How to prevent stupid mistakes on exam day? (1 Viewer)

[helmet9959]

I'm currently in Year 11 undertaking Ext 1 and Advanced Maths and I know the content quite well and have put quite a bit of study into it. I completed most relevant questions from Fitzpatrick, Cambridge & MiF alongside some from Proj Math and was getting around 90-95% on my practice papers (under timed conditions and whatnot) but I have just received my results and got just 80% (for advanced) which is rather disappointing as I was hoping to do ext 2 next year if possible as I really enjoy maths as a subject (only one class of ext2 is ran and entrance is based on your rank). Worse yet is that I understand how to do all the questions it was just due to stupid mistakes like misreading the question or making some stupid error that cost me marks, any advice as to how to stop throwing on the exam day?

 

[kendricklamarlover101]

personally for me i check my answers as soon as i finish the problem (checking computations and the logic behind each step). if i check every question for the first time after its abit overwhelming and sometimes i forget what i actually did in the problem.

 

[vajayjay]

If you are making stupid errors because you didn't read the question, then highlight / annotate it. This goes for any subject.

 

[fairy.floss]

this advice isnt really for on the day of the exam but imo, i dont make silly mistakes when i over prepare.
you probably have heard this a lot but, honestly, what helped for me was do the questions you already did over and over again. like when you get passed papers or work sheets, do them twice or even three times. save the questions you find difficult and do them again and again until you know it at the back of your hand. like you said, you were getting 90-95% on your practice papers, try them again until you get 100% and try and find more resources. ask your teachers or tutors for more questions and keep practicing. i normally prepare a month before my assessment so i have time to do each exercise at least twice. i made the mistake by not preparing enough because i thought a concept was easy and in the test, and i made silly mistakes in all my questions.
it can get very tedious, but trust me, it makes a difference.

other than questions i didnt know how to do in my maths test, i didnt make a single silly mistake by over preparing

 

[helmet9959]

this advice isnt really for on the day of the exam but imo, i dont make silly mistakes when i over prepare.
you probably have heard this a lot but, honestly, what helped for me was do the questions you already did over and over again. like when you get passed papers or work sheets, do them twice or even three times. save the questions you find difficult and do them again and again until you know it at the back of your hand. like you said, you were getting 90-95% on your practice papers, try them again until you get 100% and try and find more resources. ask your teachers or tutors for more questions and keep practicing. i normally prepare a month before my assessment so i have time to do each exercise at least twice. i made the mistake by not preparing enough because i thought a concept was easy and in the test, and i made silly mistakes in all my questions.
it can get very tedious, but trust me, it makes a difference.

other than questions i didnt know how to do in my maths test, i didnt make a single silly mistake by over preparing

I did basically every question from project maths in relation to the topics we studied (past hsc questions by topic), and three textbooks alongside the 2 or 3 past papers I had my hands on, I suppose going over questions I get wrong for stupid reasons is something I may not do enough of as it seems self evident after I see what I have done wrong but idk. I probably studied 100+ hours for this exam I don't think I was under prepared at all.

 

[helmet9959]

If you are making stupid errors because you didn't read the question, then highlight / annotate it. This goes for any subject.

fair

 

[helmet9959]

personally for me i check my answers as soon as i finish the problem (checking computations and the logic behind each step). if i check every question for the first time after its abit overwhelming and sometimes i forget what i actually did in the problem.

I thought I had done that well for all the questions but I suppose not given the results

 

[fairy.floss]

I did basically every question from project maths in relation to the topics we studied (past hsc questions by topic), and three textbooks alongside the 2 or 3 past papers I had my hands on, I suppose going over questions I get wrong for stupid reasons is something I may not do enough of as it seems self evident after I see what I have done wrong but idk. I probably studied 100+ hours for this exam I don't think I was under prepared at all.

yeah i highly recommend going over things you got wrong
i dont really see a point in answering new questions on stuff you know you got wrong and still continue to not get them right
so maybe next time, go over what you got wrong, and if you get it wrong again, then try again and again until you fully know how to do it. its the details that makes a difference between every other persons mark