Now that most of the exams are finished...

[bills]

Now that most of the exams are finished, I would just like to ask everybody (especially the Year 12's) several questions. I am a keen year 10 student (soon to be Year 11) and I am hoping to do really well in both of my 3/4 subjects.

What time of the year did you finish the course and actually start prepping for the exam? Was this enough time?
Did you have any tutoring? If so, in what ways did it help (if any)?
What are some general tips to succeed during the VCE?

Thank you, and to those in Year 12, I hope you achieve a very high ATAR!

[Splash-Tackle-Flail]

Now that most of the exams are finished, I would just like to ask everybody (especially the Year 12's) several questions. I am a keen year 10 student (soon to be Year 11) and I am hoping to do really well in both of my 3/4 subjects.

What time of the year did you finish the course and actually start prepping for the exam? Was this enough time?
Did you have any tutoring? If so, in what ways did it help (if any)?
What are some general tips to succeed during the VCE?

Thank you, and to those in Year 12, I hope you achieve a very high ATAR!

1. Depended on the subject tbh:
Chinese- basically after the oral exam I started prepping for the written. My teacher couldn't speak very good english though, so we kinda left out prepping for translation and answering in english. (but did heaps of prep for the oral).

Further +Methods- my class smashed (relative to other subjects) through the course, finishing around week 8 term 3, which is when I started prep. However we got homework sheets weekly with past exam questions.

Specialist- We finished the course two days before graduation :/ Really stressful, don't do what we did. Then again we didn't have a specialist 'teacher', as we had a fill in for the year..who could teach it but hadn't in ages.. yeah this was a struggle.

English: You'll find with English that everything you do is ultimately preparation for the exam. Even the SACs reflect the exam (minus oral one). So hard to tell really when we started- although specifically focused exam prep (i.e. prac exams) were started in term 3 holidays.

Chemistry:uhhh Don't take my advice on this subject, I had relegated it to my bottom two at the start of the year (which I regret after this exam btw), and only did the minimum (1 exam in school, and 2 in class)..

Honestly for the subjects like English and Methods and Further, starting about 2/3rds or 1/2way through term 3 is the best time to start imo, unless you're going to do like a gazillion practice exams lol. I do wish I spread out my workload though, as I personally only focused on Specialist so our class and I could finish before graduation :?

This year I had tutoring for English, which was incredible. And Specialist, so I wouldn't have to ask AN to do every single chapter q. Depends on how confident you are, and whose teaching you tbh.

General tips:
-Work consistently, don't cram!
-Set goals! Like big ones and small ones (e.g. one of mine was to get my text response introductions to a point where my teacher just ticked it and said "nailed it" )
-Don't give up!
-Apply feedback, especially for humanities subjects!
-Choose subjects you enjoy-
-Try to enjoy the last two year of school!
-Really try to ascertain a conceptual knowledge of how things work, it really helps when confronted with curveball Qs.
-if i think of any more ill add them!

[Zealous]

What time of the year did you finish the course and actually start prepping for the exam? Was this enough time?

Personally, I took quite an aggressive approach to VCE, and finished quite early. Mostly because I felt quite bored with the pace of the class, and so I went ahead to keep myself interested in the subject. I also felt that being a little ahead meant that I would learn the content multiple times. Once by myself, then once when the teacher covered it and then during revision. So that meant finishing Spesh/Methods/Physics earlier in the year and leaving more time for revision. I finished all of them before mid-year.

But really, this isn't necessary at all. I just had plenty of spare time so went ahead "just because". There are definitely heaps of examples of people scoring extremely well by working with the pace of the class. So take it at a pace you are comfortable with. You are combining Methods and Biology which is a tougher 3/4 combination for someone in Year 11, so work at a pace you feel comfortable with, and you can speed up or slow down depending on how confident you are.

Did you have any tutoring? If so, in what ways did it help (if any)?

Nope! I've never been tutored. I think it just depends on the way you learn. Some people understand much better when they have others explaining to them, while others (like myself) are fine reading a textbook and trying it out for themselves. Can't really answer that question.

What are some general tips to succeed during the VCE?

Just aim to be the best you can be. Unfortunately VCE is aimed at this "ATAR" which is essentially a ranking, and puts students on a scale based on a few exams you sit. It can really mess around with your perspective and mindsight, and place your goal on trying to be better than others through your ATAR or your study scores. But that really shouldn't be your goal as once you get your ATAR you'll realise how little it actually means - I know first hand after graduating last year.

Just aim to be better, little by little and bit by bit up towards your exams. Sure, you can be proud of your ATAR at the end of Year 12, but you can be much prouder with the hard work you've put in to improve and refine yourself. Hamo made a really good post about this here: Re: Year 12 Class of 2015.

So practically, this may be achieved through more effective organisation, by creating a timetable to help you keep on top of work, or by keeping in contact with your teachers more often. I found that simply writing down the tasks I wanted to complete each night on a notepad or on my desktop made myself much more accountable and I completed much more that way. Don't forget to take plenty of breaks as well!

[strawberries]

Hi, I'll just answer some of your questions

What time of the year did you finish the course and actually start prepping for the exam? Was this enough time?

Seeing as you're doing Methods next year: our school finished the Methods course in like August or something. Personally, I felt that although this was pretty early compared to other schools, it still wasn't enough time and I'd suggest that you try and complete the course yourself a little bit earlier, say around June/July. This gives you plenty of time to complete practice exams, but make sure you fully understand the content first!

If you can, try and get a little bit of a headstart in the holidays (like completing a couple of the first few chapters which I didn't do LOL)

Did you have any tutoring? If so, in what ways did it help (if any)?

Personally I don't think tutoring is necessary (it's costly), and I'm not even a naturally smart student. If you work hard yourself, you should get there and if you have any issues, I'm sure you can always ask your teacher.

Good luck

[DeezNuts]

For subjects like methods, you will have to work consistently throughout the year as the course goes at a relatively fast pace and being behind for one lesson may be enough to make your life hell, as everything starts to slowly pile up.

For english and literature, you must develop your writing skills over a long time so dont leave it to the last minute at all!!

As for bio I only started revising during the holidays before the exams and had more than enough time before the exams even started to finish my revising, it is more concept based than definition based- i barely memorized anything at all

for content heavy subjects like legal and psych, if you have a good memory you can still pull it off starting in the holidays before the exams (which is what I did), but best to not risk it and revise key content throughout the year to reduce your workload towards the end

good luck!!