2018ers Chit-Chat Thread (8 Viewers)

[supR]

What's the best way to prepare for an exam?

- Make your notes as you go throughout the year
- Start practice questions early (~4 weeks before the exam)
- memorise notes if a content heavy subject
- Prepare practice answers to English type subjects

At the end of the day, this is what works best for me



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[boredsatan]

- Make your notes as you go throughout the year
- Start practice questions early (~4 weeks before the exam)
- memorise notes if a content heavy subject
- Prepare practice answers to English type subjects

At the end of the day, this is what works best for me



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Is memorising without understanding a good idea?

 

[supR]

Is memorising without understanding a good idea?

Nope ahaha
It is best to actually understand what you are learning. Memorisation is more for specific facts and detail that differentiate your answers from everyone else’s.

For example, in Chemistry -
Understanding why a catalyst reduces energy requirements is necessary for writing about it in a coherent manor.
Memorising that a titanium (III) chloride catalyst reduces temperature needed from 300 to 60 for a a particular reaction is a nice addition to your answer


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[pikachu975]

Is memorising without understanding a good idea?

For certain dot points which it is hard to research further e.g. quantum physics then just rote learn it

 

[highshill]

Is memorising without understanding a good idea?

Try not too you never now they can ask you a question which could only be answered if you understood the theory behind it

 

[jazz519]

Is memorising without understanding a good idea?

For some parts of a course like history based or society based dot points where they ask like what was the impact on society of the Manhattan Project for example, just have to memorise it (can't really understand it)

I think what u are hinting at is like syllabus areas where u can either choose to memorise a fact or understand it. To be fair u can do both (but understanding is probably the way to go since most questions these days in exams try to be extensions of a dot point, as in they make u use the information u memorised as well as some graph or other piece of stimulus u need to link that content to, which if u have a good understanding of the topic will favour u in this scenario).

However, in saying that what I did was understand the topic and then memorise detailed aspects of it (for example I would know how a catalyst would work - lowers the activation energy for a reaction, allowing more reactants to have the required collisional energy to overcome the activation energy barrier. then though in adding the specific memorised details I could talk about the adsorption of gases onto a heterogenous catalyst in detail)

 

[jazz519]

"Usually the sample answers aren't good."
What do you mean?

For the HSC, the answers they give in the marking guidelines are honestly like band 4 answers. It even says on the front page (don't use this as a guide to exemplar responses). For this u are just going to have to go above and beyond in ur research and study to know what to write

 

[pikachu975]

For the HSC, the answers they give in the marking guidelines are honestly like band 4 answers. It even says on the front page (don't use this as a guide to exemplar responses). For this u are just going to have to go above and beyond in ur research and study to know what to write

Yeah or buy success one books as their answers are pretty detailed

 

[spaghettii]

Woot woot finally got my report back Went fairly well, though I'm definitely gonna try to do even better in Yr12

Also finally thought of a pip topic, though I have no clue what to do for my BOW. Definitely want to do painting but idk what to do it on and my proposal is due next week fml

 

[pikachu975]

Woot woot finally got my report back Went fairly well, though I'm definitely gonna try to do even better in Yr12

Also finally thought of a pip topic, though I have no clue what to do for my BOW. Definitely want to do painting but idk what to do it on and my proposal is due next week fml

Yeah reflect on what you did in year 11 and change it for year 12. E.g. what you did well, what you didn't, and how you could improve are some good questions for a reflection.

 

[boredsatan]

Is reading through the solutions of practise exams over and over again an effective way to revise for exams?

Any ideas if this is a good study method?

 

[pikachu975]

Any ideas if this is a good study method?

It's only good for the rote learning dot points, e.g. impact on society. Or you could use it for if you are unsure what you would include for certain dot points.

A good method may include:
- Reading your notes a few times while reciting after each dot point the main information.
- Before answering a question in a past paper think about the mark allocation and write a plan if 4+ marks.
- Answer the question after analysing key words and verbs.
- Checking marking criteria or get your tutor/friends to mark your work and check what you missed.

 

[jazz519]

Woot woot finally got my report back Went fairly well, though I'm definitely gonna try to do even better in Yr12

Also finally thought of a pip topic, though I have no clue what to do for my BOW. Definitely want to do painting but idk what to do it on and my proposal is due next week fml

Congrats Yep the way to go is up Personally for my journey through school just to give people some perspective of how much its possible to improve.

From year 7-8: was like above average I would say good in science and math (like top 15/160), average at English, rest not in the HSC but around average to above average.

From 9-10: This is where I started to pick up got like a few top 3s and some effort and teamwork awards

Year 11: Finished off with 16th rank accelerated 2 unit math (I got a 99 exam mark so improved heaps from my school assessment in the HSC), Business studies 1st, Chemistry 1st, Physics (went from like 5th half yearly to 2nd overall at the end), English (legit failed the first assessment almost with an 8/15, improved later on and finished like 6th/40 but still didnt really understand English properly)

Year 12: Term 4 - 1st chemistry, 1st physics, 2nd business (was sick asf for this exam), English 2nd, Maths (N/A no weighted assessment term 4), 3 unit (8/18)

Term 1: 1st chemistry, 1st physics, 4th business (lol fucked up), English 2nd (came first in the assessment but lead of the first still kept him there), 3 unit (8/18), maths 2 unit 2nd

Term 2: 1st chemistry, 1st physics, 10th business (lol I was actually 1st but they screwed up my mark by entering the wrong thing in the system so I leegit through for 5 weeks since they didn't give the papers back yet that I screwed up my ATAR), English 1st (overtook him after the first trial), 3 unit (7/18), maths 2 unit 2nd

Term 3: 1st chemistry, 1st physics, 1st business (they fixed it finally), English 1st, 3/18 3 unit, maths 2 unit 1st

In term 3 I made massive leads in Chemistry, physics, English and business like 40-50 marks worth if we were to do another 10% assessment (which for the English and business didn't really look possible if you look at my term 2 and before ranks).

3 unit massive improvement and 2 unit overtook 1st (we were like 1 mark apart the whole year)

So as you can see its always possible to improve and don't let results of the first term knock you down and stop you from trying later on

 

[highshill]

Woot woot finally got my report back Went fairly well, though I'm definitely gonna try to do even better in Yr12

Also finally thought of a pip topic, though I have no clue what to do for my BOW. Definitely want to do painting but idk what to do it on and my proposal is due next week fml

Good luck for your hsc , and for your BOW this is a good link maybe you can gain inspiration from this hopefully,
http://community.boredofstudies.org/37/visual-arts/188939/hsc-visual-arts-bow.html

 

[kendallkreene]

Hey guys! How are you all going with your notes?

 

[supR]

Hey guys! How are you all going with your notes?

Yeah going pretty good, all up to date except 4U maths --> Need to buy an exercise book so I can write my notes in it

Nice ATAR aim of 98.50, what are you looking to use that for?

 

[kendallkreene]

Yeah going pretty good, all up to date except 4U maths --> Need to buy an exercise book so I can write my notes in it

Nice ATAR aim of 98.50, what are you looking to use that for?

I want to either major in English or do a combined degree of Law/Business.

 

[pikachu975]

What do all the 2018ers want to do in uni?

 

[cthulu]

Hey whats up guys, a fellow 2018er here.

Also I'm looking for maybe Advanced Computing + Advanced Maths in uni. I know big goal, but I will try my best nonetheless.

 

[Frostguard]

Psychology!!! Not really sure why UNSW's guaranteed ATAR is 99 and USYD at 96, but I'll still aim for it!! Good Luck everyone else!!