Getting an Atar of 80?

[laura4]

hi everyone,sorry to be a pain but i've been freaking out a bit lately because i'm starting to doubt whether id be able to get an atar above 80. the course i'm looking at needs an 80.7 for clearly in.
i've been really unmotivated and disorganised all year and for a few of my subjects,i dont do any work apart from what is required in class. i'm just really hating school at the moment-i just want year 12 to be over and to be at uni already.

here are my subjects and marks so far,if you have the time can you please tell me whether i'd be able to achieve and atar of atleast 80.7 so i can get into my course-and if you dont think i can,what subjects do i need to be doing better in? thanks:)

geography(2011) raw score: 39

grades so far;
english: 95%(oral presentation),70%(essay on novel),70%(language analysis) N.B i don't know why i'm doing so badly at English this year, im usually an A student:/
Legal: 92%,84%,(we've just completed our third sac-my teacher said mine was excellent but i dont know my mark yet,and i think he may have the wrong person)
Further: 90%,79%
chem: 79% (we've just completed another sac and id be lucky if i get above 50% for it)
methods:40%,(have also just completed another sac for methods-i think i did better on this one so hopefully i'll get above 40%)

[Special At Specialist]

I'll try to be as pessimistic as possible:
Geography - 39
English - 35
Legal - 35
Further - 35
Chemistry - 30
Methods - 20
ATAR - 83.30

[KevinooBz]

I'll try to be as pessimistic as possible:
Geography - 39
English - 35
Legal - 35
Further - 35
Chemistry - 30
Methods - 20
ATAR - 83.30

Holy Fuark. I just typed in those exact same numbers and was about to post it. Even without methods your ATAR is over 80.

[charmanderp]

You're doing rather well in Further and Legal and English is mostly about the exam. If you keep up the effort and strive to improve before the end of the year, there's no plausible reason why you can't get well over 80!

[Eddiee]

Don't worry about it, most of your sac marks are fairly good and it looks like you're on the right track, but work on your areas of weakness, particularly English. If you're still very motivated to do well in Methods then I guess you could get a tutor (especially if it's a prerequisite for your course) otherwise just do what you can and don't work too hard.

But seriously, if you were capable of getting 39 in Geography then there is no reason why you can't score above 80 with a little bit of effort

On a side note, how hard would you say you worked for that SS of 39? (Geography is my only 3/4 this year)

[paulsterio]

You're doing rather well in Further and Legal and English is mostly about the exam. If you keep up the effort and strive to improve before the end of the year, there's no plausible reason why you can't get well over 80!

English - no it's not, I got an A on the exam (not even a high A), my friend got an A+ on the exam. I got a higher study score than him. Why? I did very well on my SACs, whereas he did quite mediocre.

[Eriny]

I know it's difficult. I think everyone loses a bit of motivation at some point in year 12, and for good reason. You are obviously doing quite well and you should be heartened by that. At the end of the day, even if you don't get what you need, I'm sure you can get into an alternative which is just as good.

When you aren't feeling very motivated, do keep up with doing the bare minimum. Maybe you're just stressed out and tired and need a bit of a rest before getting back into the swing of doing additional work.

[charmanderp]

English - no it's not, I got an A on the exam (not even a high A), my friend got an A+ on the exam. I got a higher study score than him. Why? I did very well on my SACs, whereas he did quite mediocre.

Fair enough.

[laura4]

On a side note, how hard would you say you worked for that SS of 39? (Geography is my only 3/4 this year)

hello! well here's just a bit on how i prepared for sacs and the exam and also some of my grades! i hope it helps and gives you an idea of how hard i worked...good luck for geography this year:)
p.s sorry about this being really long!

preparing for sacs: to begin with i would only really do practice exam questions (just questions from previous vcaa exams). i was and still am a really disorganised person so there were a couple occasions where i would leave studying for a sac to the night before-sometimes this didn't really effect my grade much but on two occasions i did get 78% for my sac. as the year progressed though,i would summarise notes and then do the prac exams(starting a few days before the sac instead of the night before). i would also always go over my answers and check the examiners reports to make sure i answered them correctly and then of course i would tweak what i had written or get more examples or facts or whatever i needed for a better response. all in all,i should have done more for sacs during the year because then i may have been able to get that 40-so don't underestimate how much sacs count to your final study score!(but in saying that,if you do get a couple of low grades like i did,it doesn't mean you cant still do well!)

study prep for the exam:i was much more efficient in exam study than i was for sacs. i started studying for the end of year exam in the first week of term 3 holidays mainly because my school ran practice exams for 3/4 students in week two of the holidays. the way i studied for the exams is pretty much how i study for each of my legal sacs now. i made notes of each area of study,then i would make cue cards on the main things i would need to know,go through the past 5 or so practice exams and then make more cue cards based on responses for exam questions. i sorted the exam questions into piles,so each pile corresponded to a different area of study and then i would go through each pile,answering the questions(with the use of my cue cards),making changes to my cue cards or making more cue cards as i went. after that i think i did a few exams as a whole,instead of going through the piles of questions i sorted by area of study.
the last week and a half to two weeks was when i did most of this study. it was pretty much non stop. a few days before the exam i came home from school and just slept for an hour or two because i was just so tired and i couldn't concentrate on what i was doing.(to be honest,i think i burnt myself out because i wasn't use to studying that much). i did make myself get up though and continue to do study.

overall,there were times where i was really slack but when it came down to it, i put everything into that exam and into preparing for it.

also, i really like using cue cards to study,mainly because you can take them with you anywhere(i use to go over them on the bus home from school). if you decide to use them as well-try saying them out loud because apparently saying things out loud helps you remember them more than if you were to say them in your head. i also recorded myself saying responses to questions and then put them on my ipod and listened to them.

ummm once again im sorry this turned out to be so long haha but i hope this gives you a good insight on how much effort i out in:)

[Eddiee]

Wow, thanks for the detailed reply! My sac marks have been fairly mediocre but I'm improving slowly - praying that my cohort will pull those grades up at least a little bit

Anyways, good luck with the rest of year 12

[Truck]

You're doing rather well in Further and Legal and English is mostly about the exam. If you keep up the effort and strive to improve before the end of the year, there's no plausible reason why you can't get well over 80!

English - no it's not, I got an A on the exam (not even a high A), my friend got an A+ on the exam. I got a higher study score than him. Why? I did very well on my SACs, whereas he did quite mediocre.

That would largely depend on the school though. Mediocre SAC results at MHS will often be scaled up to an A+ if you get an A+ on the exam.

[Special At Specialist]

You're doing rather well in Further and Legal and English is mostly about the exam. If you keep up the effort and strive to improve before the end of the year, there's no plausible reason why you can't get well over 80!

English - no it's not, I got an A on the exam (not even a high A), my friend got an A+ on the exam. I got a higher study score than him. Why? I did very well on my SACs, whereas he did quite mediocre.

That would largely depend on the school though. Mediocre SAC results at MHS will often be scaled up to an A+ if you get an A+ on the exam.

This is true.
For a subject like English, SAC's are worth 50% and the exam is worth 50%, but I would still rather fail the SAC's and ace the exam than to ace the SAC's and fail the exam. If you ace the exam, there is still a chance your SAC's could get marked up, but if you fail the exam, then you're screwed.
Long story short, exams are worth more than SAC's.

[RedMasta]

You'll want to be careful, if you want to get above 80, you'll have to push yourself a little harder. Don't forget, your surroundings do matter about how you finally score, even the people you hang out with. You said you were an 'A' student? Well going from that to slowly falling to a B-/B+ student, something like that doesn't just come out of the blue. Get back into a regular study routine, and get back to kickin' some serious A$$!!