Whos ready for the June 9th exam?

[andy456]

No where near ready.... I keep getting the same result and its not what I want >(

[Blakhitman]

Definitely not ready...I hope to be by next week though.

[kyzoo]

I haven't been marking them as such, just looking at questions i struggled with and learning where i went wrong. I don't believe trial or past exam results are anything to go by at all. I'm just making sure I can do all of the kinds of questions that are likely to be on the exam.

The thing is...there's more to acing the exams than just being able to do all the questions. Being able to do all the questions is no where near enough for a 50, since VCAA exams aren't going to be so hard as to contain questions that will stump 99.5% of students. Acing the real exams is actually about avoiding losing marks to little stupid things like states, significant figures, wrong stoichemetric ratios, H2O as a product for esterification/condensation reactions, etc. And to do that you need actual practice under simulated exam conditions. Also consider that some of these trial exams and VCAA 2009 are challenging to finish within the 90 minute time-limit.

And lol I would say that trial/past exam results are a fairly accurate indicator. Most likely your real result will be equal or a little bit less than your best trial exam performance.

.......................

After doing each exam I go into really indepth analysis of the mistakes I made and record my marks and time I took. During analysis I figure out how to ensure I don't make the same mistakes in the future, so that if I repeated the paper I would get 100%. As well I list unfamiliar bits of theory that I have encountered in the exam, and figure out how to improve the explanations I made for any explanation questions in the paper.

It works la. I went from losing 13 marks on my first chem trial, to about 3 in the last few.

[minilunchbox]

I AM READY ... for the other exam I have on that day.

I did the 2009 VCAA multiple choice yesterday and didn't actually stuff up as much as I expected. But the short answer are starting to freak me out.

[vexx]

i realised that i haven't improved at all since i started doing exams because none of them i have done were similar, argh, my hopes of doing well in chem are fading.

[Akirus]

I improve every time I do a paper until a certain point, where it becomes more difficult to break any higher. For chem, that's about 95% for me at the moment and around 98%~ for physics/accounting. First chem paper was around 80%~, and I agree with Kyzoo; you should do them properly and seriously consider your performance, etc. If you aren't really improving, you're doin' it wrong.

[vexx]

I improve every time I do a paper until a certain point, where it becomes more difficult to break any higher. For chem, that's about 95% for me at the moment and around 98%~ for physics/accounting. First chem paper was around 80%~, and I agree with Kyzoo; you should do them properly and seriously consider your performance, etc. If you aren't really improving, you're doin' it wrong.

i'm not improved with careless mistakes so yes i must be doing it wrong, but i have been coming across gaps in my knowledge (so many gaps xD) but they are being filled, it's a pity that these little things are so rarely asked after learning><

[cindyy]

you guys have all done so many D: Ive done 3! haha not good (N) need to get on that stuff!

[iffets12345]

I haven't been marking them as such, just looking at questions i struggled with and learning where i went wrong. I don't believe trial or past exam results are anything to go by at all. I'm just making sure I can do all of the kinds of questions that are likely to be on the exam.

The thing is...there's more to acing the exams than just being able to do all the questions. Being able to do all the questions is no where near enough for a 50, since VCAA exams aren't going to be so hard as to contain questions that will stump 99.5% of students. Acing the real exams is actually about avoiding losing marks to little stupid things like states, significant figures, wrong stoichemetric ratios, H2O as a product for esterification/condensation reactions, etc. And to do that you need actual practice under simulated exam conditions. Also consider that some of these trial exams and VCAA 2009 are challenging to finish within the 90 minute time-limit.

Totally agreed, usually I could have only lost maybe 3-5 marks max, but I'm terribly careless T_T'''.
So in that sense, no, im not prepared!

[Richiie]

Not enough...

[Akirus]

I improve every time I do a paper until a certain point, where it becomes more difficult to break any higher. For chem, that's about 95% for me at the moment and around 98%~ for physics/accounting. First chem paper was around 80%~, and I agree with Kyzoo; you should do them properly and seriously consider your performance, etc. If you aren't really improving, you're doin' it wrong.

i'm not improved with careless mistakes so yes i must be doing it wrong, but i have been coming across gaps in my knowledge (so many gaps xD) but they are being filled, it's a pity that these little things are so rarely asked after learning><

Personally, I don't think practice papers are the best way of filling knowledge gaps; sure, you might cover some of them, but chances are there will be something you overlooked because it's not on the paper.

[azn_dj]

After doing each exam I go into really indepth analysis of the mistakes I made and record my marks and time I took. During analysis I figure out how to ensure I don't make the same mistakes in the future, so that if I repeated the paper I would get 100%. As well I list unfamiliar bits of theory that I have encountered in the exam, and figure out how to improve the explanations I made for any explanation questions in the paper.

Sounds like my technique. I keep a spreadsheet of every thing I do in each subject, record what questions I do (e.g. Heinemann Chemistry 2, Chapter 6, q 1-5) something like that, list the questions I got wrong and then analyse why I got them wrong.

Now Im getting out of the 88% cycle =] Now Im stuck on 93%. (well, the past two exams Ive done)

[kyzoo]

Is everyone else losing marks for states and sig figs and shit question wording? Omfg pissing me off...

Lol I am losing marks from not being able to figure out the right speed to go through the exam. So far I have been going too slow, so that I finish just on time even when spending the last 30 minutes rushing. And in those 30 minutes of rushing I am like a robot and don't think, so it causes 1 or 2 avoidable mistakes.

Sounds like my technique. I keep a spreadsheet of every thing I do in each subject, record what questions I do (e.g. Heinemann Chemistry 2, Chapter 6, q 1-5) something like that, list the questions I got wrong and then analyse why I got them wrong.

You are way mroe thorough than me, I don't even bother to treat textbook questions seriously, I just rush through them.

[Akirus]

Is everyone else losing marks for states and sig figs and shit question wording? Omfg pissing me off...

Lol I am losing marks from not being able to figure out the right speed to go through the exam. So far I have been going too slow, so that I finish just on time even when spending the last 30 minutes rushing. And in those 30 minutes of rushing I am like a robot and don't think, so it causes 1 or 2 avoidable mistakes.

Sounds like my technique. I keep a spreadsheet of every thing I do in each subject, record what questions I do (e.g. Heinemann Chemistry 2, Chapter 6, q 1-5) something like that, list the questions I got wrong and then analyse why I got them wrong.

You are way mroe thorough than me, I don't even bother to treat textbook questions seriously, I just rush through them.

Neither, I just use textbook questions to make sure I get the concepts thoroughly.

[iffets12345]

im correcting my lisachem 09 one, i just lost 5 marks on the multiple choice=='. im tossing up between ripping the paper up or calling it "gay".