How do I get better at Specialist?

[Sil]

Just wondering how past students got better at spesh

[cosine]

Just wondering how past students got better at spesh

This applies to anything you decide to do in life. Practice. It may be a slow process, it may be a tiring process, but like it or not, practice is the only way to improve.

[alchemy]

Just wondering how past students got better at spesh

Practice, practice, practice!
And ask questions from teachers, even if you feel you understand what's being taught, to consolidate your knowledge.
Learn from your mistakes; when you get a test back make sure you spend most of your time trying to analyse these and rectify them by doing them again. Don't be like those idiots who spend their entire time comparing scores nor those attention whores who are like 'fcuk i lost 1 mark bro i'm so bad now feel me...'
Simply thinking you understand what's in the book isn't good enough. In fact, in spesh particularly, I found myself making a lot of careless mistakes early on because I lacked practice. I think there's also a section of the study design which, unlike methods, mandates that students should have experience dealing with 'large numbers' or 'numbers which are challenging to manipulate and deal with' so definitely get used to that. Again, this comes with ongoing practice from working through past SACs and exams.

[blacksanta62]

Practice, practice, practice!
And ask questions from teachers, even if you feel you understand what's being taught, to consolidate your knowledge.
Learn from your mistakes; when you get a test back make sure you spend most of your time trying to analyse these and rectify them by doing them again. Don't be like those idiots who spend their entire time comparing scores nor those attention whores who are like 'fcuk i lost 1 mark bro i'm so bad now feel me...'
Simply thinking you understand what's in the book isn't good enough. In fact, in spesh particularly, I found myself making a lot of careless mistakes early on because I lacked practice. I think there's also a section of the study design which, unlike methods, mandates that students should have experience dealing with 'large numbers' or 'numbers which are challenging to manipulate and deal with' so definitely get used to that. Again, this comes with ongoing practice from working through past SACs and exams.

Alchemy and Cosine beat me to the answer I love answering questions like this so much

Specialist isn't a fly through subject, if you wanted that further would've been the way to go... All jokes and shot's at further aside I would strongly suggest you stay with or ahead (by however much) in front of your class. It's was the first week of year 12 and I felt like my desk just went through a storm, there's paper with working out etc everywhere. It's amazing how quickly one can fall behind, struggle learning the new topics and regret choosing the subject 2 weeks into year 12 VCE.

I also suggest that you ask questions and plenty of them throughout the year. You're actually benefiting yourself and others who may not be as confident to speak up (my spesh class has 7 people so everyone wrestles to ask questions, not really but it would be a great sight to see them do it). Asking questions also allows the teacher to make assumptions towards your understanding of a subject and shows commitment to it by having a go.

Practice makes perfect. Generalizing (isn't it an s?) but true . Don't stick to doing only chapter questions though, as my chemistry teacher says "they're the basics and help you when doing the chapter review. These in turn help you with the practice exam questions. If you don't do the basics how do you expect to do the questions that matter? Which are the exam type questions". I literally remember it word for word because he said it every time someone didn't do homework. A quote I absolutely love is: “Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”- Zig Ziglar. A bit like free throws in basketball, no?

Do what you teachers suggest, do any extra work they tell you will benefit, ask for extra stuff if you don't get a particular topic because grinding sometimes isn't the answer but nonetheless, use any extra resources you have because the textbook doesn't have everything!



Disclaimer: I am not a past student, I just want to help out by giving advice I received from former students and teachers.

[avcestudent]

Just wondering how past students got better at spesh

In year 11, I really struggled with Spesh. It was the first time in my life where I actually failed a test and had to resit, and the first time I barely passed an exam. I was about to give up and I was seriously considering dropping the subject after the first semester. In the end, in year 12 I got a score of 33, which might not seem that fantastic compared to the geniuses of AN, but still a great score, scaling up to 44 which seemed impossible after my failures in year 11.

As the others have said already, practice is very important. But Spesh is a very conceptual subject, therefore I think it's really important to practice the basics but also to make sure that you spend adequate time on more challenging questions that are outside of the box. Whilst being able to do the basic questions quickly and accurately is important, churning through the same repetitive questions is not always beneficial, as exam questions will test your understanding in different ways. For example, sometimes I felt compelled to complete all the recommended questions of the exercises that my teacher set, when really I should have stopped after I felt confident and moved onto harder questions.

But most importantly, I think the best way to get better is to just keep chipping away by continually doing more and more questions. Ask for help when you need it, the sooner the better, as the Spesh course is interrelated and often builds on other sections. Improvement may not be evident straight away but if continue to persevere, practice and learn from your mistakes you will definitely get better at Spesh.

[wyzard]

Don't get the idea because Specialist Math is the hardest math in VCE means it's meant for geniuses. You don't need to be a genius to do well specialist math. It's challenging, but that doesn't mean you can't do it. Learning math is just learning a language, it's hard work over time to accomplish skill.

As others mentioned, practice consistently and ask plenty of questions. To study more effectively, always seek to understand deeper, push yourself to higher levels, enjoy studying, persist through difficulty, constantly set achievable goals for yourself and work towards them.

[Adequace]

Although I didn't create this thread, thanks everyone for replying. I'm struggling a ton already with spesh 1/2 which is freaking me out since I like maths...or I just say I do to try and validate the reason why I picked spesh, sigh.

/endrantsoz4beingadowner.

[heart]

Study smart and consistently. Also get into the habit of not making careless errors as Spesh exam tends to be much more easier and clear then the Methods exam but a few marks can significantly drop your study score.