Has anyone started their prelims yet? (1 Viewer)

[carrotsss]

that was literally me this morning. Thankfully I had my physics prelims today, and honestly wasnt too bad. Just wish I had a bit more time, cause all the multiple choice question required more than a couple of lines of working out, and only 2 of them were general knowledge, e.g. which is the scalar.

Mmm I’ve always found physics multiple choice much harder than other subjects, in other subjects usually you can get through the multiple choice in just a couple minutes

 

[tessa05]

Hoping mine are objectively easy too, but at the same time I'd honestly be miffed if they weren't (at least for Maths). Kicking off with English on Monday, apparently the essay question is super specific and there's a chance it may not be related to the ideas we were studying for our texts (which is what they did last year with Macbeth ...)

Im starting with English too. I don't really know how to study for it though

 

[tessa05]

I start this Monday, honestly same for Math here! Good luck

Hye just wondering what were some of the hardest questions you found in the test

 

[carrotsss]

Im starting with English too. I don't really know how to study for it though

If you don't have quotes and ideas memorised then I guess that's a good start, pretty much all I did was remember a vague adaptable essay structure and quotes for it- I'm sure I could've done more study but I really couldn't be bothered lol.

 

[Masaken]

Im starting with English too. I don't really know how to study for it though

Throughout the term I made notes on the texts studied (a collection of poems), and compiled them all onto a single doc with techniques and some basic analysis.

When I study English I make basic essay scaffolds -- look at all the common ideas of the texts, then make a really basic, general essay question that answers the theme then write out my thesis + dot points on the ideas in three texts, then three quotes for each text (but mine were poems though so I mostly just memorised the entirety of the poems). Then, if you can, a few practice essays under timed conditions. I don't have a tutor so I get mine peer marked by people who are good at English.

I know some people memorise their essays but I didn't do that this time around

 

[Masaken]

I'm sure I could've done more study but I really couldn't be bothered lol.

Honestly that's how my cohort is half-arsing this prelim year because it doesn't count and they hate english it's my favourite subject so i feel like i'm only doing all this work because i enjoy doing it

 

[carrotsss]

.

 

[Masaken]

Tbh I feel like I'm the only one trying for literally every subject, joys of going to a ~400 ranked school I guess...

the distribution of people trying for whatever subject is so scuffed because even though we started revising for exams ages ago everyone has just been studying for maths extension i have studied for all my other subjects but the amount of time I spend on english+maths+chem is way higher than the others

 

[carrotsss]

the distribution of people trying for whatever subject is so scuffed because even though we started revising for exams ages ago everyone has just been studying for maths extension i have studied for all my other subjects but the amount of time I spend on english+maths+chem is way higher than the others

Yeah same, I feel like everyone always focuses on maths and English and neglects the rest, although I’m kinda guilty of this myself haha… but partially because I can barely find any physics/chem past papers! I’ve been nonstop begging my teachers for more because I’ve finished all the ones on thsc and at this point my teachers have run out too, it’s so annoying how few papers there are for the new syllabus for physics/chem prelim

 

[Masaken]

Yeah same, I feel like everyone always focuses on maths and English and neglects the rest, although I’m kinda guilty of this myself haha… but partially because I can barely find any physics/chem past papers! I’ve been nonstop begging my teachers for more because I’ve finished all the ones on thsc and at this point my teachers have run out too, it’s so annoying how few papers there are for the new syllabus for physics/chem prelim

omg can relate sm for chemistry (and for biology too, i had to ask my teacher for 2019/2020 papers and the 2020 ones don't even have solutions ), and even so there's only so much i can do with the 2-3 years' worth of past papers from your own school </3

 

[watercoloureyes]

Im starting with English too. I don't really know how to study for it though

Honestly i highly recommend sticking to a strong essay structure and writing practice essays under exam conditions. Artofsmart has a lot of really good resources for English exams, i usually did a random number generator, picked a question and just wrote an essay on that to get a feel for how fast i should be writing and also helping me flesh out ideas for possible questions that may pop up in the exam.

One of most important things to remember imo are your quotes, their techniques and how to analyse them. It’s also really important for the comprehension section to not only understand techniques, but recognise them. You should expose yourself to recognising literary and visual techniques (can be recreational; novels, articles, short stories, scripts, literally whatever)

But in general, don’t overload yourself with content. Its better to stick with concrete ideas you’ll know you’ll smash rather than surface knowledge on several ideas. Good luck

 

[carrotsss]

omg can relate sm for chemistry (and for biology too, i had to ask my teacher for 2019/2020 papers and the 2020 ones don't even have solutions ), and even so there's only so much i can do with the 2-3 years' worth of past papers from your own school </3

I feel like maths is the only subject with a decent amount of new syllabus prelim papers

 

[dsakvyilsa]

Had my english advanced paper today! Went pretty alright I reckon, very draining though.

 

[carrotsss]

Had my english advanced paper today! Went pretty alright I reckon, very draining though.

That’s good! Yeah agreed, I can only imagine how draining it gets in the real hsc

 

[watercoloureyes]

Had my english advanced paper today! Went pretty alright I reckon, very draining though.

Nice job on completing it! I have one more exam and im finished with mine. Hope the rest of your prelims go well

 

[Masaken]

Had my english advanced paper today! Went pretty alright I reckon, very draining though.

Same! I had a reading task and an essay, felt like I wasn't going to finish, I put my pen down one minute before the exam ended and ended up just checking to see if I answered everything MX1 next Wednesday, feeling a bit more prepared for that

 

[fx82au]

for my eng advanced prelim i had 4 unseen texts, with 4 short response ranging between 3-5 marks, and a comparison worth 6 marks. I then had a long response on Othello worth 20 marks, and let me tell you i didnt have a minute where i could rest my hand. I had like 30 seconds at the end of the 1hr40min test where i quickly went over my short response to correct grammar and spelling.

i honestly fee like i did pretty bad, but from what ive heard from my peers, i think everyone collectively did bad.

ive got my mx1 test tomorrow, and feeling alright, im just terrified that there will be some trig questions where ill be stuck simplifying and 'un-simplifying'

 

[carrotsss]

im just terrified that there will be some trig questions where ill be stuck simplifying and 'un-simplifying'

Ugh same, I feel like ever past paper I do I end up with just one where I just can’t crack it and spend ages simplifying and un-simplifying, and then that ruins my confidence and I end up messing up other questions… other than them and some polynomial stuff I’m pretty confident though. I feel I over prepared a bit for prelims, I’ve done literally 13x the maths ext past papers that rank #2 has done haha

 

[fx82au]

literally 13x the maths ext past papers that rank #2

yeah same. are you doing them under timed conditions, or just picking questions that you know you need practice in. Since ive got my mx1 exam tomorrow, ive just been going over trig func questions that i find in past papers. But like 3 ish weeks ago i was doing them under timed conditions

 

[Masaken]

for my eng advanced prelim i had 4 unseen texts, with 4 short response ranging between 3-5 marks, and a comparison worth 6 marks. I then had a long response on Othello worth 20 marks, and let me tell you i didnt have a minute where i could rest my hand. I had like 30 seconds at the end of the 1hr40min test where i quickly went over my short response to correct grammar and spelling.

reading task was the same as yours, except we did othello for module a; did a collection of poems for mod b essay, i was honestly hoping for a good mark but i'm kinda worried, thinking about the essay i wrote and wondering if it even answered the question ;-;