Practise exams

[kul0001]

Hey,
This year I am finishing up 5 year 11 subjects and as I head into year 11, 4 of them are carrying over into next year. I was hoping to make sure I'd be prepared for next year, by planning how I approach it early. This year I didn't do any practise exams as I thought it really wasn't necessary for unit 1 & 2 subjects, rather focusing on understanding and learning the content. However as I enter next year, I have heard conflicting ideas of how many practise exams I should be doing (ranging from about 10-30 per subject). I also do not understand when I should be doing these practise exams, steadily through the year, while I learn the content, or simply at the end of the year, as my end of year exams approach? This may seem like a stupid question, but I was hoping someone could help, possibly explaining what has worked for them, or in their experience. Also what places they found offered the best practise exams, so far I have been looking at ATARNotes, NEAP and previous end of year exams on the VCAA page as possible ideas.
Thank you, any help is appreciated 

[jkay__]

Hey,
This year I am finishing up 5 year 11 subjects and as I head into year 11, 4 of them are carrying over into next year. I was hoping to make sure I'd be prepared for next year, by planning how I approach it early. This year I didn't do any practise exams as I thought it really wasn't necessary for unit 1 & 2 subjects, rather focusing on understanding and learning the content. However as I enter next year, I have heard conflicting ideas of how many practise exams I should be doing (ranging from about 10-30 per subject). I also do not understand when I should be doing these practise exams, steadily through the year, while I learn the content, or simply at the end of the year, as my end of year exams approach? This may seem like a stupid question, but I was hoping someone could help, possibly explaining what has worked for them, or in their experience. Also what places they found offered the best practise exams, so far I have been looking at ATARNotes, NEAP and previous end of year exams on the VCAA page as possible ideas.
Thank you, any help is appreciated 

What you are doing this year is fine, understanding the content in Year 11 for your 3/4 subjects is a blessed thing to do and I regret not having done that.

With practise exams, I am finding that it isn't quantity over quality. In 3/4, the aim is to learn the course and contents (as best as you can while following study design), then start doing VCAA exams, and maybe Checkpoints questions depending on the subject. Of course, this advise depends on the subjects you do, and I've seen that for Maths, perhaps quantity really is superior.

You should aim to do relevant VCAA questions (oldest first), and anything you get wrong, you review the absolute crap out of it, and then only move on when you're done. If you finish all the courses for 3/4 subjects, let's say, in August or September at the latest, then you should have the free time to do this. However, a fair estimate is in October for most, so you will realistically only have time to do around 30 practise exams if you want to hone your skills (this is 1 exam per day, plus the review). This is around 6 exams per subject.

Of course, you should find something that works for you, but this is advise that I've seen coming from many high scorers, so perhaps it could work for you

** Edit  - Checkpoints should only be done for SACs imo