• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

How to get a 99.95 + State Rankings (3 Viewers)

qawe

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2011
Messages
271
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
I'm speaking as an executive member of the Combined Medicine Association at the University of Sydney.

1. The fire that you have burning inside you right now - keep it alive until the very last day, and you'll get it. You're definitely on the right track. Acing maths, phys and chem is straightforward with the right help. Make sure you get a high achiever to check your answers.
2. There is no mention of English in your post, which is alarming. It's the most important subject.
3. Most important of all, get involved with leadership activities, such as the prefect/SRC board. You need excellent communication skills if you're to be a successful member of COMA, and also in life.

Good luck!
What's COMA?
If you do Combined Medicine at USyd are you automatically part of COMA? If so, why would it need better communication skills than any other uni course?

it's really hard to find a good english tutor unless someone recommends u to one
What exactly do you mean? Why is this the case?
 

Kieran95

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2012
Messages
199
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
English is my weakest LOL
How do I improve that? I'm trying to buy essays from people on BoS but they are really expensive... Do you think I should get a tutor for English, otherwise how do I improve English?
I have a really good study plan for maths and science though.
I would've thought buying essays from past students on BOS would be far cheaper than getting a tutor, both would work well though.
 

iSplicer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
1,809
Location
Strathfield
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Uni Grad
2017
What's COMA?
If you do Combined Medicine at USyd are you automatically part of COMA? If so, why would it need better communication skills than any other uni course?
1. The COmbined Medicince Association.
2. Yes.
3. Because you're entering a profession where interpersonal skill is of insurmountable importance.
 

iSplicer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
1,809
Location
Strathfield
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Uni Grad
2017
What's COMA?
If you do Combined Medicine at USyd are you automatically part of COMA? If so, why would it need better communication skills than any other uni course?



What exactly do you mean? Why is this the case?
Because English, by FAR, requires the most experience, teaching skill and knowledge to help the student get the best marks.
 

Sy123

This too shall pass
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,730
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Please do not even try 500 past papers for each subject, thats like 2500 papers minimum in 365 days, so you will be looking at about 8 papers per day, all of which are 2 hours +, so at an extreme minimum of 16 hours a day for only past papers, add in 6 hours of school, and you will have 2 hours for sleep and eating.

Good luck
 

studyhappy

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
47
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
back to the point about english, the best thing to do is read all your texts (since you're pre-studying, start now!!) start writing the basis of your essays (which should be focus points e.g. characters, themes, issues) and attempt to answer general past paper questions. get a tutor - the best is a current teacher at a school or university - to mark your essays again and again until they are 20/20 standard. Once you get into year 12 these essays should be perfected and adaptable to questions!
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Messages
37
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
I'm speaking as an executive member of the Combined Medicine Association at the University of Sydney.

1. The fire that you have burning inside you right now - keep it alive until the very last day, and you'll get it. You're definitely on the right track. Acing maths, phys and chem is straightforward with the right help. Make sure you get a high achiever to check your answers.
2. There is no mention of English in your post, which is alarming. It's the most important subject.
3. Most important of all, get involved with leadership activities, such as the prefect/SRC board. You need excellent communication skills if you're to be a successful member of COMA, and also in life.

Good luck!
Thank you so much for the advice iSplicer! Judging by the fact that you got a 99.95 ATAR and you are doing Medicine at USyd, what you say is the truth.
For the first point, yes, I can't slow down at this point thinking I'm ahead, I need to keep working consistently all year and understand the rules of the game, i.e. scaling, exam techniques, school ranks, the effect of English etc...
It takes discipline and hard work to reach to the top of anything and the HSC is no exception. A student aiming for the top marks has to be consistent and work as hard as possible to gain an advantage over everyone else since the ATAR is just your ranks compared to everyone else doing the HSC.
Chemistry, Physics, MX1 and MX2 are easy to study for since you know exactly what to do, so at the moment my only problem is English.
I'll look into English tutoring and pay more attention to English. What do you think is a good way to study English?
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Messages
37
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Please do not even try 500 past papers for each subject, thats like 2500 papers minimum in 365 days, so you will be looking at about 8 papers per day, all of which are 2 hours +, so at an extreme minimum of 16 hours a day for only past papers, add in 6 hours of school, and you will have 2 hours for sleep and eating.

Good luck
Then, I think 100 for chem, 100 for phys, 200 for MX1 and 400 for MX2 is the way to go.
This means 800 papers over a year, i.e. about 2.2 papers per day.
Do I need to do English past papers?
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Messages
37
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
back to the point about english, the best thing to do is read all your texts (since you're pre-studying, start now!!) start writing the basis of your essays (which should be focus points e.g. characters, themes, issues) and attempt to answer general past paper questions. get a tutor - the best is a current teacher at a school or university - to mark your essays again and again until they are 20/20 standard. Once you get into year 12 these essays should be perfected and adaptable to questions!
I heard about this from ex-HSC students who did very well in English in the past. Do you think a 1on1 tutor would help? Is it worth paying about $40 per hour?
 

Sy123

This too shall pass
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,730
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
If you are really hardcore about this, Im going to say
MX2: 200
MX1: 150
Physics: 50
Chemistry: 50
English: 100

For MX2 and MX1, practise is vital therefore you will need to do more past papers for this, do them regularly.
For Sciences, knowledge is more needed than practise really, the more past papers you do the more repeated questions you get, science long answers are always difficult to perfect, so you will want to spend most of your time on science perfecting your knowledge with extreme rote and consistent note taking, do past papers occasionally in between
For English, doing 100 papers is exposing yourself to 100 different types of questions and stimulus (again things can be repeated), do 50 module ones and 50 Area of Studies. Study your texts as deeply as though its university level, make points for a whole variety of things, people will tell you to rote and write your essays, I am generally against it, but whatever works for you I guess. (I would know my texts insanely well know techniques and stuff, then go into the exam and write what you know)

This is what I would do if I had the self-discipline and perseverance to be able to do this many papers.
 

Sindivyn

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2012
Messages
194
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
100 for chem/phys is too much. 200 for MX1 is too much. 400 for MX2 is too much. That being said, I do like the ratio (1:1:2:4). Don't forget about english though
 

hayabusaboston

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Messages
2,387
Location
Calabi Yau Manifold
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Dude, holy fucking mother of christ lol. R u gonna do past papers through entire yr 12? LOL! entirely no point. Im in the exact same psychological position as you (wanting 99.95 doing shitloads of work for it forgetting about english haha) but im not going to go thru 1000 fucking papers hahaha. Absolutely no point. Well, I take that back. This amount of work is ONLY necessary if you have an average IQ (85-115), because your brain will need a LOT more practice with things to get good. However, based on the things ive read here im going to assume you have a higher IQ than that (I would guess 130+), so you do NOT need to work as much as a lower IQ person would. You can RELAX a bit, because you will learn things faster and retain information for longer than others. Do not stress urself out m8. Seriously. Though I like ur drive, its a great quality which not many people have :p

The reason it doesnt make sense to JUST do past papers is because, past papers dont cover EVERYTHING in the course. You need to alternate every few weeks with past papers and rewriting syllabus notes to make sure you are regularly reminding yourself of the WHOLE course, not just the random tidbits in past papers.
 

jenslekman

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
290
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
1. The COmbined Medicince Association.
2. Yes.
3. Because you're entering a profession where interpersonal skill is of insurmountable importance.
curious, but what are some professions where interpersonal skill is not important? :O
 

hayabusaboston

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Messages
2,387
Location
Calabi Yau Manifold
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
curious, but what are some professions where interpersonal skill is not important? :O
All solitary sciences LOL theoretical physics (Big bang theory prime example of what happens). Basically if ur socially retarded, become a scientist haha. THOUGH I MIGHT BE SLIGHTLY SOCIALLY RETARDED im in training peeps.
 

RealiseNothing

what is that?It is Cowpea
Joined
Jul 10, 2011
Messages
4,591
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
All solitary sciences LOL theoretical physics (Big bang theory prime example of what happens). Basically if ur socially retarded, become a scientist haha. THOUGH I MIGHT BE SLIGHTLY SOCIALLY RETARDED im in training peeps.
Slighty? lol
 

enoilgam

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 11, 2011
Messages
11,906
Location
Mare Crisium
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2010
If you are really hardcore about this, Im going to say
MX2: 200
MX1: 150
Physics: 50
Chemistry: 50
English: 100

For MX2 and MX1, practise is vital therefore you will need to do more past papers for this, do them regularly.
For Sciences, knowledge is more needed than practise really, the more past papers you do the more repeated questions you get, science long answers are always difficult to perfect, so you will want to spend most of your time on science perfecting your knowledge with extreme rote and consistent note taking, do past papers occasionally in between
For English, doing 100 papers is exposing yourself to 100 different types of questions and stimulus (again things can be repeated), do 50 module ones and 50 Area of Studies. Study your texts as deeply as though its university level, make points for a whole variety of things, people will tell you to rote and write your essays, I am generally against it, but whatever works for you I guess. (I would know my texts insanely well know techniques and stuff, then go into the exam and write what you know)

This is what I would do if I had the self-discipline and perseverance to be able to do this many papers.
Thats still 550 past papers though - I mean, thats like an average of more than 1 a day. Also, how would you be able to find that many past papers (maths possible, but the sciences and especially english). To be honest, I really dont know if this whole thread is serious.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 3)

Top