(Credit to Swag for the title inspiration)
~Reaching Level 20~
by Splash <3So since results have been released and all that drama, I’ve received a few PMs asking for VCE study tips and advice. I figure it would be much easier to just write up a guide to post for everyone to see. However, as a casual disclaimer, these tips/experiences are largely
entirely based on my own, personal journey through VCE, and thus I cannot guarantee that each and every message of “wisdom” will be applicable to everyone, especially those who didn’t do my subjects!
Also I wrote this jet-lagged and with 3 hours sleep, so don’t expect any Bangali-quality prose lol.
…so without further ado:
~Splashing, tackling, and cherishing of the EXP-Share~
(If Charizard was VCAA, I'm going to teach you how to dodge VCAA attacks like a useless fish~a metaphor on surviving VCAA’s fire blasts)
Just like almost every one of the 50000ish students that enrol in VCE, I feel that my VCE journey really began during Year 11 subject selection. For many schools, and my school is no exception, the Year 11 subject selection is an introduction to a new way of learning; no more 11-subject-compulsory-subject torment, and more selective, yet intensive studies spread across six rather rigid subjects. While it may be easy to simply choose your favourite subjects, and by all means do, this is also a time to consider university course requirements, and subjects that play to your strengths, and to the strengths of the system.
There’s already an amazing post on choosing the right subjects by Bangali (shameless Bangali-promotion) at
VCE Subject Selection Guide (uncertain year 9/10s, please read!). However there are some things I would like to reiterate as in discussing subject choices, comes insight into the VCAA system, and hopefully helpful ideas:
-Remember these subjects are likely the subjects you will be committing your whole VCE to. Yes you can change subjects part-way through the year, but often this limits options and causes difficulties in playing catch up. VCE is innately demanding and stressful for most people, and it’s common to see people struggle somewhat after major subject changes halfway through the course.
-If you are really striving for a high score, note that while choosing subjects that perk your interests is ultimately a good idea, remember you are also in a competition, and personal enjoyment is only one of many factors. Think of ways to minimise your workload, without sacrificing your potential score or motivation to study. And play to your strengths! For example, if you’re a maths whizz-kid, considering taking Math Methods and Specialist Maths, as there is lots of overlap, and when I was taking the two, it was almost as if I was only taking 1.5 subjects. Or if you love writing, perhaps consider English and Literature, for amazing training in producing eloquent prose and as the saying goes, killing two birds VCE subjects with one stone powerful sweep!
So if you're a mathematical oddball, embrace it like this guy (ok I may have got a bit gif happy in this guide- thanks Beh):
-Now this third point is definitely up to contentious debate, but I would recommend being aware of how the whole VCAA system works, including how each subject scales. I completely understand this is risky advice, and anecdotally I’m sure it has led to students choosing high-scaling subjects and suffering for it. However, it is nevertheless something worthy of consideration-statistically the large majority of high performances are aided by a 50+ scaled VCE subject. If you are a maths genius, for example, Specialist Maths has great potential to become your best subject, and for the extra high aggregates, it creates some leeway for your other top four subjects- especially for English! Personally, my specialist score scaled just shy of 50, despite dropping more marks in that exam 2 than in all my other subject exams bar Chinese (SL). Don’t let scaling define your subject choice, but make sure you are aware of how it affects you! Being aware of how the system works can better provide you with the most reasoned strategy to tackling VCE.
As far as knowing the system, check out links such as:
-http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/statistics/2014/statssect3.aspx
-http://www.vtac.edu.au/pdf/scaling_report_15.pdf
-http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/pages/vce/studies/index.aspx
-http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/pages/vce/exams/examsassessreports.aspx (may give an indication on what’s required)
-http://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=160060.0
-http://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=135475.0
Note that this doesn’t mean we should all play the “numbers game”, however knowing what is required for your goals does come with benefits (such as choosing to prioritise English or being wary of taking 3 maths as one must go in your bottom 2). It also means you are able to make your choices with a complete understanding of what you’re committing to!
-Finally, consider the benefits of accelerating a Year 12 subject. Completing a VCE Year 12 subject one year early may sound daunting, but the benefits it provides are, in my opinion, too valuable to pass by. Accelerating a subject provides you with precious experience in how to study for SACs, exams, and how the whole, convoluted process works. Additionally, Year 12 subjects tend to foster dedication, and a sense that every second of time spent in Year 11 will inexplicably contribute towards your overall ATAR and that golden ticket to your dream university course. It’s honestly an amazing feeling after smashing your year 11 subject, as you already have one of your top 4 subjects potentially taken care of.
Keep in mind that this year 12 subject does not have to be diabolical, and often people, myself included, choose ‘easier’ subjects such as Further Maths. This provides a more gradual introduction into life (or lack thereof) of a year 12 student! Other commonly selected subjects are:
-Biology
-Geography
-History (all)
-LOTEs (especially for background students)
-Hospitality
-Psychology
-Methods (not every school will let you accelerate this subject)
-Visual Communication & Design
-Physical Education
-Ok, since I can’t signpost correctly, I would like to extent the benefits of acceleration a Year 12 subject to acceleration TWO subjects! Now this may sound crazy, and some schools don’t allow it, but tackling two VCE subjects early doesn’t increase the burden of studying exponentially (at worst, quadratically
). Especially given most of us take easier year 12 subjects anyway. And it’s not like we are going to mature to much within one year, that taking on another Year 12 subject will make us crumble and cry. Effectively, accelerating two subjects is thinking
long term. You get double the amount of spare periods in Year 12, and you will only have to juggle 4 subjects, giving you the opportunity to tackle either a 7th subject or a uni extension. Or you can just stress less in the comfort that your workload is more relaxing than most. If you can take two subjects, you’ll thank me for it in Year 12.
Trust me.
Study habits, plans of attack, and clunky transitions from advising Year 11s to advising Year 12s (Don't have a silly plan of attack like Mr. Stark here
)
VCE is a volume harder than Year 10, and I could dabble on about extensive study options, but everyone has their own means of learning. Personally, that’s one of the greatest aspects of Year 11; you have a whole year to experiment and develop a study plan that works best for
you. Now something I want to stress about this is to find and embrace a study routine that works for you (best to do this before Year 12). I know my school adopted a strict record book regime, involving the extensive listing of each and every homework task, their due date, and when we planned to do the work. However, much to the annoyance of my ‘mentor’, throughout Year 11 I found that creating study habits worked best for me- and this carried on to Year 12. As a frequent bus-traveller (3 hour return each day), it became natural for me to work on maths homework sheets, and light readings of the science text-book on the bus, with the occasional messily-written english paragraph if need be. My routine was flexible, and deemed writing up study plans unnecessary, and in a year where time is precious, wasting time is really not an option. For the sake of the title reference, spending time on unnecessary tasks is like splashing- “it does nothing”! Sure it created mentor-student hassles-and it resulted in me often wagging “mentor”, which did nothing for me
- but when you find a study foundation that really works for you (and if a planner is what works so be it
), it works wonders in terms or organisation and work efficiency. Just make sure when you finish Year 12 (or year 11), you can confidently say you had no regrets with your individual plan of attack!
(Planning like the crew in True Detective is a much better option than being a doofus like Stark)
Prioritising: Another important message is to prioritise! Really, our first opportunity to prioritise begins in Year 11, and I cannot stress the importance of giving your year 12 subjects attention
first! For the lack of a better analogy your accelerated subjects are like that precious starter pokemon, or your favourite toy- think Woody in Toy Story. Why? Because the marks you receive in your Year 12 subjects count. Personally I wholly prioritised Chinese, then Further (as it was easier but very boring), then my year 11 ones. Not only did this give me the best chance for a respectable score in my accelerated subjects, effectively locking in one of them as a top 4, but also reducing the pressure on my 2015 year. This doesn’t mean those Year 11 subjects should be completely neglected, but since there is the potential to pick those subjects back up in 2015, I’m of the belief that understanding the foundations is adequate. In Year 11, for example, I consistently received 7/10s for my English essays- but there was plenty of time before exam day 2015 to bring those scores up!
For Year 12, even though I had double the spares most people had, I still had to prioritise. And this is when awareness for the VCAA system really comes into play. For example, remember how important English is- there are often people who raw 50 all their science and maths subjects, but get a relatively lower (40ish) score in English, and are thus barred from getting the top top ATARs. I’m not going to say/argue whether these VCAA rules such as “English must be in the top 4” are needed as the rules are unlikely to change any time. However what this means is that English (or Literature/English Language) must not be neglected! When I was in Year 12, I would always do English homework first.
Other forms of prioritisation for me was giving Specialist Maths a lot of attention, as for me, it had the potential to scale above 50, and thus had a very high chance of making it into my top 4 subjects, which although it didn’t scaled past 50 for me, it did end up as my 4th highest subject. As far as prioritising goes, it’s also really helpful to consider why each different homework task is set- often people mindlessly complete homework- something I believe planners such as record books needlessly encourage- and although this may come off as studying hard, it is not exactly studying smart. For example, many math teachers set an extraordinary amount of textbook questions to complete, but these questions are often only there to help us develop a basic understanding of the concepts learned in class. Personally, I acknowledged this, and after rereading and making sure I was confident with the concepts, I would move straight onto exam practice questions (or other subject homework), which require a more complicated sense of application. This saved me more time and helped me better prepare for the exams at the end of the year. Often practice SACs and exam questions will provide a much better means of preparation than textbook questions so if you are confident with the understanding at hand, don’t be afraid to simply complete 1/3rd of what was set, and spend the newly-created time on other things!
Goal setting + motivation: Furthermore, please don’t underestimate the value of setting goals! Personally I set big goals at first, of which mine were:
1. Get dux of my school. Achieve an ATAR of 99+ (It was originally to get dux but I felt getting 99+ would account for both)
2. Achieve a raw score of 50.
3. Achieve a raw score of 40+ for each subject.
Then, I broke these goals into smaller goals, such as for my third goal I made a “subset goal” in English to “bring my Text Response essays up to a 9-10/10 standard”, which was then further broken down into “writing an engaging insightful introduction to all Text Response prompts”. To be honestly, however, I never really broke down my goals for my maths subjects; if you are really aiming for the top math scores, sometimes it’s best to try and “ace everything”! I didn’t exactly write these goals down in my head, but I made sure I had a clear idea of what I wanted, and therefore, what needs to be done to get what I want.
Perhaps even more importantly, smaller, more gradual goals really help making the overall journey doable. Yes, VCE can be brutal. Yes, it can be stressful. And of course there are going to be times where we feel like giving up. I’m no exception, as around halfway through Year 12 I was simply done with the whole thing- on the last unit 3 Chemistry SAC I just lost my drive, consequently and unsurprisingly performing way below my usual standard. As a consistent outright rank 1 in my other Chemistry SACs, I can confidently say my ranking for that SAC was only just about the median mark. I’m no motivational speaker, but when we are put in these types of situations being in the right mindset is so important. As always, health comes first. Don’t continue destroy yourself with sleepless nights and social isolation- rest is real important too. And don’t forget to balance the demands of Year 12 with chill time with friends, and sport too; they’re easy to neglect. So just think about the little goals, and remember that it’s really just overhyped uni entrance shenanigans.
If that's not enough motivation, here's some more inspiration from the prophet himself:
Friends: I cannot stress how important taking the time to spend time with mates really is as well. Despite struggling through a cohort-deemed “dysfunctional year level”, I had some close friends who really kept me sane, and soldierin’ on in a group is so so so so so so much better. There's people everywhere in the state going through the same tribulations you are and working together can make the fight through these tough years actually.... doable? Talk to your buddies, do questions together, motivate each other! Give each other accountability for completing tasks, and make sure you and your friends don't slack off! There seems to be a stigma that VCE is a cut-throat competition, and it can be, but hiding notes and refusing to help your friends for a "good SAC ranking" is only going to lead to bitterness, loneliness, and the likely exclusion of yourself from comrade support! In fact, if you're really dedicated, help out on a question thread on AN; teaching others not only makes people happy, but is an amazing means to consolidate your own knowledge, and don't worry if you get something wrong, there's bound to be a genius on the forums ready to correct you! Frodo Baggins needed his buddies to help him bring the ring to Mordor, and I sure needed my mates to keep pushing me throughout VCE!
Also, if you have a really great teacher, it is really really really really helpful to nag them and drown them in questions and essays, well do so in a nice way and it’ll pay off! They’re the greatest opportunity to consolidate understanding in a topic, and really extend your learning. I’d say this is even more crucial in essay-orientated subjects, such as English, as the main way to improve in my opinion is to practice writing, and applying your teacher’s suggestions. This should both improve your writing, but also demonstrate to them that you want to do well, and you are willing to push yourself! I know there’s been instances for me where I’ve applied my teacher’s feedback before SACs, and since they’re also the SAC markers, I often see a nice mark up in my responses. Note that this doesn’t mean repeatedly asking trivial questions in class- it’s much better to consult them after class, and make sure what you have to say in class discussions are really top notch ideas.. sometimes I think English is all about them impressions, and a rank one in this subject works wonders! Personally I stayed back every now and then to hand in English essays, or ask my Chemistry teacher questions, something I also did in class, but I found doing it afterwards to be more beneficial. Even if you just spend an extra 1.5 minutes asking them for advice, you'll already have stood out from your cohort in demonstrating your drive to do well in the subject! If we were playing pokemon right now, think of teachers as that universally cherished EXP-share; VCE can be made so much easier if you drain your resources/teachers, but only if you turn that EXP-share on/ask questions and get things marked!
(Chase your teachers like I'm chasing magikarp!--yeah I just needed an excuse to share this gif)
And don’t forget if teaching or resources are not working out for you, there’s always the AtarNotes Forums! In Year 12 I was in a position where I didn’t really have an opportunity to really find help for one of my subjects, and the forums have been a real life-saver. There are question threads for each subject, and heaps of high-achieving students with a wealth of knowledge on here. They are more than willing to answer questions, no matter how stupid they are, and it’s an invaluable resource for tips and guides in smashing VCE. From feedback in essays, to general attack plans for different subjects, AN provides a nice alternative to teacher feedback and advice, and a great opportunity to learn from students, who just like you had to struggle through VCE, and know from first-hand experience how to beat the game.
When in doubt, consult the AN-hokage
(sorry I know I left some people out, this is really just an excuse for sharing my bad photoshop skills!)
Hypothetically, if some mystic genie said I could only offer a finite amount of advice, the above tips are the ones I would choose. Of course there is much more tips and tricks, but hopefully for now, these tips should provide some help to the Class of ’16 and ’17, or at least provided some procrastination material! So all the best for those facing their VCE endeavours this year, you guys can do it!
FAQ/AMA section (ask me anything and I'll try my best to answer):
(Edit: Thanks MightyBeh
)
How to deal with not so great teaching or resources:
So I know this is a touchy subject, but it’s a situation that many students will find themselves in. From not receiving enough help in understanding concepts, to having classes that don’t achieve anything, it can very easily have an adverse influence on one’s performance. For one of my subjects, I felt this was quite an issue; often I would have to self learn, and if there was a question I couldn’t answer, there was a fat chance I would be able to find someone at my school that could. So what should you do in this situation? What I did was find all the help I could get- namely AtarNotes question thread, and eventually receiving help from a teacher at a local school. Of course it was still a struggle, but searching for help and looking for resources online or from other students is a massive underrated help. And think of what you can do yourself, such as doing the questions you can do in class, and researching misunderstandings via google or Atarnotes or KhanAcademy. Just find solace in the course content being readily available on the VCAA website, so you know what each subject requires, but also make use of every webpage, knowledgable friend or question thread you can find.
How important it is to do summer holiday preparation:Personally I did some VCE preparation in the summer holidays in both Year 11 and 12. In year 11, I wrote up a draft of my Chinese general conversation (ending up completely rewriting it later, but it was good practice), and I memorised my one-minute report. In year 12, I wrote up notes for both Specialist Maths and Maths Methods, covering complex numbers, vectors, and circular functions for specialist and learning up to logarithms for Methods. While for Chinese, I found working in the holidays to be really beneficial, as it really boosted my chinese proficiency, and since memorising the report was more of a chore than a conceptual understanding task, it was good to get out of the way. However I don’t really believe it helped much at all for math. I mean it was useful during term one, having covered all the content, but I found the majority of my notes, which took ages in the holidays, to end up fairly redundant. And it was hard for me being quite far ahead to keep up motivation and stop procrastinating for these subjects. That being said, the holidays were a really good time to use up reading English novels and reading up on each subject’s course study designs. All in all summer preparation is helpful for reading and more “chore-like” tasks that just need to be done, but it is not that amazing of an opportunity to start learning ahead- of course it helps but it is not very efficient studying at all in my opinion. It may have been how I tackled learning ahead, but in hindsight doing those math chapters in the holidays was not worth it. Besides, holidays and working are oxymorons, so do some preparation if it keeps you busy, but there is no need to overdo it, such as by covering the entire course or something.
Whether it is worth going ahead of the class:I’ve got a similar stance for this to my stance regarding learning ahead in the holidays. However staying one chapter ahead or so can be a nice assist in studying as it provides you with a greater foundation that is quickly (unlike working in the holidays) built upon by classwork and teacher assistance. It also puts you in a great position organisation-wise, giving you more time to focus on other subjects, or explore the content complexities even deeper than usual, which comes in handy when tackling the separator questions rife in many STEM subject exams. Contrarily, after the class caught up to me in Specialist Maths (which in hindsight I should have kept going ahead as we only finished the course about a week before the English VCE exam
), and Math Methods I didn’t bother working ahead, and at least for Math Methods I went just fine. Teachers usually teach the course at a pace perfectly fine for the VCE curriculum and I know a few students who have done really well from simply keeping pace with their class. Most importantly, I believe, is to not fall behind in class- that’s a recipe for disaster/sorrow/downwards spirals into insanity/academic death.
Is tutoring necessary:No. But it’s definitely something that works on a case-by-case basis. Many people do really really well without any tutoring, while some people perform disappointedly with 5. It’s really there if you believe you would benefit from it, whether it be to provide accountability to work in a subject, if you’re in a situation where tutoring is necessary to provide you with the opportunity to adequately cover the content required, or even as a confidence booster. Tutoring can be pricey, but there is usually little other risk in taking it up. It’s ultimately a personal choice, but all in all, I am very appreciative of the one-on-one help in the 2 subjects I received tutoring for last year, and I have no regrets in taking it up.
A really rough guide to how I studied in Year 12:From Year 11 I had basically developed a habitual routine in terms of study, and below is a rough summary of what I did-
Weekdays: Pay attention and perform class tasks in class. Spend my spares (I had 2 a day) either tackling Specialist Questions, or doing English homework/practice paragraphs. On my bus trips home, I would complete Math homework sheets if I had any, followed by reading the Chemistry textbook. With the two spares in class amounting to about an hour and a half’s worth of work, and the bus trips providing me with 3 hours of potential worktime, by the time I got home at 5ish, I could relax/doing extracurricular activities. A useful thing to note though, is that sometimes when I was at home, while I didn’t do any direct work, I did a fair bit of passive learning, involving watching Crash Course Chemistry videos, surfing AtarNotes, and browsing the /writingprompts subreddit on reddit- not that that subreddit was overly useful, it nevertheless provided me with a chance to learn new vocabulary and appreciate good-ish writing. Even simply contemplating context ideas while trying to sleep can help in the overall preparation towards the end of year exams.
Weekends: Finishing off any homework that comes to mind. Most of my weekends involved catching up with friends, exercising, and mindless interwebs browsing..
Hope you guys enjoyed my guide, and hope this wall of text helps you
procrastinate with your VCE!!!
-Splash
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