OFFICIAL VCE ENTER SCORE RESULTS (Class of 2009)

[xXNovaxX]

@ILoveMathMeth

I know I am opening up can of worms, and there is a WHOLE thread dedicated to this...

But don't under-estimate natural talent and gift.

 I am not saying you didn't do well, bu for some students doing "essays everyday" doesn't do or mean anything, I know many people who didn't do any of that, and got mid 40's as well.

[kyzoo]

Natural talent and gift is just excessive exposure very early on.

Takes someone who is called a "math genius" in high school for example, everyone will just assume he/she is naturally talented at maths, no-one will think to ask he/she how much maths they did in primary school. In actuality they did maybe three times, even more, the amount of maths that everyone else did. And at primary school level this isn't very much, maybe 20-30 minutes a day? But after years it adds up - the time spent accumulates to a total that cannot be reached with a single year (Y12) of effort.

It's too limited to just look at work done in Y12. Even if this supposed genius is lazy throughout his/her high-schooling years, his/her years of work during primary school still puts him ahead of the majority half a decade later in Y11/12.

[TrueTears]

Takes someone who is called a "math genius" in high school for example, everyone will just assume he/she is naturally talented at maths, no-one will think to ask he/she how much maths they did in primary school. In actuality they did maybe three times, even more, the amount of maths that everyone else did. And at primary school level this isn't very much, maybe 20-30 minutes a day? But after years it adds up - the time spent accumulates to a total that cannot be reached with a single year (Y12) of effort.

I can think of 3 exceptions to this

Ahmad. Neobeo. Kamil.

NATURAL GENIUS!!!!

[EvangelionZeta]

Natural talent and gift is just excessive exposure very early on.

Takes someone who is called a "math genius" in high school for example, everyone will just assume he/she is naturally talented at maths, no-one will think to ask he/she how much maths they did in primary school. In actuality they did maybe three times, even more, the amount of maths that everyone else did. And at primary school level this isn't very much, maybe 20-30 minutes a day? But after years it adds up - the time spent accumulates to a total that cannot be reached with a single year (Y12) of effort.

It's too limited to just look at work done in Y12. Even if this supposed genius is lazy throughout his/her high-schooling years, his/her years of work during primary school still puts him ahead of the majority half a decade later in Y11/12.

I think there's still room for "natural talent" to have some place, although early childhood learning is also very important.  My counter-example (and I realise this is only one case) is that I went to China for a full year in grade 1, where I did maths to a level which isn't covered over here until say...grade 4/5.  I did zero English over there (for obvious reasons).  I was also made to do a lot of logic/maths puzzles (mostly for fun, actually, haha) throughout my childhood.  In balance, I was never made to read excessively (unlike some of my friends who were forced to read one hour a day, haha), and I certainly didn't do any writing workshops or whatever until about grade 5/6 where I did relatively light scholarship preparation.

Now in year 12, my English/humanities skills are by far my best, whereas my maths is...not as great as some others (lol I wonder who I am referring to).

[brightsky]

Some people tend to pick up language subjects really fast. Many of the people who got 50's in English are the ones who arrived from overseas for just a few years, but work their butts off to get to the top.

[kyzoo]

Some people tend to pick up language subjects really fast. Many of the people who got 50's in English are the ones who arrived from overseas for just a few years, but work their butts off to get to the top.

Let me make an adjustment to my statement - the extra work doesn't have to be done in primary school, it can also be done in the years leading up to VCE. Even just a year or two of slightly more effort than the majority before VCE still makes a huge difference when it comes to VCE.

[schmalex]

Natural talent and gift is just excessive exposure very early on.

Takes someone who is called a "math genius" in high school for example, everyone will just assume he/she is naturally talented at maths, no-one will think to ask he/she how much maths they did in primary school. In actuality they did maybe three times, even more, the amount of maths that everyone else did. And at primary school level this isn't very much, maybe 20-30 minutes a day? But after years it adds up - the time spent accumulates to a total that cannot be reached with a single year (Y12) of effort.

It's too limited to just look at work done in Y12. Even if this supposed genius is lazy throughout his/her high-schooling years, his/her years of work during primary school still puts him ahead of the majority half a decade later in Y11/12.

I didn't do any more maths than anybody else in primary school and completely bludged through maths up until year 10 and I've still generally done better than people who work harder than me. There's definitely room for natural ability.

[kyzoo]

Many people who appear to work hard at school do jack-all at home, whilst people who appear to do jack-all at school work hard at home. And some people are exceptions.

[schmalex]

Oh thanks for the last part, becase I did jack-all anywhere, so the people who worked hard at school still did more than me.

[spontaneouscombustion]

Natural talent and gift is just excessive exposure very early on.

I wasn't exposed to english until I was 5 years old, when my family moved to an English-speaking country. Then after 4 years my family moved away and I didn't come in contact with english for another 4 years until I was 13 years old, when we moved to Australia.  
But then I still didn't gain much exposure to english because I was homeschooled until year 11.

In year 12 I had lived too many years in English speaking countries to apply for ESL D:

I never wrote many essays in year 12, mainly because it takes me 4 hours to write one essay (aka pedantic perfectionism syndrome). The week before the English exam was the same story except there were the added factors of stress and nerves.

I say people are naturally adept in different areas of knowledge. I worked my butt off for maths both in primary school and in high school. I never improved much.

  

[Ilovemathsmeth]

Some people are naturally good with certain subjects. However I have a belief that anyone can do really well with a subject given the time and the effort. I guess I often don't account for the fact that some people are naturally good at the subject.

[appianway]

Many people who appear to work hard at school do jack-all at home, whilst people who appear to do jack-all at school work hard at home. And some people are exceptions.

That pretty much describes me! I guess my main problem is that I'm too busy with other things to devote an adequate amount of time to my studies. Lots of my friends are in a similar situation, but hey, it's better to seize the day, right?

Changing the topic slightly, do people actually think the VCE results are an accurate reflection of achievement and ability? Personally, I don't think the top 0.05 percent of the population ends up with a perfect score. Some of the students in that category do, but most don't. And I think it's a huge mistake that we're all judged on a number instead of our real accomplishments.

[spontaneouscombustion]

And I think it's a huge mistake that we're all judged on a number instead of our real accomplishments.

At this time of our lives what be our *real accomplishments* apart from that statistic?

[TrueTears]

lol VCE is so shit, I don't even know how to write an essay.

[kyzoo]

^ I agree, not because of essay, but because I found Methods to be purely about minimizing mark loss rather than problem solving. I could instantly recognize how to solve any exam question (barring some iTute ones) once I read it, there was never a fun puzzle to work through. And Spesh doesn't look like it will be much different.