll get what I mean about the placebo effect

Hmm, some do say making a bound reference helps - I'm not too sure, I'm not the kind of person that makes notes But I do agree with abes22, Practice Exams probably is more important especially at this stage

[thushan]

If you want a bound reference, for god's sake write in massive letters "READ THE QUESTION." If you want to emphasise it, you could always use a four-letter word.

[b^3]

If you want a bound reference, for god's sake write in massive letters "READ THE QUESTION." If you want to emphasise it, you could always use a four-letter word.

I've got all the stupid things I do witten in BIG BOLD LETTERS on the inside cover of my bound reference and I will read through them just before checking over my exam to make sure I haven't done any of them.

[tram]

What I did for both Spech and methods is have the front sheet as a forums sheet that I would scribble ALL over with notes to myself, other handy tricks, formula when I hit the exam all I was looking at was that front cover and I nvet had to open the notes-which Is the exact positon you want to be in by the exam comes around

[paulsterio]

LOL! i intend to underline every single word on the exam, I actually tried it whilst doing a practice exam, and you don't wanna know how much it cut down on silly "not answering the question" mistakes!

I think just the underlining forces you to read more slowly and read every word, you should try it