To get decent results....

[dior1]

I haven't been the smartest or most dedicated student the previous years, but this year I really want to try and turn that around and succeed in Yr 12. And procrastination is a huge issue im going to have to try and overcome this year  (i think i need to disconnect the internet haa)

An aim of mine for the year is to achieve over 30 raw in each subject (may seem easy for some of you... sssh!) However this is only a minimum, but I doubt I'd be getting 45s! I'm actually doubting my ability to get over 30 in English and Italian :S

So... I would like to know how much work (outside of class) should I be doing to give me reasonable results? I'm not after unrealistic figures like 5hrs per subject per night, but a more realistical workload that you would reccommend for achieving results. And I know it isn't just the homework you do that makes you get good results, it's based on your understanding of the topics..

tia

[bridgethuss]

i did like 2 hrs a night max.
i guess thats not too much, and i got a decent mark, not amazing, but decent.
i also recommend going to lectures, they helped me a lot!

[dior1]

2hrs a night other than homework? So basically just study/revision?
And is that 2hrs per subject each night?

[polky]

It really depends on what subjects you do and your learning efficiency/capabilities etc.

For English, try to do a language analysis a fortnight once you finish learning about it, since it's usually the first topic that they cover in English and your skills would probably get rusty by the time the exams roll around.

I reckon if you can devote 0.5 - 1 hour to each subject a night consistently throughout the year you would be set for the exams!

Personally I was a great procrastinator, totally ignoring English and History in lieu of Spec and Chem (thought they were more fun, and doing a few math questions is easier than writing out a whole essay) for the bulk of the year.  Only stepped up my English efforts ~3 weeks before the exam.  Crammed before any history SACs and the exam as well.  Which is why I emphasise light but consistent amounts of work throughout the year, I really think it made the difference to my Chem and Spec scores. (was a failure at both in year 11)

[bridgethuss]

oh no not per subject, haha i wasnt that keen. i would usually take home 2-3 subjects a night, guess it depended on upcoming sacs etc
so what subjects are you doing?

[dior1]

ahh i see, that's fair enough then.
i'm doing:
-english
-further maths
- psychology
- Italian
- vet it

personally, i'd be quite happy if i got the ENTER that you got. That would have me over the moon ha
Glad to see another high english score, most of the yr 12s from my school last year got under 30, only about 5 got over.

[bridgethuss]

oh good i was hoping you would say psych! i loved psych, that was a subject i always wanted to take home, i would always do the learning activites and be ahead in class.
its good to make posters/mindmaps for psych and stick them up in your room or in the toilet or on the fridge, and doing a million practise exams will help a lot.
for english, i tried not to write a billion essays as revision for sacs/exam. i found it more effective to write up plans, just a brief attack towards the topic, that way i could remember certain aspects of the text/s easier. and like polky said, do a fair bit of language analysis!!!

[dior1]

2 hours a night sounds achievable

[vce01]

Depends how good you are @ studying really, some ppl blitz through vce with a minimal amount of work and some work super hard and still don't really achieve a crash hot score. It's upto you to work out how much time you need IMO. Just a word on Further Maths tho - you can get 30+ for this without even trying much really, cramming for the exams a couple of weeks or so before even will do. up until that, just keep up to date with the course. if you're looking for anything b/w 40 and 50 tho you're gonna have to practise a helluva lot of questions as you never know what dodgy ques you may come across.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

For more difficult subjects, like Italian (or any lote) you would need study every day. I'm not sure about VET IT (or how VET subjects work) but I did IT Applications and cramming near exam period got me above 40 easy. Probably Definitely don't do that for other subjects though. Study should always be done in a reasonable load throughout the year. I think a goal of 3-4 hours a day of study (all subjects) is realistic.

[ursus]

I did about 3-4 hours per night altogether, and about an hour to an hour and a half a day during free periods, but I'm a bit of a freak. But a lot of that was actual homework, not just straight study (LOTE & international studies took up a lot of time).
Doing that much per night meant that I didn't have to do any study/homework, but for normal people it's probably better to spread the workload more evenly over the whole week, not just the school week.

[AQ]

dude, just try your best.
If you try your best and you known you've done everything in your hands and still get the result you arn't happy about, theres nothing to feel bad about.
It wasnt meant to be. Not everyone has a capability of 99.95.
Its just the way the world roles. If we didnt hard working people in the world, who would collect the rubbish or be a labourer(for eg)
good luck

[Eriny]

It's good that you know what you need to work on. Do all the homework set and study for SACs. After that, if you put in a few extra hours of study each week, you'll be doing very nicely.

[Ahmad]

I think any specific answer to your question would be too general to be useful.

One aspect of year 12 is learning about yourself - knowing how much work you need to do to understand the relevant theory and be able to perform in tests and exams. No one can answer this for you but you yourself. There are some people who do very little work and do astoundingly well, and others who study for many hours and don't do so well. Some people have better memory, work more efficiently, understand faster and in greater depth than others. However I assure you that if you put in a solid amount of effort while continually tweaking the way you learn so that you improve the efficiency of your learning methods will you will have at least partial success in VCE, and if you continue, greater success in your future studies.

[khalil]

oh good i was hoping you would say psych! i loved psych, that was a subject i always wanted to take home, i would always do the learning activites and be ahead in class.
its good to make posters/mindmaps for psych and stick them up in your room or in the toilet or on the fridge, and doing a million practise exams will help a lot.
for english, i tried not to write a billion essays as revision for sacs/exam. i found it more effective to write up plans, just a brief attack towards the topic, that way i could remember certain aspects of the text/s easier. and like polky said, do a fair bit of language analysis!!!

Definitely DO NOT plan ahead. Don't think that you will do HEAPS of practice exams. ALWAYS set a minimum. On offer, I had say 20 exams for psychology but ended up doing 5 of them. This made me nervous because there were so many questions that I didnt do. In effect, this detrimented my performance on the exam.

My recommendation is to always set a mimimum and NEVER a maximum. For eg. thinking you're going to do 7 exams for chemistry and end up doing 15, makes you more confident. This confidence follows you to the exam room.

That's how I'm going to change. Not everyone's the same.