need advice from those who got 40+

[mano91]

when should i have the course complete?
is it better to study more theory or do more questions/trial papers?

[d0minicz]

I'm doing chem this year but once you're confident with your knowledge, definately do questions/trail papers.

[shinny]

Concepts, concepts, concepts.

From this, you'll be able to figure out a lot of stuff on the spot as opposed to relying on having previously seen the question (which is often impossible as they always do new style questions).

[Mao]

Concepts, concepts, concepts.

From this, you'll be able to figure out a lot of stuff on the spot as opposed to relying on having previously seen the question (which is often impossible as they always do new style questions).

I say

Concepts, Questions, Concepts, Questions, Concepts

You need concepts to do questions, you need to have done practice to refine concepts in your head so you know how to use the concepts, etc. They go hand in hand.

[shinny]

Concepts, concepts, concepts.

From this, you'll be able to figure out a lot of stuff on the spot as opposed to relying on having previously seen the question (which is often impossible as they always do new style questions).

I say

Concepts, Questions, Concepts, Questions, Concepts

You need concepts to do questions, you need to have done practice to refine concepts in your head so you know how to use the concepts, etc. They go hand in hand.

And I guess that's the difference between a 47 and 50 =P I personally didn't have more time to spend on chemistry than I already did so I didn't bother too much with questions...

[polky]

Concepts, concepts, concepts.

From this, you'll be able to figure out a lot of stuff on the spot as opposed to relying on having previously seen the question (which is often impossible as they always do new style questions).

I say

Concepts, Questions, Concepts, Questions, Concepts

You need concepts to do questions, you need to have done practice to refine concepts in your head so you know how to use the concepts, etc. They go hand in hand.

I agree with teh Mao.  Learn the theory then practice applying it, of course!

I'll say try to finish the course at least 2 weeks before the exam so you can do moar practice papers.

[unknown id]

Once the concepts start to click, the best way to reinforce these is to do practice exams. You guys should have much more exams to do than we did last year

[ninwa]

I say questions actually. I learnt a surprisingly large amount of stuff from doing lots and lots and lots of practice exams (mostly because I slacked off a bit and didn't really study the theory much) as well as how VCAA examiners like your answers to be structured.

NB: polky, Mao and shinny all got higher than me in Chemistry so I'd take their advice first

[Collin Li]

It depends on what you're aiming for in Chemistry, what the return is on study (relative to other subjects), and hence where your priorities lay.

ninwa's technique is great for learning stuff on express. I know I used this (going through past papers) effectively in Unit 4 to learn a lot of things from the course without having looked at the chapters first.

The responsible path, which is more time consuming but better for long-term knowledge, completeness and full flexibility in working with surprise questions on exams is to learn the theory first (from a good and engaging teacher, or textbook), then to practice them.

However, learning concepts can still be done by practice questions - in a very natural way, your brain pieces together 'how it works' after a while, but the patterns your brain picks up may be flawed without learning the basics at first.

So, it depends on how much time you are allocating to Chemistry, which boils down to where your priorities lay for Chemistry.

[shinny]

Kind of depends how your mind works I guess. I typically tend to understand things quickly, so for Chemistry I'd either be able to just understand the concepts straight from class, or perhaps one or two more reads through the textbook would have done it. To me, this was definitely more time-friendly than doing exercises, but yeh, that's only because I'd tend to pick things up fast.