VCE Year 12 Class of 2015

[Paulrus]

Do people genuinely have their detailed studies for LOTEs ready at this stage? I was reading the Chinese SL subforum and it seems like people have already prepared what they will be saying. Nobody in my class has even written a tenth of what's needed and I'm the only person who has (barely) decided on a topic. Asking this to anyone that is doing or has done a language for VCE.

In a similar vein, I've heard so many conflicting ideas about learning your personal world oral component from people that have achieved awesome scores. However, all the teachers I've had said not to learn them off my heart, but simply be able to respond to common questions and have a good understanding of the language. Similarly, most examiner's reports say that people should avoid memorising pieces of text. I'm a bit confused, what's the best approach if you want to achieve a good score?

I did German last year and tbh I didn't start my detailed study until like July or August. If you start now I reckon you'll be fine. I mean, the detailed study is literally only 7 mins long, plus a one minute introduction - chances are you won't even get to talk about half the stuff you want to anyway.

IMO I'd agree with your teachers. Like it's good to prepare answers to a certain extent, but focus on remembering the ideas rather than learning everything word for word. Especially for the oral, you want to sound natural and convey a bit of personality, which is difficult if you've learned everything completely by heart. Make sure you're able to improvise a bit, cos in the end you're not going to be able to prepare for EVERY question - I got some kinda weird ones like "If you were principal of your school for a day, what would you change?", "Do you have any positions of leadership within your school?", "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?", and I had to sort of improvise my way through them. So yeah just practice speaking and make sure you're able to make shit up lol

By the way, are there any mock VCE orals that I can find online or anything? Resources are dry af for languages it seems.

Not sure if there are any tbh, but if you picture a distant relative at a family gathering interrogating you about your personal life, that's pretty much what it's like
If you want I can try dig up my old oral notes and send you them, if that helps?

[Alter]

Thanks for you response, Paulrus! I'd love to have a look at your oral notes. If you could PM me them whenever you have a spare moment, I'd hugely appreciate it.

[ActiveSideofInfinity]

That moment when you literally study so HARD, and I mean hard.. and yet you leave 4 questions out on your spesh sac because the teacher had the most vaguely worded question

Honestly, people say you shouldn't complain about underrepresented schools because if you really value education, you will study. Well I do study, and im sure you all know I study immensley,i bloody value education.. The reason why our education system is failing is because of these overpaid teachers who worry too much about their minimum wages than actually caring about their students..

Now poorly worded questions on a SAC, who's fault is it? Is it the student's fault?

Sorry about the rant, but it really pissed me off today, I guess hard work doesn't always pay off..

My school had only 2 scores above 40 last year, and the median study score was <25.  This year, around 80/120 people walked out the GAT after 2 hours.

For English, the prompts are literally rehashed, generic VCAA ones, so anyone with a pen can get a 70%, if they listened in class and knew how to structure an essay.

You can not put effort into a SAC and get 45-70% (depending on subject), I'm being serious. It shouldn't be like this, It's not year 11, and to think some teachers are supposed to know how statistical moderation works. Did I mention the pass mark is 30%? This is important as some people who are barely passing think they will get around 30% on the exam(s); most likely they will guess almost every question on the exam(s) and end up with 10-20%.

What do you think will happen when VCAA performs statistical moderation; calculates our study scores? People are going to cry, panic and become angry at their teachers and the school. It happened last year. some students who had SAC averages of 80% were scaled down to C's and they were extremely pissed about it.

VCAA does not understand what some students from "underrepresented" schools have to endure just to get a decent study score. Some people's sacs can be scaled down from A+ to B because their "strong" cohort gave up studying for the exam- the only explanation the robot which performs statistical moderation will have is that their sacs were 'statistically easier' than those of other cohorts- not "they didn't try and so rank 4 must not be punished as he actually got A+ on the exam". Most of my schools' sacs give the impression that you don't need to study for the exam, you can still get 60% and a study of 32-35 without putting any real effort. This wasn't the case last year and will not be the case this year. Students expectations will be crushed. Some of my friends predicted atars of 70's last year, you know what they got? high 40's.

I do not believe teachers or the VCAA understand how horrible 50% SAC weighting is to underrepresented schools, coupled with statistical moderation. They have no idea how many students who had 90% sac averages from underrepresented schools give up by september- or those who had false expectations of how the exam will be because their schools sacs were too easy. All teachers care about is the "class average". Yes they're teachers (have to keep students as a whole engaged, motivated, etc) however easy sacs create a volatile ranking system and my teachers make it clear they they do not care. I imagine to they believe if students are "taking" each others exam marks because of a volatile ranking system, the class average will increase. Who cares about that student who got a 35 because his GA1 and GA2 SACs cost him the chance to get a 40, "a 35 is a great study score and you should be proud!".

I averaged 70% on my further math sacs and thought to myself "oh it doesn't matter" I can easily cram this subject. When it was mid-october, I did some last minute revising, thought I went well until I did exam 1. You know what I did over the weekend? obviously not try to redeem myself for exam 2 on monday, I went to a friends party on saturday, suffered a massive hangover on sunday, also having working a 9 hour shift on that day so I went straight to sleep. At the end I got a 29. I looked over my transcript and realised that I should've gotten atleast a 31, however, my sacs were scaled down by atleast 12%. Reading over exam 1 (the copy we were allowed to take home), I also realised that I got 3/9 for the networks module questions, the area I knew I was most ignorant about but couldn't be bothered to learn about, I guessed every question on exam 1. My sac marks had given me a false impression of how the exams were going to be and statistical moderation beat a dead horse.

So what can we do? Nothing apart from studying more than we want to. That means cutting down on time spent liking VCE discussionspace banter and time watching random youtube videos. Its very hard to predict your study score(s) in weak cohorts, the best assurance is to study more than you have to. That's what I've been doing for the past few weeks

[Cosec]

My school had only 2 scores above 40 last year, and the median study score was <25.  This year, around 80/120 people walked out the GAT after 2 hours.

For English, the prompts are literally rehashed, generic VCAA ones, so anyone with a pen can get a 70%, if they listened in class and knew how to structure an essay.

You can not put effort into a SAC and get 45-70% (depending on subject), I'm being serious. It shouldn't be like this, It's not year 11, and to think some teachers are supposed to know how statistical moderation works. Did I mention the pass mark is 30%? This is important as some people who are barely passing think they will get around 30% on the exam(s); most likely they will guess almost every question on the exam(s) and end up with 10-20%.

What do you think will happen when VCAA performs statistical moderation; calculates our study scores? People are going to cry, panic and become angry at their teachers and the school. It happened last year. some students who had SAC averages of 80% were scaled down to C's and they were extremely pissed about it.

VCAA does not understand what some students from "underrepresented" schools have to endure just to get a decent study score. Some people's sacs can be scaled down from A+ to B because their "strong" cohort gave up studying for the exam- the only explanation the robot which performs statistical moderation will have is that their sacs were 'statistically easier' than those of other cohorts- not "they didn't try and so rank 4 must not be punished as he actually got A+ on the exam". Most of my schools' sacs give the impression that you don't need to study for the exam, you can still get 60% and a study of 32-35 without putting any real effort. This wasn't the case last year and will not be the case this year. Students expectations will be crushed. Some of my friends predicted atars of 70's last year, you know what they got? high 40's.

I do not believe teachers or the VCAA understand how horrible 50% SAC weighting is to underrepresented schools, coupled with statistical moderation. They have no idea how many students who had 90% sac averages from underrepresented schools give up by september- or those who had false expectations of how the exam will be because their schools sacs were too easy. All teachers care about is the "class average". Yes they're teachers (have to keep students as a whole engaged, motivated, etc) however easy sacs create a volatile ranking system and my teachers make it clear they they do not care. I imagine to they believe if students are "taking" each others exam marks because of a volatile ranking system, the class average will increase. Who cares about that student who got a 35 because his GA1 and GA2 SACs cost him the chance to get a 40, "a 35 is a great study score and you should be proud!".

I averaged 70% on my further math sacs and thought to myself "oh it doesn't matter" I can easily cram this subject. When it was mid-october, I did some last minute revising, thought I went well until I did exam 1. You know what I did over the weekend? obviously not try to redeem myself for exam 2 on monday, I went to a friends party on saturday, suffered a massive hangover on sunday, also having working a 9 hour shift on that day so I went straight to sleep. At the end I got a 29. I looked over my transcript and realised that I should've gotten atleast a 31, however, my sacs were scaled down by atleast 12%. Reading over exam 1 (the copy we were allowed to take home), I also realised that I got 3/9 for the networks module questions, the area I knew I was most ignorant about but couldn't be bothered to learn about, I guessed every question on exam 1. My sac marks had given me a false impression of how the exams were going to be and statistical moderation beat a dead horse.

So what can we do? Nothing apart from studying more than we want to. That means cutting down on time spent liking VCE discussionspace banter and time watching random youtube videos. Its very hard to predict your study score(s) in weak cohorts, the best assurance is to study more than you have to. That's what I've been doing for the past few weeks

Ok, well now im shit scared for my subjects.

[iNT]

Ok, well now im shit scared for my subjects.

Relax the guy fucked up onhis further exam by partying when the exam is worth 66%

[ActiveSideofInfinity]

Got some updated SAC marks, have a quick question to ask AN. Unit 3 SACs are as follows...
English: 95/100
Literature: 93/100
Methods: ~A (MHS)
Specialist: B (MHS)
Legal Studies: 85/100

Would it be worth consigning Legal Studies to my bottom two? I already have a top four sorted out (from last year, a scaled 52), so I feel as if my time would be better spent winging Legal and gaining an extra 5 study scores (or whatever) on another subject such as Spesh. Thoughts? and experiences?

Literature and Legal studies. I believe they will be your bottom two. Your study will have a noticeable affect with your quantitative subjects (methods, spesh) however, if you get unfamiliar texts for the literature exam, thats bad luck and your study score will drop.  At this point in Literature, I'm just writing as many variations of exam type essays for the play and book I'm planning to write on.

Lit is most likely going to be in my bottom two, whether I can scrap a 40 or not is beyond me;  the subject is so abstract I don't even know what to expect after I leave the exam room. I can be confident I got a 45 and end up with a 37. The good thing about literature is that there's not theory to remember, its just mostly writing, and improving upon your writing. If you're confident in what you're going to write on, and spam essays beforehand- having them checked by experienced teachers/students, then you should comfortably get a 40 without much study, devoting more time to Legal Studies.

[tashhhaaa]

My school had only 2 scores above 40 last year, and the median study score was <25. 

What do you think will happen when VCAA performs statistical moderation; calculates our study scores? People are going to cry, panic and become angry at their teachers and the school. It happened last year. some students who had SAC averages of 80% were scaled down to C's and they were extremely pissed about it.

VCAA does not understand what some students from "underrepresented" schools have to endure just to get a decent study score. Some people's sacs can be scaled down from A+ to B because their "strong" cohort gave up studying for the exam- the only explanation the robot which performs statistical moderation will have is that their sacs were 'statistically easier' than those of other cohorts- not "they didn't try and so rank 4 must not be punished as he actually got A+ on the exam". Most of my schools' sacs give the impression that you don't need to study for the exam, you can still get 60% and a study of 32-35 without putting any real effort. This wasn't the case last year and will not be the case this year. Students expectations will be crushed. Some of my friends predicted atars of 70's last year, you know what they got? high 40's.

I do not believe teachers or the VCAA understand how horrible 50% SAC weighting is to underrepresented schools, coupled with statistical moderation. They have no idea how many students who had 90% sac averages from underrepresented schools give up by september- or those who had false expectations of how the exam will be because their schools sacs were too easy. All teachers care about is the "class average". Yes they're teachers (have to keep students as a whole engaged, motivated, etc) however easy sacs create a volatile ranking system and my teachers make it clear they they do not care. I imagine to they believe if students are "taking" each others exam marks because of a volatile ranking system, the class average will increase. Who cares about that student who got a 35 because his GA1 and GA2 SACs cost him the chance to get a 40, "a 35 is a great study score and you should be proud!".

So what can we do? Nothing apart from studying more than we want to. That means cutting down on time spent liking VCE discussionspace banter and time watching random youtube videos. Its very hard to predict your study score(s) in weak cohorts, the best assurance is to study more than you have to. That's what I've been doing for the past few weeks

man you're not alone this is my life exactly

last year only 14/100 people got ATARs over 65-70. I'm dead fucking serious.
It's that bad for some of us, if any of you go to a highly ranked school you have no idea

Our teachers are even so aware of this and that they can't do anything about it -- I've been told to aim for a high 30s SS in my best subject. Lol. Fml.

[iNT]

man you're not alone this is my life exactly

last year only 14/100 people got ATARs over 65-70. I'm dead fucking serious.
It's that bad for some of us, if any of you go to a highly ranked school you have no idea

Our teachers are even so aware of this and that they can't do anything about it -- I've been told to aim for a high 30s SS in my best subject. Lol. Fml.

Just do your best man.. at my school the median study score is 27 however a kid last year got 99.65

[tashhhaaa]

Just do your best man.. at my school the median study score is 27 however a kid last year got 99.65

whoa, do you still talk to them?
we need to know their secrets

my idol tbh

[cosine]

Anyone else here going to do UMAT?

[tashhhaaa]

Anyone else here going to do UMAT?

yeah lol kinda regretting it now

have you studied?

[iNT]

whoa, do you still talk to them?
we need to know their secrets

my idol tbh

no i dont.. i think the problem with public schools and those bad ss medians is because students are oblivious to the importance of VCE.. nobody told me what a SS was or how the ATAR worked until i googled it when i was bored..

what drives those people is the fact they work hard and they can see their dreams becoming reality

[tashhhaaa]

no i dont.. i think the problem with public schools and those bad ss medians is because students are oblivious to the importance of VCE.. nobody told me what a SS was or how the ATAR worked until i googled it when i was bored..

what drives those people is the fact they work hard and they can see their dreams becoming reality

you know what's funny? I don't even go to a public school -.-

nevertheless, the general attitude is the same as at a public school

we do have very hard workers and we are supported somewhat (they told us about SS and ATARs for example) but it just isn't enough tbh

[iNT]

you know what's funny? I don't even go to a public school -.-

nevertheless, the general attitude is the same as at a public school

we do have very hard workers and we are supported somewhat (they told us about SS and ATARs for example) but it just isn't enough tbh

True

However at the end of the day we gotta play with we got.. i randomly selected my subjects.. i surprisingly love 4 of them

[tashhhaaa]

True

However at the end of the day we gotta play with we got.. i randomly selected my subjects.. i surprisingly love 4 of them

aw that's cool how it turned out, I'm obviously not doing any of your subjects so I wouldn't know
I like mine... sometimes...

what are you thinking of doing after school?