First Psychology SAC - Can I still do well?

[alishajadev]

Hi

I'm in Year 11 and doing Psych 3/4. We just had our first SAC and I received a score of 90%. I was really hoping to do a lot better, so I will definitely study more for the rest of the SACs.

My question is: will this decrease my chance of a study score of 40+? I'm not sure what SAC marks I should be receiving in order to culminate in a 40+ at the end, so I'm just worried that 90% isn't enough.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated <3

[whys]

Short answer: Yes, you still have a very high chance of 40+.

I can't really 'predict' anything because this relies on external factors, such as the difficulty of your sacs and the strength of your cohort. For context, I got 88% on a sac and still did well overall. Sacs are a learning experience that prepare you for the exam, and it's extremely unrealistic to expect 100% on every sac. If you're doing well in your sacs consistently, then you are in a good position (assuming you are doing better than majority of your cohort). Your marks for sacs don't matter, your rank does. But for the sac that I got 88% on, my ranking was really pushed down since multiple people got 100% and just higher scores in general. Also keep in perspective that your exam matters the most. If you smash the exam, then a 40+ is definitely an achievable goal. Hope this helps. Good luck with psych!

[pahm]

Hi

I'm in Year 11 and doing Psych 3/4. We just had our first SAC and I received a score of 90%. I was really hoping to do a lot better, so I will definitely study more for the rest of the SACs.

My question is: will this decrease my chance of a study score of 40+? I'm not sure what SAC marks I should be receiving in order to culminate in a 40+ at the end, so I'm just worried that 90% isn't enough.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated <3

It depends alot on the difficulty of the sac, the level of your school, your ranking, and how you do on the final exam.

Not trying to freak you out but last year I had an 87% average for unit 3 and 95% average for unit 4, rank 2 overall, but only got a 35 in the end.

my best advice is to just get the absolute highest you possibly can and try not to let one sac demotivate you. good luck!! xx

[cmkat1]

Hi

I'm in Year 11 and doing Psych 3/4. We just had our first SAC and I received a score of 90%. I was really hoping to do a lot better, so I will definitely study more for the rest of the SACs.

My question is: will this decrease my chance of a study score of 40+? I'm not sure what SAC marks I should be receiving in order to culminate in a 40+ at the end, so I'm just worried that 90% isn't enough.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated <3

Hi Alisha,
Do you have a good Psych tutor? This is important as they can also analyse any weaknesses a student may have.

[whys]

Hi Alisha,
Do you have a good Psych tutor? This is important as they can also analyse any weaknesses a student may have.

Going to have to disagree here! You don't need a tutor to do well. Although they might be beneficial, I think it is important that students are aware of the fact that unless they put in the effort, their results will not improve. If you feel a tutor might help you, then go ahead, but please don't feel pressured to get a tutor. I did not have a tutor for psych, and if I ever needed feedback, I would clarify with my teacher. This was sufficient for me, coupled with my self-reflection techniques. I don't mean to degrade the quality of tutoring, I definitely agree that for some, tutoring is an option that allows them to grow and learn better, but it is not something that you need to do well. Ultimately, if you put in the effort, you can succeed and do well.

[afuturepsych]

hi there!
i received: 97%, 87%, 89%, 100%, 93% on my sacs throughout psychology, and walked away with a 43. in short - absolutely! 90% is not bad at all. the biggest thing in psych (and any vce subject, due to moderation) is the exam. you got this <3

[cmkat1]

Going to have to disagree here! You don't need a tutor to do well. Although they might be beneficial, I think it is important that students are aware of the fact that unless they put in the effort, their results will not improve. If you feel a tutor might help you, then go ahead, but please don't feel pressured to get a tutor. I did not have a tutor for psych, and if I ever needed feedback, I would clarify with my teacher. This was sufficient for me, coupled with my self-reflection techniques. I don't mean to degrade the quality of tutoring, I definitely agree that for some, tutoring is an option that allows them to grow and learn better, but it is not something that you need to do well. Ultimately, if you put in the effort, you can succeed and do well.

In an ideal world all teachers know Psych back to front keeping students on a level playing field. 

[Bri MT]

Going to have to disagree here! You don't need a tutor to do well. Although they might be beneficial, I think it is important that students are aware of the fact that unless they put in the effort, their results will not improve. If you feel a tutor might help you, then go ahead, but please don't feel pressured to get a tutor. I did not have a tutor for psych, and if I ever needed feedback, I would clarify with my teacher. This was sufficient for me, coupled with my self-reflection techniques. I don't mean to degrade the quality of tutoring, I definitely agree that for some, tutoring is an option that allows them to grow and learn better, but it is not something that you need to do well. Ultimately, if you put in the effort, you can succeed and do well.

Not as high as whys' 50, but I got 47 in psych and also didn't have a tutor.

Hi

I'm in Year 11 and doing Psych 3/4. We just had our first SAC and I received a score of 90%. I was really hoping to do a lot better, so I will definitely study more for the rest of the SACs.

My question is: will this decrease my chance of a study score of 40+? I'm not sure what SAC marks I should be receiving in order to culminate in a 40+ at the end, so I'm just worried that 90% isn't enough.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated <3

Welcome to the forums!

As everyone else said, yes absolutely - do NOT give up now

Although unlikely, strictly speaking you could get 60% on every psych SAC and get a 50. Doing well on SACs is important but the process isn't as straight forward as avg SAC score -> GA score. There's more info in the technical score discussion if you're interested (warning: can get a bit complex) but the basic answer is that this score might not have reduced your shot at a 40+ at all

[amanaazim]

hey just wanted to say that i was doing well in my psych sacs but then one of them i got a 60 and i am scared that my whole average would go down. This is because our class average was 73. So i am scared that it would put me down. I have 2 more sac's left can i still do better and improve on my scores?.

[Stormbreaker-X]

hey just wanted to say that i was doing well in my psych sacs but then one of them i got a 60 and i am scared that my whole average would go down. This is because our class average was 73. So i am scared that it would put me down. I have 2 more sac's left can i still do better and improve on my scores?.

One of my cousin's friends did psychology, she averaged 80's and got a study score low 30's. My advice is to try and push it above class average (I mean well above, like 90+). Psychology is competitive especially if you want top scores.

[afuturepsych]

Wow we got the same study score!!
There were my marks (weak cohort, rank 2/125)
Unit 3: 92/100
Unit 4: 94/100
A A+ A+ 43 (raw)

Like everyone has said 90% is a great score, and as long as you have a solid rank you will be fine. Just be sure to do well on  the exam

that's so cool (and you're studying my dream course!) i had unit 3: 92/100 and unit 4: 94/100 as well!!
VERY strong cohort, maybe rank ~10/60. we had about 8-10 students get 40+. not sure of the exact number. i lowkey flopped the exam though due to family stuff so A+, A+, A+, i can only assume all low A+

[Failingvce]

Hi

I'm in Year 11 and doing Psych 3/4. We just had our first SAC and I received a score of 90%. I was really hoping to do a lot better, so I will definitely study more for the rest of the SACs.

My question is: will this decrease my chance of a study score of 40+? I'm not sure what SAC marks I should be receiving in order to culminate in a 40+ at the end, so I'm just worried that 90% isn't enough.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated <3

firstly, a 90 is great! you can definitely improve your average as unit 3 is composed of 2 SACS I think. for my class, we did our nervous system and stress SACS separately and the average of that will act as our first score and then we did the learning + memory sac as one whole thing.  I think it depends on how many SACS your school does because that means you have more chances to redeem yourself in terms of average.

An A+ for psychology is a 94 so I think you can definitely get an A+ average if you push yourself in other SACS. you've set up a good base for yourself by scoring a 90 so there really is not much pressure on you to do good. As everyone else says, the exam is super important + ranking and scaling so make sure you try and stay high up in your cohort! At the end of the day, the exam acts as a moderator so as long as you smash it, that 40+ SS should be within reach!!