Now what?

[jaceyjace]

So I finished Unit 4 last week, and am currently doing some questions on my problem areas. But what am I supposed to do now? Do I just do practice papers for the next 4.5 months??? Will I run out?
Help! 

[Quantum44]

Generally the point of finishing the course early is to do tonnes of practice papers. In your case I assume you'd be aiming for 100+. For methods there are plenty of papers so don't worry about running out. Just remember to thoroughly mark your papers harshly and make a log of all your mistakes so you don't make them again. You can always use the chapter reviews so revise certain areas you are weak on in the exams.

[zsteve]

Hey dude!
Yeah, totally felt what you were faced with back in year 12, since I finished Methods at a similar time .
- I spent a fair bit time writing up my bound reference (which ended up being more like course notes rather than exam notes - I ended up putting quite a bit of detail on it). I didn't end up using any of it in the exam (which is expected, of course!), but writing the whole thing was a great revision task and I felt it was really helpful in consolidating a lot of the trickier concepts.
- Have you considered helping out some other students in your methods class with topics they may be struggling with? Since I started teaching after graduating from VCE, I've learned so much more about small things that pop up along the course - not only are you helping others, but in helping others you're also being put to the ultimate test of actually how well you understand your content
- I'd have to disagree with Quantum44 on the topic of papers - I didn't do a huge stack of papers for Methods back in the day (about 35ish full papers (Exam 1 and 2 count as one), and I did fine. It's not the number of papers that matters (in fact I think doing more than 50 isn't going to be that useful), but the quality of each practice paper that matters. Since you've got the time, why not spread out your practice exams a bit more (on average I think I did about 1 set a week, and stopped entirely for some periods to focus on other subjects).
- Probably not a popular opinion, but personally I spent some time during Year 12 to learn about other topics in maths just for fun. If you like maths, why not do a bit of exploration? VCE Methods is just the tip of the iceberg =)

Hope that helps!

[Quantum44]

Hey dude!
Yeah, totally felt what you were faced with back in year 12, since I finished Methods at a similar time .
- I spent a fair bit time writing up my bound reference (which ended up being more like course notes rather than exam notes - I ended up putting quite a bit of detail on it). I didn't end up using any of it in the exam (which is expected, of course!), but writing the whole thing was a great revision task and I felt it was really helpful in consolidating a lot of the trickier concepts.
- Have you considered helping out some other students in your methods class with topics they may be struggling with? Since I started teaching after graduating from VCE, I've learned so much more about small things that pop up along the course - not only are you helping others, but in helping others you're also being put to the ultimate test of actually how well you understand your content
- I'd have to disagree with Quantum44 on the topic of papers - I didn't do a huge stack of papers for Methods back in the day (about 35ish full papers (Exam 1 and 2 count as one), and I did fine. It's not the number of papers that matters (in fact I think doing more than 50 isn't going to be that useful), but the quality of each practice paper that matters. Since you've got the time, why not spread out your practice exams a bit more (on average I think I did about 1 set a week, and stopped entirely for some periods to focus on other subjects).
- Probably not a popular opinion, but personally I spent some time during Year 12 to learn about other topics in maths just for fun. If you like maths, why not do a bit of exploration? VCE Methods is just the tip of the iceberg =)

Hope that helps!

I see where you are coming from but generally the point of rushing through the course is to make the most of it by doing the most practice exams. All the people in my cohort who are finishing the course now are aiming to do 100+ exams and while it seems excessive, I think starting practice exams now allows you to do a large quantity maintaining quality as well. But the law of diminishing returns does hold true for practice exams and after doing around 50, it could certainly be more worthwhile to focus on other revision techniques.

[brenden]

I see where you are coming from but generally the point of rushing through the course is to make the most of it by doing the most practice exams. All the people in my cohort who are finishing the course now are aiming to do 100+ exams and while it seems excessive, I think starting practice exams now allows you to do a large quantity maintaining quality as well. But the law of diminishing returns does hold true for practice exams and after doing around 50, it could certainly be more worthwhile to focus on other revision techniques.

You could be way better than your friends by not wasting your time . Let them think that 100+ is making a difference haha.

Basically - at what point do things stop being beneficial?

Here's a graph:



The graph represents "diminishing marginal utility" - a concept that suggests that, there's a certain point where the benefit of doing something greatly declines. For example, if you start off getting 30/40 in Methods Exam 1, then do 10 practice papers - there's a decent chance you'll be hovering within a few marks of full marks - maybe around 37, say? So now you do another  5, and say you're sitting around 38. Another 10, 39/40. Another 15, and no you're getting full-marks. Say, 45 papers.

That's declining marginal utility. There's no linearity of progress like this. If you're doing 100 papers... either you're getting full marks and there's no point doing more papers... or you've taken over 100 papers before getting full marks, in which case... what the FUCK are you doing?

In terms of study score benefit, if you did 50 Methods papers... the amount of benefit you would get from doing the 51st to the 100th Methods paper is not that much - but the TIME you spend doing that is significant.

If you took that time, dedicated it to ANOTHER subject - say, finishing the course for that subject and then doing 30 papers for it... your ATAR benefits way more.

[jaceyjace]

legends all of you xx thanks