Getting Average Scores

[StaticZ1011]

Hi Guys,
I'm currently in year 11 at Braybrook College and the subjects that i have taken this year is Psych, Gen Math (Further), Legal Studies, English, Health and human development and VET community service. As a result, im aiming to get a raw 50 in gen math but one of the main problems is that ive been getting alot of average scores and i have been doubting my capabilities and i asked my friend for advice and he said that it is not good to do practice sacs and exams in unit 1 and 2 as the school chooses the questions based on the textbook.. if this is true, then what can i do to improve my results drastically? The main problem with me is that it is hard to work out worded problems (Problem solving) and this is where i lose alot of marks in.. and i dont know what i can do to improve my grades.

Thanks,

[PhoenixxFire]

Hey,
Your friend is partially right. It really depends on your school as to how the teachers write the practice SACs. The most valuable practice questions you can do are past SACs from your school as they should be similar to the SACs you will get.

You’ve done a couple of SACs by now. Were the questions similar to your textbook questions? If not then doing other practice tests will probably help, if so then they will be a different style so they won’t help as much (although they will still help).

With worded problems try:
-highlighting key information
-writing down key information (e.g. r=0.93)
Both of these will make it easier to see which information you actually need, and easier to check that you have done it correctly (rather than rereading the entire question).

[StaticZ1011]

Hey,
Your friend is partially right. It really depends on your school as to how the teachers write the practice SACs. The most valuable practice questions you can do are past SACs from your school as they should be similar to the SACs you will get.

You’ve done a couple of SACs by now. Were the questions similar to your textbook questions? If not then doing other practice tests will probably help, if so then they will be a different style so they won’t help as much (although they will still help).

With worded problems try:
-highlighting key information
-writing down key information (e.g. r=0.93)
Both of these will make it easier to see which information you actually need, and easier to check that you have done it correctly (rather than rereading the entire question).

To be serious honest, the school doesn't provide the practice sacs or exam whatsoever, which is kinda why im stuck on how to really revise, usually doing the chapter revision isn't enough for me.

[Bri MT]

 


This might be a silly question,  but have you asked your teacher if they have any advice or additional resources that could help you?

Once you've gotten the SAC back,  do you feel like you understand how the answer should have been obtained & why that approach was used? 

[StaticZ1011]

This might be a silly question,  but have you asked your teacher if they have any advice or additional resources that could help you?

Once you've gotten the SAC back,  do you feel like you understand how the answer should have been obtained & why that approach was used?

I have asked my teachers for additional resources, but they don't actually share the resource as they are like " the textbook is the best resource right now" which makes stuck in terms of studying because what if i done all of the questions and still make the same mistakes and for the last exam i did go for feedback and yeh  i made plenty of easy mistakes, Usually i understand the content in class but when it comes to applying into a SAC i feel like all my knowledge is not there..

[Bri MT]

I have asked my teachers for additional resources, but they don't actually share the resource as they are like " the textbook is the best resource right now" which makes stuck in terms of studying because what if i done all of the questions and still make the same mistakes and for the last exam i did go for feedback and yeh  i made plenty of easy mistakes, Usually i understand the content in class but when it comes to applying into a SAC i feel like all my knowledge is not there..

  that's a pretty frustrating position to be in.

I feel like there could be a few factors at play here,  even if you address them all it may take a fair bit of time before you see improvement - but the good news is that you do have time to improve ( VCAA only cares about pass/fail for units 1&2)

Here are my thoughts:
- you might have had a first bad SAC experience throw you off your game & since then you get stressed and in a whole different mindset when you enter a SAC. You'll learn more about this next year,  but you're better at remembering information that you learnt while in the same mindset. Ie. You find the content easy when you learn it in class, so you're relaxed.  You're relaxed when you do the textbook questions, so you can easily remember the content from in class & anything you learn while doing the textbook questions, you're learning while relaxed.  You enter a SAC, you remember how disappointed you have been and how much you want to do well and you get stressed,  which makes it harder to access those memories. You panic,  wondering how you're going to achieve your goals when you can't even do this simple question & it gets even harder to access those memories. ... the more you escalate the worse it gets & it becomes a vicious feedback cycle.

So how do you break it? 

1. Acknowledge that it will take time.  Try everything,  but don't aim for 100% on your next SAC. Aim for progress. This might be a) 3 less marks lost to silly errors than last time,  or b) even better if you set an implementation goal such as " I will focus on slowing my breathing when I first receive the SAC" "I will be kind to myself & acknowledge that my marks don't define me when my self-talk says otherwise"
2. Look up anxiety and calming techniques which you can apply before and during SACs
3. Raise your stress a little when doing the practice questions.  Do the review questions under a time limit. Afterwards, use the answers to check yours and assign marks.  This will help you learn how to access information when stressed during SACs. 



So in summary, maybe the reason you feel " like all my knowledge is not there" is because stress has caused a mental shift away from that knowledge.  This can be fixed.  In fact,  it'll give you a real edge if you learn to fix this before year 12. It'll take time,  but that's something you have & I know that you're dedicated enough to put in the effort.


Best of luck & I hope this helps