Tips from previous Yr 12s

[vce08]

For the sciences/maths subjects.
It's all about perfection and not making any stupid mistakes with your working out etc.
Because everyone pretty much knows how to answer the large majority questions hence the difference between a 40 and a 50 is being very careful.

[khalil]

For the sciences/maths subjects.
It's all about perfection and not making any stupid mistakes with your working out etc.
Because everyone pretty much knows how to answer the large majority questions hence the difference between a 40 and a 50 is being very careful.

ohh i was wondering why it was so hard to get 50 in methods...that pretty much explains it

[shonakennedy]

yeah. do subjects you like and will be motivated to do well in. never chose a subject cos your friends are or cos an authority figure expects you to. also, if you feel uneasy about a subject, speak out and ask for help or run for the hills! dont stick with chem just cos its your 7th subject and dont care about it! thats what gets you 25's......

i love english and did well in it. but i did well cos i have a natural flare for it. i wrote minimal practice essays and managed a 43. i was lucky. you and all other 09'ers should try their hardest to understand all course content and what is expected of you. dont sit back and relax just cos you think things are easy. work at it and get better that best.

[chemboy]

... and suck up to your teachers. Make sure they like you.

This may sound stupid, but why?? Is it because they may be biased and give you higher SAC marks?

In some cases yes. Also means they'll be more likely to go that extra mile for you: finding more prac exams, correcting that extra essay, letting you borrow that other textbook etc.

Nah that could counteract against you if they realise you are just using them. Just stay quite in class and LISTEN, you can bludge in maths and science but you have to listen in english because you are communicating ideas.

Oh and since we are talking about ideas, always try to express sophisticated ideas, this doesnt mean your vocab has to be complex, you can still write a simple piece but it has to be in-depth. Like examiners are looking for your thought process, and obviously your grammar and spelling dictates how you express this.

[Eriny]

They say that the key to good writing is clarity, and this is true. However a pretentious vocabulary reaps many rewards.

[maybejustmaybe]

just work solidly throughout the year. sounds obvious, but really, just try and do a couple of hours every night, and make sure to allocate time off! say every friday or saturday night you get a break, and don't do ANY work! even leading up to the exams, don't do too much work on these nights off - maybe reread english texts if you feel like it, or go over notes for your favourite subject, but do NOT work hard! you need a break.

[Athomas]

Unlike me, make sure you try hard in sacs. They do mean something in the end. lolz.

[chemboy]

Dont get into the trap of thinking that you have to do maximum practice exams to get an A+.

The key is to revise all your work first (like the theory and formulas) and do exams and GO OVER THEM to find your mistakes. AND LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES!!!!


My friend who got 50 in chem only did about 5-6 prac exams for each UNIT exam, because he did this.

[Survivor]

For English, work consistantly throughout the year. Unless you have a flare for it, it's not a subject that you can get good at overnight. When you get corrections back, work on your area(s) of weakness until you improve and eventually perfect it. For example, expression was a huge problem for me since forever and I only fixed it during my SWATVAC. You have to be vigilent about your mistakes and make a conscious effort to improve, and it only comes with continual practice. Also it is really important to communicate with your teacher this year. Seek them for help and don't be afraid to ask them to mark extra essays that you've done.

As for Italian, don't write your writing tasks in the same fashion that you would approach an English essay. For LOTEs, it isn't really about complexity. Focus instead on using sophisticated sentence structures, the correct grammar, idioms, tenses and overall accuracy. An examiner would prefer a simple, coherently written piece instead of something overly complex which doesn't sort of show off your knowledge of the structure of the language, if that makes sense at all. Of course, i'm saying all of this based on my experience with French and Chinese, so i'm assuming that Italian would be the same.

[champorado]

If you can, try to get A+'s in your exams. That usually helps.

In all seriousness, never think you're too good. There was a guy at my school who was doing alright in his sacs, I guess, and he kept going on about how accounting and methods, etc were a cakewalk for him in our spares. He ended up with 50 something. On that note, don't just rely on your teachers. Use other texts besides the ones listed by your school. Seriously, if I didn't do physics in year 11, spesh would have been an epic fail. SAC marks =! Exam marks. Just because you're averaging in the 90s in your school SACs doesn't mean you're entitled to the same in exams. Look at past VCAA papers, as well as other trial exams, and accompanying solutions/reports. Get a feel for the structure and type of questions. Doing them helps, too.

That stuff is only sorta useful if you went to a school like mine where SACs are basically spoon fed (at least in the subjects I did). Just trying to say that school standards aren't always the same as VCAA ones.

Do not burn out. I don't actually know how to fix this, but it isn't any fun. It happened to me at the end of first semester. It got to the point where I couldn't do any work at home, not even revise for sacs. Luckily though, I managed to scrounge enough motivation to get through revision period and exams. I think economics is what caused the turnaround. My eco teacher is a really slow marker, so by the time we were up to our third outcome, he hadn't even finished marking our first. When we finally got them back, I didn't get the highest mark (after being on top for a year and a half, only to get beaten by a short asian girl with thick glasses is NOT cool). The possibility of coming second was the kick in the pants I needed, I guess.

Oh, and try to get some good sleep the night before exams. I got around 3 hours for both my english and bm exams, and the last half of both were not fun. I tried to compensate with energy drinks and coffee (for English), but all that happened was me yelling at everyone before it started, and me being dead and repeating the same stuff halfway through.

Anyway, good luck to y'all!

[ReVeL]

English - Know your texts backwards, read/watch them atleast twice before you actually start school next year. Consistently write practise essays throughout the year for all sections of the exam. Get as much feedback as possible from your teachers. Too many essays is never enough. Get a decent SAC ranking, sounds obvious but in a subject like english I found my SAC ranking(A+ unit 3 and A unit 4) really helped me when my results came, as I thought I was going to get like ~30 SS.

Further Maths - Start practice exams as soon as term 3 holidays start. Do them consistently until about a week before the exams. I think I did atleast 25 exams each for further and methods, so if you are organised and print off them all before the holidays that should be an achievable amount if you're just doing further. Also, get checkpoints, do them throughout the year and get used to exam style questions, this is very important. SAC's matter - do as much preparation as possible.


And.. I didn't do any more of the subjects you did so I can't really help. ;/

[orsel]

For the sciences/maths subjects.
It's all about perfection and not making any stupid mistakes with your working out etc.
Because everyone pretty much knows how to answer the large majority questions hence the difference between a 40 and a 50 is being very careful.

+1

Learning the concepts and theory in math/science is relatively easy and most people only go a bit further than this. To achieve high 40s you need much more than that; you need to practice until you are sick of the subject, to the extent where you can be half-asleep and still finish a question perfectly. Its just drill work, nothing special.

To achieve 50 you need to then, somewhat ironically, go 'back to basics' and become familiar enough with the theory that you can apply it laterally, i.e in an unfamiliar context.

[Mao]

For the sciences/maths subjects.
It's all about perfection and not making any stupid mistakes with your working out etc.
Because everyone pretty much knows how to answer the large majority questions hence the difference between a 40 and a 50 is being very careful.

+1

Learning the concepts and theory in math/science is relatively easy and most people only go a bit further than this. To achieve high 40s you need much more than that; you need to practice until you are sick of the subject, to the extent where you can be half-asleep and still finish a question perfectly. Its just drill work, nothing special.

To achieve 50 you need to then, somewhat ironically, go 'back to basics' and become familiar enough with the theory that you can apply it laterally, i.e in an unfamiliar context.

and practice makes perfect.

there are plenty of practice materials around, a few of the more generous members have gone to the trouble of uploading it, it'll be a sin to not use them. =]

[cobby]

For the sciences/maths subjects.
It's all about perfection and not making any stupid mistakes with your working out etc.
Because everyone pretty much knows how to answer the large majority questions hence the difference between a 40 and a 50 is being very careful.

+1

Learning the concepts and theory in math/science is relatively easy and most people only go a bit further than this. To achieve high 40s you need much more than that; you need to practice until you are sick of the subject, to the extent where you can be half-asleep and still finish a question perfectly. Its just drill work, nothing special.

To achieve 50 you need to then, somewhat ironically, go 'back to basics' and become familiar enough with the theory that you can apply it laterally, i.e in an unfamiliar context.

and practice makes perfect.

there are plenty of practice materials around, a few of the more generous members have gone to the trouble of uploading it, it'll be a sin to not use them. =]

but don't become a robot

Rest is essential you dont want to burn out

[xox.happy1.xox]

You also don't want to study too hard on your subjects. It's always good to take up sport or debating () to take your mind off things and to feel relaxed rather than stressed during VCE.