Holiday Homework

[rbargholz]

Exactly how important is it? I get it's to get us prepared, but from you guys' experiences, how heavy do they come down on you if you don't do it? I'm getting a bit nervous about it

[pi]

My understanding is that VCE is all about how hard you want to work by yourself. If you ceebs holiday homework, that's just letting yourself down, regardless of whether the school cares (mine didn't tbh).

[Professor Polonsky]

It really depends in which subject, whether it will be covered again in class, and how comfortable you are with the topic. Sometimes you can get away without doing it (see my 2012 study scores), but quite often it's a terrible idea.

[alondouek]

Always do the work the school sets for you. Anything extra is up to you, but if you really want to do well in VCE, the effort you put in is usually proportionate to your results.

[Stick]

Exactly how important is it? I get it's to get us prepared, but from you guys' experiences, how heavy do they come down on you if you don't do it? I'm getting a bit nervous about it

I guess this isn't an issue of doing a lot of preparation for Year 12 - this forum tends to have the issue where people have done too much, rather than not enough. It is why I only did the holiday homework that I had to do and nothing more, since I didn't want to burn myself out prior to Year 12 after a demanding Year 11. But if you were asked to do something, you probably should have done it. Obviously your school thinks the work they've assigned for you would be beneficial for your Year 12 start. It seems you don't have the right attitude about it all. :|

[oceanblues]

Depending on when you start school, you still have some time left to do some of the work. A lot can be done in 1 and a half to two weeks.

[rbargholz]

I've been doing a s**tload of it but I worry it isn't enough? thanks for your answers everyone!

[alondouek]

I've been doing a s**tload of it but I worry it isn't enough?

If you've already done a lot of work, then you may as well take a break for the rest of the holidays. After all, you're going to be busy for almost the entire year, so you may as well take the time to prepare yourself mentally through relaxation for the year ahead.

[Romaboy]

I've barely done any 

[Dejan]

It really gets you prepared for the first few lessons, it doesn't effect too much as the hw could be done later during the year and it is really something you shouldn't stress over

[michak]

I've barely done any 

Don't worry to much about holiday homework. I did none that the teachers set me because it was kinda irrelevant.
I just started studying for my sacs because i had 2 in the second week.
Sometimes the homework is pointless.
I just did notes and answered questions for my first two sacs and read the first english book.

If you don't know when your sacs are, do notes for the first one or two chapter (if you need to) then just do questions.

[Special At Specialist]

My biggest mistake last year was doing quite a lot of homework over the summer holidays, then hardly any during the year. This year, I'm going to try my best to get into a routine of doing 1 hour of English homework per day, since it is my only VCE subject.

[Mr Keshy]

From what I've heard. A lot of people, me included, are very enthusiastic at the start of the year, ie. now, so we'll do a lot of holiday homework and as a result, we'll be well ahead for the first couple of months of school. However, the crucial part is after this period, those who continue with this enthusiasm are generally the ones that do achieve high. That's not to say that there aren't exceptions, they may just be incredibly talented or lucky in this regard.

Personally, I think holiday homework may be a little overrated. In fact, I think the best thing to do during the holidays is solid revision of your past year. This way, you're fully prepared to tackle the year ahead. This leaves you with a very good foundation for the newer and more difficult or extended concepts that you'll probably learn this year.

[Special At Specialist]

A lot of people, me included, are very enthusiastic at the start of the year, ie. now, so we'll do a lot of holiday homework and as a result, we'll be well ahead for the first couple of months of school. However, the crucial part is after this period, those who continue with this enthusiasm are generally the ones that do achieve high.

This is very true. It's difficult to stay motivated throughout the whole year. I had stages when I had no motivation whatsoever. The peak of my motivation was around early January when I was working through the specialist maths textbook. Unfortunately, I couldn't maintain that enthusiasm, hence why I didn't get a very high ATAR.

I'm interested to hear about anyone who got a 95+ ATAR score: did you ever feel like giving up on VCE? Did you ever have "stages" where you would have no motivation whatsoever for a certain period of time (usually a few days, or even a few weeks). How did you overcome that?

[michak]

This is very true. It's difficult to stay motivated throughout the whole year. I had stages when I had no motivation whatsoever. The peak of my motivation was around early January when I was working through the specialist maths textbook. Unfortunately, I couldn't maintain that enthusiasm, hence why I didn't get a very high ATAR.

I'm interested to hear about anyone who got a 95+ ATAR score: did you ever feel like giving up on VCE? Did you ever have "stages" where you would have no motivation whatsoever for a certain period of time (usually a few days, or even a few weeks). How did you overcome that?

I didnt get 95+ but ill put in my two cents.
After second term holidays and school started I was a mess. If i remember correctly i think it was about 2 or 3 weeks where I did nothing either at home or in school during my free periods. I was just mucking around on my computer or just sitting and watching tv, I was so over it and just didn't care. I don't know how but after that i realised that for me it was actually good. After a couple of weeks of nothing I kinda wanted to do some work and i just got straight back into it and found that I was actually working better and more efficiently then before my break.

Just one thing to rememeber if you do lose motivation, take a break it will do you a world of good. You still need to live and do things you like and sometimes this is the thing that students forget the most. You will go crazy if you seriously believe you will be able to study all the time. many people think this during this time (before school) but everyone learns at some point that you do need a bit of down time.