Minimising silly mistakes

[Timtasticle]

Any tips?

[Collin Li]

Recognise a pattern and focus on them.

For Chemistry, I remembered an acronym "USSR" that stood for:
- Units
- States
- Significant Figures
- Recalculations/Re-read question

These were my common mistakes, and it was a neat little acronym I could use to remember to check over these things.

[Ahmad]

Read each question in its entirety, without thinking "hey, I've done this before, I'll just jump into it" only to find out the question has a small twist.

Ask yourself whether your answer actually makes sense. VCAA always puts questions which make some kind of physical sense. If you get a velocity of a car of 400 m/s, maybe it's too much? With volumes, for example say you have a sphere, you can say, oh, the volume has to be less than if it were inside a cube, so less than (2r)^3 = 8r^3. Even things like imagining a 10 cm per side cube, in real life that's about half a milk carton, so you can tell that the volume would be about 1 L.

Do a question in two different ways, if possible.

Always sketch graphs.

[Odette]

Any tips?

Well there are a few tips i can give you to minimise silly mistakes:
1. Read each question carefully
2. Ask yourself which aos it relates to
3. Think about which formula to apply
4. Make sure that your calculator settings are correct
5. Sub in the correct values into the formula [especially in business maths when it comes to the interest rate and the time]

Thats about it really
Hope that helps

[Lyonzy]

i wrote all my silly mistakes on the front of my notebook, including things like watching for a+bx and ax+b etc.

[Mystery]

Use this acronym, follow it and your guaranteed to make sure you make no silly mistakes:

TFC:

Triple
Fucking
Check

 
I use it on my exams a lot, just triple check the question and your answer once you've answered a question - take corrective action if needed.

It's an automatic response to me, especially the F, stresses it out. Just my ways, hope it helps.

[costargh]

KFC?
im lame  

[Odette]

KFC?
im lame  

HAHAHA

[hifer]

for me i use my finger to read EVERY word carefully in the question.. so that u don't miss a word nor skim through it... may sound silly but ah well.. ><

[costargh]

for me i use my finger to read EVERY word carefully in the question.. so that u don't miss a word nor skim through it... may sound silly but ah well.. ><

Thinking about  someone doing that makes me laugh but it makes complete sense cause your using more then one sense which makes more sense then just using one sense...

I'm gonna try it. Good tip =) But not for further cause I don't do it

[Odette]

I remember seeing someone in the methods exam last year drawing sine and cosine graphs in the air :?

I think I need to take hifer's tip and use it for exam 2 !! excellent tip!

[costargh]

LMFAO!
drawing sin graphs in the area. what the hell ! why woodnt u just draw it on the paper

[Odette]

LMFAO!
drawing sin graphs in the area. what the hell ! why woodnt u just draw it on the paper

Lol no idea... helps them i guess... some people are kinaesthetic (however it's spelt) learners; need to be active lol ...