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How hard is it to get a 50 in chemistry?
DrDusk:
--- Quote from: Stormbreaker-X on November 15, 2019, 02:26:51 pm ---No one at my school ever got a 50 in chemistry either :(
So how hard is it for me to get a 50 in that subject?
--- End quote ---
Doesn't matter, you can always be the first one. Your school does not define your ability. Don't let the fact that no one else has done it before hinder your ability to do it. Just focus on improving yourself and I'm sure you'll reach your goal if not at least get close to it(which is still amazing).
Also usually the things that are worth achieving are hard. If it was easy then everybody would get it. So I say go for it!
Stormbreaker-X:
Getting back on track to the post, getting a 50 in anything is hard. You can increase your chances of doing it through various strategies but at the end of the day there is some luck involved too (just like any academic score).
If you're an average student now I would say that a big priority should be figuring out why you're an average student. What are you losing marks on? Do you have the foundational understandings for next year?
I would also encourage you to focus and reward yourself for progress as you learn these things rather than rewarding yourself for grades or test scores. SACs etc. can vary in difficulty and you don't have control over that but you do have control over your actions and the new habits you acquire - so focus on what you can control.
Good luck :)
Edit: fixed typo
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That is correct 50's is very hard to obtain in any subject (Chemistry is probably one of the hardest to get a 50 in). It is true, I am deadset average, but I know I can do better than what I am now. Well, my school is doing average (median study score is 30) so in order to get a high study score I gotta be able to see a massive gap between me and all my other classmates.
Stormbreaker-X:
--- Quote from: DrDusk on November 15, 2019, 04:08:39 pm ---Doesn't matter, you can always be the first one. Your school does not define your ability. Don't let the fact that no one else has done it before hinder your ability to do it. Just focus on improving yourself and I'm sure you'll reach your goal if not at least get close to it(which is still amazing).
Also usually the things that are worth achieving are hard. If it was easy then everybody would get it. So I say go for it!
--- End quote ---
I am sure I have a chance to come over 40+ with a lot of brute force and hard work, but 50 will come down to a lot of things. I will 100% aim high and will try to break my schools record, I need to make some history.
Sine:
A lot of stuff has been covered by others but I wanted to add that there are so many factors required to get a 50 with only 1 of them being actually knowing the content to 50 study score level. Unless you are those people on the very high extreme of the scale (which is probably only a few students in the past decade who get 50's in a large number of subjects) you will need luck to get a 50. That will include how your teacher marks your sacs, which assessors you get, which questions actually come up on the exam, your own mindset on the day of the exam and just normal random variation that occurs when taking any test/exam.
imo anyone who scores something like 46-50 could potentially score a 50 if everything goes right for them on a given day.
Lear:
Some great advice has been given above. I definitely agree that everything 'going right' that day is a factor.
I have the opinion that, in terms of factual knowledge, a 50 scoring student is unlikely to have many more facts memorised than a 45 scoring student. The same goes for level of competency and ability to avoid 'silly mistakes'.
I think the difference is 50 scoring student not only know facts but have a thorough understanding rather than just memory. It is immensely useful to not only know that x is a fact but also why it is and the context to it. Too many students rely on getting those repeated, basic questions that you can memorise an answer to (for example, using a 'perfect' paragraph with all the buzzwords to explain why increasing temp moves the equilibrium a certain direction).
VCAA has time and time again shown that you need to be able to apply your knowledge to new and unfamiliar contexts. This is especially true for those 'separator' questions. If you simply tried to memorise your way through VCE Chem, you would have a very hard time trying to apply your knowledge. However, if you had a thorough understanding of the concepts it is much easier. A great example of one of these unfamiliar questions which require understanding is the 2017 Mars question.
This is not unique to chemistry either and is also relevant to something such as Methods where understanding the roots of formulas can be very helpful in answering separator questions as opposed to just having the formula memorised.
To give a quick summary, a person aiming genuinely for a 50 should 1. Go above the facts in the textbooks and try to get an in-depth understanding of concepts they learn and 2. Get comfortable with uncertainty and unfamiliar contexts by doing many VCAA practice exams which actually provide these sort of questions rather than commercial exams which rely on questions you can simply regurgitate answers to.
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