How many past papers do you need to do? (1 Viewer)

[ragingcurry]

I asked this guy, who recently finished HSC chemistry accelerated, how many past papers he did throughout the year. His answer was approximately 10.

To me that seems like nothing so I was just wondering how many past papers do you really need to do if you want to ace the HSC.

But the thing is he got around 94 for his hsc (final mark)

 

[eyeseeyou]

I think you need to do every single past paper possible. Also try to do textbooks Q's as well as this exposes you to a wide range of Q's

 

[BandSixFix]

I asked this guy, who recently finished HSC chemistry accelerated, how many past papers he did throughout the year. His answer was approximately 10.

To me that seems like nothing so I was just wondering how many past papers do you really need to do if you want to ace the HSC.

But the thing is he got around 94 for his hsc (final mark)

People sometimes just do past papers to consolidate information - he probably was strong at the subject and only had to do a few.

 

[hawkrider]

Tbh, it's not about the quantity of past papers you do but the quality. Heaps of unconfident students bash out a large number of HSC papers, in the hope that more HSC papers --> more marks, but fail to rectify their mistakes in the process so it doesn't achieve anything. Therefore, the more diverse and better quality questions you do build confidence. Not the amount.

 

[T-R-O-L-O-L]

^great response

 

[eyeseeyou]

You need to have a good exam technique, that's what's important rather than how hard the paper is as Hawkrider has said

 

[Nailgun]

Tbh, it's not about the quantity of past papers you do but the quality. Heaps of unconfident students bash out a large number of HSC papers, in the hope that more HSC papers --> more marks, but fail to rectify their mistakes in the process so it doesn't achieve anything. Therefore, the more diverse and better quality questions you do build confidence. Not the amount.

yeah i agree with this
no point in doing past papers if you aren't actually learning from them lol
that being said, assuming you are making sure that you are learning/profiting from mistakes you still need to do lots of past papers to get that diversity of questions

theoretically if you do enough (and do it properly) you will know how to do like 90% of questions without having to actually really think about them lel

 

[aoc]

for Chemistry i have one of those HSC books with the questions and answers so whilst i was studying a topic if i had a good understanding of the content i would go through the HSC questions then check the marking criteria and sample responses to make sure i did everything correct. Once i did this (ie my knowledge for the topic was pretty much complete) i would do all the past papers from my school then perhaps 5 from 3 other high ranking selective schools.

 

[porcupinetree]

I think you need to do every single past paper possible. Also try to do textbooks Q's as well as this exposes you to a wide range of Q's

lol you realise there's literally hundreds out there?

Anyway, as mentioned, it's more about how you learn from each past paper, rather than just how many you do. But, don't be fooled - the more past papers you do, the better. The amount that you do certainly does matter, as long as you complete/mark/learn from them in the correct fashion.

 

[helloimyellow]

I did about 30 before the HSC, but its more important that you're actually learning from your papers and improving exam technique and understanding of the content.

 

[leehuan]

Literally what hawkrider said.

I also did about 10 papers in preparation for the real exam (probably about 3-4 for the trials). All I needed

 

[ragingcurry]

Thank you all

 

[someth1ng]

10 is fine - but you really only want to write full responses for 2-3 exams. Just quick dot points/plans for the others.