Exam 1 or 2

[cnguyen599]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering whether you should focus on doing exam 1 or exam 2. Or maybe both. Currently I'm leaning towards doing more exam 2 since some say that they are somewhat more difficult. What are your thoughts?

[charmanderp]

It depends on which one you find more difficult. I tend to get 100% on a reasonably good proportion of Exam 1s that I complete but struggle to get more than 70% or 80% on Exam 2s, hence I'm focusing on the latter. Since Exam 2 counts for twice as much towards your study score in comparison to Exam 2, it's probably worth the extra time as well.

[Lasercookie]

I've been tackling them evenly so far - doing exam 1 and then the corresponding exam 2 next.

[tony3272]

I tended to do each one in sets, so i'd do the Exam 1 and 2 for a company in one go. However, it really comes down to what you're struggling with.
If you haven't started yet, just try a few of each and you should be able to find what you need to work on from there.

[BubbleWrapMan]

I'd lean towards exam 1s (without neglecting exam 2s of course) for a few reasons:

Even though exam 2 is worth double, there are twice as many marks there, so each individual mark in both exams is worth about the same. And if you go further and think about the fact that the cut-off marks for exam 1s are generally somewhat higher than exam 2 cut-offs, individual exam 1 marks seem more precious.

(e.g.: at least 80% on exam 2 (16 marks from the maximum) last year got you an A+, but you needed at least 85% (6 marks from the maximum) on exam 1 to get an A+ there.)

Another thing is, exam 1 skills can help with exam 2 -- namely, they will get you into the habit of doing some things by hand if you can see that it will make it easier. Sometimes chucking a lengthy equation into a calculator can be avoided if you do a little simplification first. But the converse doesn't hold: exam 2-specific skills (use of technology) won't help you with exam 1.

Note: I'm not saying that exam 2 isn't as important -- of course it is -- but try to squeeze in a few more exam 1s, because they don't take as long. If you do two exam 1s for every exam 2 you'll spend about the same amount of time on each, which could be a suitable arrangement. You want to eliminate the event of losing exam 1 marks on silly things, and if/when you reach that point, start to focus more on exam 2s.

The thing about exam 2s is you shouldn't jump straight to your calculator; only use it when you have to -- when it's a certain shortcut, or to just quickly check an answer. Look for ways to simplify things (by hand!) before you use it. This definitely helped me after I performed poorly when doing the 2010 VCAA exam 2. I went back and tried to do a few things by hand instead of doing everything with my calculator and it felt MUCH easier. They say students should use technology efficiently -- that doesn't mean do the entire exam with it, it means use it to save time without replacing your own brain. The real challenge in exam 2 is the actual analysis, working, and problem-solving -- which you are forced to do in exam 1, and hence those skills are the more universal ones.

In the end I'm hesitant to say outright that one should do more exam 1s, but hopefully I've helped with the decision a little.

[cnguyen599]

Thanks for the reply guys. i'll definitely try doing some more exam 1 and balance it with the other. Hopefully Ill do better on those then I am right now on exam 2.

[Phy124]

I did a lot more practice exams 1's than I did exam 2's. I ended up scoring better on exam 2, go figure

[pi]

I did more exam 1s, but mainly because I was lazy and couldn't be bothered sitting through many exam 2s

[paulsterio]

Do an equal amount of both, my advice.

[b^3]

I did more exam 1s, but mainly because I was lazy and couldn't be bothered sitting through many exam 2s

This was pretty much me too. Although when I started doing exams, I was doing more exam 1's, since I was trying to work out what I knew and what I didn't know, what needed work and if there was anything else I needed to remember (for 3 exams out of 5 near the start, I got stumped on independent probability questions because I hadn't comitted the dam formula to memory, and so realised it was something that I hadn't comitted to memory yet).

Although, really it probably is better to do an even amount of exam 1's and exam 2's. It depends, some people need to work on one more than the other.

[charmanderp]

Yeah I found Exam 1s to be a good way to revise the course. I could actually answer all of the questions which is still not the case with most Exam 2s and I didn't feel demoralised afterwards. After doing several Exam 1s it's actually improved my Exam 2 scores as well.

[cnguyen599]

So I've done 4 exam 1's so far, and I must say that they do really point out your weak spots. Like the things where you would normally go to your calculator with and don't expect to do working out is actually a large part of it. So thanks guys, life savers.