A+ cut off?

[Rationalize]

i agree, this years exam wasn't much harder than the other exams. I finished 2010 with 20 minutes to go and i finished this years with 15 minutes to go. sure, there were some stuff on the exam that were fairly new to me but i'm sure it would have been the case for last years physics students. vcaa always put in questions every year that that year hasn't seen.

[appianway]

I think the thing that made this exam different from previous years was that it tested concepts, not formulas. That means that students with a strong grasp of the material would've found it not too difficult (as the potential for careless mistakes was lower), but students who spent more time working through questions rather than focusing on the concepts would've struggled. I think that the emphasis on concepts was a good thing; my main criticism is that the paper might've been too long and thus intimidating for some students.

[FatnessFirst]

guys, not sure which ones right but, on the itute solutions a 4500 ohm resistor is used in the circuit that was required to be drawn.

Me and a few of my friends chose a 500 ohm resistor. In the end the output voltage is still 4.5V but I dont understand why its a wrong answer.

1500 is the thermistors resistance. so --> 1500/2000=0.75      0.75x6=4.5 Volts.

ANyone else do the smae mistake?

As temp increases, R decreases, therefore you want the Vout over the resistor, not the thermistor.

at 25 degrees the temperature was 1500 or what ever and it takes 6-4.5v = 1.5v ( i think its a 6v battery )
the other resistor will have a voltage of 4.5v

The ratio then becomes 1.5/1500 = 4.5/x

using cross multiplication, 1.5x = 6750
x= 4500 ohms

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH I WAS RIGHT WOOT WOOT

[springonion]

I think the thing that made this exam different from previous years was that it tested concepts, not formulas. That means that students with a strong grasp of the material would've found it not too difficult (as the potential for careless mistakes was lower), but students who spent more time working through questions rather than focusing on the concepts would've struggled. I think that the emphasis on concepts was a good thing; my main criticism is that the paper might've been too long and thus intimidating for some students.

yea he's right, to be honest I will probably be the one who spend most of the time on subbing numbers in equation rather than knowing what is actually happening. that why i found this test way harder than previous

[examsman]

@Appianway.

I totally agree with you, I looked at a few of the questions whilst doing the exam and thought, wow, this is a great question, you can't just sub in but really need to understand what's going on. I got all the concepts right then proceeded to make about 4 stupid stupid unforgivable errors, like for the vertical loop question, i thought we had to find the velocity at the bottom of the loop, so I found the velocity at the top, used energy formulas etc and came to the velocity at the bottom, when all that was needed was my initial calculation, felt like crying when I realised after the exam i had misread the question.

Appianway,do you think the A+ mark will go up or down with respect to last year?

[appianway]

I have no clue. I got the A+ cut offs in my own year (when I sat the exam in exam conditions) completely wrong. Neither of the exams were particularly difficult, but they tested different things. I'm not sure whether most students find concepts easier or formulas (I'm going to guess concepts), but when you have more concepts, it's harder to make little numerical mistakes. I'd guess it'd be similar to last year or lower, but I certainly doubt it's on the same level as 2009, which was a bit of a joke. All you can do now is move on and hope for the best

[examsman]

@Appianway

Sigh, I guess I'll have to, it's frustrating when you soooo easily could have got 100% on that exam yet I really cracked under pressure this being my first VCE exam and having not dropped a mark in Physics in my whole VCE life everyone was like 'on your way to a 50 after today daniel' and arghhhhhh, just can't et over it, I would never make such stupid mistakes in 100 years.

[examsman]

I also think the A+ cut-off will rise, when I did last year's exam, I had to think about the pully question for a few mins in my reading time to make sure I grasped it completely, this year, there was nothing your average student shouldn't have understood so I honestly can't see the A+ cut-off going lower. Anyway, I guess I'll have to learn from my error and pick myself up for my chemistry exam today, it's just so disappointing that I bottled it the way I did.

[jinny1]

yea i didnt thave trouble with the theory bit at all... it was the easy bit...

[thatricksta]

It was relativity that ate me up... much harder than normal... time consuming I guess, but I checked my answers and I did pretty well. Probably made A+

[tassie]

i fell for the good old diving board question and chose ___-------- rather than ----------
-.-'