Time spent studying to get a distinction or high distinction average? (1 Viewer)

[Queenroot]

How hard/How much effort is it to maintain a distinction average In Finance/Statistics in particular (and im not sure if this matters but at USYD) relative to say getting a 97.00 ATAR?
Will someone who tries fairly hard (let's say 7/10 where 0 = no study at all and 10 = no life outside of study) for a 97.00 ATAR translate well into a Distinction (75-84) WAM?

Probably but uni is a whole new ballpark so

An HSC student at its peak would study 4-5 hours on weekdays and 6-8 hours on weekends (well from personal experience atleast). How is that compared to uni?

depends on the person
most peopel probably only study that much during the final exams lol

 

[RishBonjour99]

How hard/How much effort is it to maintain a distinction average In Finance/Statistics in particular (and im not sure if this matters but at USYD) relative to say getting a 97.00 ATAR?
Will someone who tries fairly hard (let's say 7/10 where 0 = no study at all and 10 = no life outside of study) for a 97.00 ATAR translate well into a Distinction (75-84) WAM?

I ranked multiple stats and finc subjects at usyd (so WAM was well over distinction) and it depends on how much effort you put and in general how well you understand the concept. The difference between hsc and uni is that in hsc you get so much time to perfect answers and do so many practice questions. We pretty mucj never got any past papers at usyd finc and you pretty much cram and go into exam hoping it all clicks. D average is probably on par with 97 atar.

 

[Mathew587]

D average is probably on par with 97 atar.

Oh shit. What's a credit average and pass on par atar-wise? >.<

 

[RivalryofTroll]

Oh shit. What's a credit average and pass on par atar-wise? >.<

Wouldn't fret.

Know people with ATARs well below 97 who have ended up with solid D averages at uni.

It honestly just depends on the course you take, the university you're at and other factors.

 

[He-Mann]

I don't think you understand the purpose of a degree.

Why do you think that?

By definition that is a degree

just do subject until you've accumulated enough to get that shinny paper at the end

you really think you're going to apply each an every thing you've learnt at uni in the real world

You missed the point by deciding to jump to conclusions.

You can go ahead and take the easy way out: mindlessly memorizing the content just to get whatever desired mark OR you can understand what you're doing (and why) and attempt to gain the Graduate Attributes listed in the course outline of a particular course.

Look at RenegadeMX's perpective on mathematics courses. He think it's mostly rote-learning i.e. knowing how to do questions and not necessarily knowing why. Of course, uni rewards you (good grades) with rote learning, that's why most people like to rote-learn, to stay in their comfort zone. They don't see the incentive of knowing why because they're clouded by the pursuit of good grades.

Not sure why you think that I think that everything learnt in uni is relevant in the real world. It's obvious that you aren't going to apply everything you've accumulated in uni. It's more about the (thinking) skills gained by doing the course.

Silly. Very silly statement.

You seem like a sheep following the crowd above.

 

[Queenroot]

Oh shit. What's a credit average and pass on par atar-wise? >.<

I got a shit ATAR and get HD and D's

 

[Queenroot]

But I had to bust my ass to get it

 

[RishBonjour99]

Oh shit. What's a credit average and pass on par atar-wise? >.<

His question didn't ask "if my atar is x, what will my wam be". It was simply in terms of difficultly what would x wam convert to in terms of ATAR.

People with ATAR in 80s have gotten HDs in many subjects (none that I know of in usyd comm or law though).
Credit is pretty much the average joe at uni. But depends on subject. If you do a science degree and youre on credit, you are doing uni wrong. Law with credit wam is still okay.

 

[Squar3root]

You missed the point by deciding to jump to conclusions.

You can go ahead and take the easy way out: mindlessly memorizing the content just to get whatever desired mark OR you can understand what you're doing (and why) and attempt to gain the Graduate Attributes listed in the course outline of a particular course.

Look at RenegadeMX's perpective on mathematics courses. He think it's mostly rote-learning i.e. knowing how to do questions and not necessarily knowing why. Of course, uni rewards you (good grades) with rote learning, that's why most people like to rote-learn, to stay in their comfort zone. They don't see the incentive of knowing why because they're clouded by the pursuit of good grades.

Not sure why you think that I think that everything learnt in uni is relevant in the real world. It's obvious that you aren't going to apply everything you've accumulated in uni. It's more about the (thinking) skills gained by doing the course.

I'll take myself back to 1st year physics

In phys1121, i did try to understand the theories and concepts in an attempt to pass the course. I ended up failing because I didn't know how to use that theory to understand problem. When i retook higher physics i ended up with a distinction because i just memorized past papers and ive been doing that ever since.

like it's up to the person how they value their education whether they want to actually learn something or just get a piece of paper to make themselves more employable.

I do think, in general, it is significantly easier to get a DN by rote learning and memorising than actually learning the content because tbf thats what uni education has become

But I had to bust my ass to get it

I'd bust on your ass

 

[Squar3root]

and also there is no reason to "know why" if it's just going to be detrimental to your grade overall.

 

[He-Mann]

I'll take myself back to 1st year physics

In phys1121, i did try to understand the theories and concepts in an attempt to pass the course. I ended up failing because I didn't know how to use that theory to understand problem. When i retook higher physics i ended up with a distinction because i just memorized past papers and ive been doing that ever since.

like it's up to the person how they value their education whether they want to actually learn something or just get a piece of paper to make themselves more employable.

I do think, in general, it is significantly easier to get a DN by rote learning and memorising than actually learning the content because tbf thats what uni education has become

I'd bust on your ass

The bold and underlined part sums up our views very well.

I agree, I did that for some of my courses (i.e. rote learning filled up the majority of my studies) and got satisfactory marks.

and also there is no reason to "know why" if it's just going to be detrimental to your grade overall.

I probably wasn't clear but I didn't mean cut out rote-learning completely; only do it when it's necessary, understanding why is more important. Like you can't escape not memorising the four regions in the cerebral cortex for psychology.

 

[BandSixFix]

You seem like a sheep following the crowd above.

No it's because your statement was actually very silly. There is no point arguing with someone who mimics the rhetoric spewed by 'academic professionals' year round. By all means, understand the content - but like you said, there will be people who rote learn content and score higher marks. Because the only benefit arising from understanding content is personal gratification in this current education system - or to achieve the 'graduate attributes' in the course which is another superficial way of pretending to equip students with life skills.

 

[Queenroot]

The bold and underlined part sums up our views very well.

I agree, I did that for some of my courses (i.e. rote learning filled up the majority of my studies) and got satisfactory marks.


I probably wasn't clear but I didn't mean cut out rote-learning completely; only do it when it's necessary, understanding why is more important. Like you can't escape not memorising the four regions in the cerebral cortex for psychology.

fuc no

 

[RenegadeMx]

This an excellent way to make your degree absolutely worthless.

lol thats the harsh reality, i just memorise the steps for maths

like ive been learning the rigourous calculus definitions and i still dunno whats the point of the epsilon delta definition for limits

 

[matchalolz]

I feel like rote learning takes less time compared to actually understanding the content but tbh the only times I did really well (full marks or close to full marks on finals) was when I understood the subject back to front.

I tend to rote learn for subjects I'm weaker at. But I'm starting to do this less because I want to focus less on marks and more on learning.

Your ability to get distinctions/high distinctions will also depend on your prior knowledge of your subject. Therefore you can't smack a timeframe on how many hours will get a HD. I don't really think it necessarily correlates with ATAR since hsc is a lot of rote. Moreso people with higher atars may have better work ethic which helps in uni.

 

[RishBonjour99]

I feel like rote learning takes less time compared to actually understanding the content but tbh the only times I did really well (full marks or close to full marks on finals) was when I understood the subject back to front.

I tend to rote learn for subjects I'm weaker at. But I'm starting to do this less because I want to focus less on marks and more on learning.

Your ability to get distinctions/high distinctions will also depend on your prior knowledge of your subject. Therefore you can't smack a timeframe on how many hours will get a HD. I don't really think it necessarily correlates with ATAR since hsc is a lot of rote. Moreso people with higher atars may have better work ethic which helps in uni.

only thing that really matters in the end.

 

[He-Mann]

No it's because your statement was actually very silly. There is no point arguing with someone who mimics the rhetoric spewed by 'academic professionals' year round.

Are you trying to hide your original views prior to receiving new information? Otherwise, you wouldn't have only supplied your updated judgements about my statement upon obtaining new information.

By all means, understand the content - but like you said, there will be people who rote learn content and score higher marks. Because the only benefit arising from understanding content is personal gratification in this current education system - or to achieve the 'graduate attributes' in the course which is another superficial way of pretending to equip students with life skills.

Firstly, remember that this is for science/maths courses. Secondly, I'm surprised that someone has such a simplistic view on the benefits of understanding.

Finally, it didn't seem that you've read all my points so I'm not going to bother with this anymore.

lol thats the harsh reality, i just memorise the steps for maths

like ive been learning the rigourous calculus definitions and i still dunno whats the point of the epsilon delta definition for limits

I believe it's just to define limits precisely and carefully. If you didn't, then you'd lack rigour in your mathematical arguments when doing a proof/defining something related to limits.

 

[seanieg89]

I think if your studying a mathematics course/unit, as much as I hate to say it, it does depend more on how much time you devote to the subject.

It's a process that you work on over time that enables a student to develop structured responses. When I mention time, I include things like private tutoring, watching educational resources from online sources, and my own study time. I do focus more on time spent and (yes scarily enough) I keep tabs of how much time I spend on each subject that I do.

Strongly disagree for higher math courses than the basic ones where you just do computations. Studying smart not hard is far more efficient*, and "rote learning" becomes utterly unfeasible eventually. (*I suppose this is a tautology based on your definition of studying smart, but I am factoring in the extra difficulty of processing new mathematical concepts rigorously and deeply rather than the brain-deadness of memorising the algorithmic ways of solving the common exam questions for the course.)

lol thats the harsh reality, i just memorise the steps for maths

like ive been learning the rigourous calculus definitions and i still dunno whats the point of the epsilon delta definition for limits

What courses have you been doing and how have you been doing in them? (You don't have to answer the latter question if you don't want, I don't mean to be invasive.) I just don't believe that approach is possible for high level math courses without putting in a huge amount of effort more than you would have to to just learn and understand the material properly.

 

[seanieg89]

By definition that is a degree

just do subject until you've accumulated enough to get that shinny paper at the end

you really think you're going to apply each an every thing you've learnt at uni in the real world

Why is that last sentence a reason to not care about how much you learn in your degree and how properly you learn it? It is up to the individual to weight his/her priorities with what he wants out of uni (replace uni by any aspect of life).

This goes equally for He-Mann saying that that the "P's get degrees" approach makes a degree worthless, although I wouldn't adopt such a philosophy myself towards the subjects that interested me, which hopefully some do if they are a road to the career you have your eye on.

 

[RenegadeMx]

Strongly What courses have you been doing and how have you been doing in them? (You don't have to answer the latter question if you don't want, I don't mean to be invasive.) I just don't believe that approach is possible for high level math courses without putting in a huge amount of effort more than you would have to to just learn and understand the material properly.

basically all the normal math courses in UNSW, mostly listen in lectures, try do the tutorial problems, see how lecturer does questions etc then for class tests and exams just practice past papers. Assignments are much harder but mostly read books/google similar style questions and try adapt it to my current question. But yeah i agree with you - I would die in higher maths where its much more abstract, real analysis was painful enough.