tomnomnom696
HSC Goddess
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2013
- Messages
- 85
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2014
Hi BoS,
I was browsing around and noticed a lot of threads regarding how people should study for chemistry and I'm here to offer my 2 cents about how this should be achieved. Now I am no self-proclaimed master of chemistry but this is what worked best for me (96 in chemistry)
Textbooks
First and of utmost importance are textbooks; chemistry is one of the most content heavy subjects. I see many people in the HSC neglect arguably THE most important tool there is out there. The textbook literally contains all the information you need to succeed. The textbook was my best friend in the HSC. I was literally going through it everyday to refine MY OWN notes, picking up stuff that i might have missed or any other (even somewhat superfluous) information to make my responses more holistic. The only thing it cannot teach you is exam technique which I will get to in a second. I hear numerous accounts of "where did you get those notes", "can I buy your notes" and it hurts me inside every time. Sure, other people's notes are good resources having cut most of the bullshit out of them. But the bullshit they cut out is what they've got a good understanding of already. Everyone has different preliminary understanding before they've made their notes. Moreover, the way they've written their notes is unique to them. It will be most effective for them and also the most memorable. My advice to you is to read the textbook thoroughly at least once or twice to get a holistic understanding of the syllabus and also to make your own notes out of this. This way it'll be much easier to link different concepts in the syllabus so you can tackle those band 6 questions and show you're ahead of the game. (BTW i used conquering chem and chem contexts)
Practice/Trial Papers
Once again another negative about using others' notes. Some people walk into the exam having read "that dude who's coming first"'s notes and feeling like a master of chemistry. Yet they come back with a hefty 50% slapped in their face (I'm exaggerating of course). Now comes the bit where they claim they studied so hard yet failed and how HSC is so unfair. This is true to some extent but the thing they don't realise is how important both study technique and exam technique are. Studying hard is one thing whilst studying smart is another. Pair the two up and I can guarantee you'll achieve band 6. In order to study smart you need to study in a way that fits the upcoming exam. Most of these exams will be written exams which require responses tailored to individual questions rather than just brain dumping a load of information. Doing practice papers and trial papers will allow you to put yourself in an exam scenario so you can attempt to critically analyse what the question is asking for (don't be afraid to use dot points and tables if this is how you can work better; they often score better marks!). But don't stop there, marking each paper you do is the crux of mastering exam technique. Read their sample solutions and see how they moulded the different parts of the syllabus into one cohesive response that answers the whole question (students frequently leave small parts of the question out). Also read the marking guidelines to see what they were looking for and any unnecessary information in your response. Why must you do this? I'm almost certain that everyone going into the exam has a very good understanding of what's going on in chemistry. If it were a matter of brain dumping half the state would achieve band 6. So in order for BoS to test your comprehensiveness and exam technique (expressing what you know holistically) to separate the different bands. My advice is to do as many practice papers as you can, mark all of them in red pen and write out how and what you can improve in the response. Then go through all of the questions before the exam and make a word document containing all your errors/fixes for you to read just before the exam. If you need more exams go onto Spiral's HSC resources
Bouncing back
One last piece of advice. Don't get complacent after a good exam result and don't let one result weigh you down. I was a victim of complacency in my HSC tenure so please don't let this be yourself. If you did well, good on you, now keep up the good work and don't let others overtake you because now you're in the position where they want your rank more than you. If you didn't do so well, head up, there's always next time. I know you must have heard this a lot but nowhere is this more applicable than the HSC itself. Out of the minimum of 5 exams the last one (external) is worth 50% so don't despair if you don't do as well as expected in a single exam. Use it as motivation to study harder and better for the next exam to overtake those people above you. A friend of mine went horribly in the first assessment (albeit not this subject) and eventually went on to claim first in the grade and thereon first in state.
That's all I got atm just off the top of my head. I'll keep you guys updated with anything that comes up. Also watch out for my phys guide which I will be posting SOON.
Hope this helped all you aspiring chemists
Don't hesitate to comment or PM for any other questions regarding study techniques.
All the best!
I was browsing around and noticed a lot of threads regarding how people should study for chemistry and I'm here to offer my 2 cents about how this should be achieved. Now I am no self-proclaimed master of chemistry but this is what worked best for me (96 in chemistry)
Textbooks
First and of utmost importance are textbooks; chemistry is one of the most content heavy subjects. I see many people in the HSC neglect arguably THE most important tool there is out there. The textbook literally contains all the information you need to succeed. The textbook was my best friend in the HSC. I was literally going through it everyday to refine MY OWN notes, picking up stuff that i might have missed or any other (even somewhat superfluous) information to make my responses more holistic. The only thing it cannot teach you is exam technique which I will get to in a second. I hear numerous accounts of "where did you get those notes", "can I buy your notes" and it hurts me inside every time. Sure, other people's notes are good resources having cut most of the bullshit out of them. But the bullshit they cut out is what they've got a good understanding of already. Everyone has different preliminary understanding before they've made their notes. Moreover, the way they've written their notes is unique to them. It will be most effective for them and also the most memorable. My advice to you is to read the textbook thoroughly at least once or twice to get a holistic understanding of the syllabus and also to make your own notes out of this. This way it'll be much easier to link different concepts in the syllabus so you can tackle those band 6 questions and show you're ahead of the game. (BTW i used conquering chem and chem contexts)
Practice/Trial Papers
Once again another negative about using others' notes. Some people walk into the exam having read "that dude who's coming first"'s notes and feeling like a master of chemistry. Yet they come back with a hefty 50% slapped in their face (I'm exaggerating of course). Now comes the bit where they claim they studied so hard yet failed and how HSC is so unfair. This is true to some extent but the thing they don't realise is how important both study technique and exam technique are. Studying hard is one thing whilst studying smart is another. Pair the two up and I can guarantee you'll achieve band 6. In order to study smart you need to study in a way that fits the upcoming exam. Most of these exams will be written exams which require responses tailored to individual questions rather than just brain dumping a load of information. Doing practice papers and trial papers will allow you to put yourself in an exam scenario so you can attempt to critically analyse what the question is asking for (don't be afraid to use dot points and tables if this is how you can work better; they often score better marks!). But don't stop there, marking each paper you do is the crux of mastering exam technique. Read their sample solutions and see how they moulded the different parts of the syllabus into one cohesive response that answers the whole question (students frequently leave small parts of the question out). Also read the marking guidelines to see what they were looking for and any unnecessary information in your response. Why must you do this? I'm almost certain that everyone going into the exam has a very good understanding of what's going on in chemistry. If it were a matter of brain dumping half the state would achieve band 6. So in order for BoS to test your comprehensiveness and exam technique (expressing what you know holistically) to separate the different bands. My advice is to do as many practice papers as you can, mark all of them in red pen and write out how and what you can improve in the response. Then go through all of the questions before the exam and make a word document containing all your errors/fixes for you to read just before the exam. If you need more exams go onto Spiral's HSC resources
Bouncing back
One last piece of advice. Don't get complacent after a good exam result and don't let one result weigh you down. I was a victim of complacency in my HSC tenure so please don't let this be yourself. If you did well, good on you, now keep up the good work and don't let others overtake you because now you're in the position where they want your rank more than you. If you didn't do so well, head up, there's always next time. I know you must have heard this a lot but nowhere is this more applicable than the HSC itself. Out of the minimum of 5 exams the last one (external) is worth 50% so don't despair if you don't do as well as expected in a single exam. Use it as motivation to study harder and better for the next exam to overtake those people above you. A friend of mine went horribly in the first assessment (albeit not this subject) and eventually went on to claim first in the grade and thereon first in state.
That's all I got atm just off the top of my head. I'll keep you guys updated with anything that comes up. Also watch out for my phys guide which I will be posting SOON.
Hope this helped all you aspiring chemists
Don't hesitate to comment or PM for any other questions regarding study techniques.All the best!
