Tips for a high e3- e4 in 4u and 3u math (5 Viewers)

[v.tex]

I am aiming to e4 extension 1 and would be happy to be in the 80s for 4unit (although an e4 would be nice). What are your guys tips to do well in these subjects.

Whats really putting me off for 4u though is that we had this pretty 'naturally smart guy" who only got an 81 whih makes me nervous for what I will get as I can probably work harder then him but don't have as much natural smarts as he had.

Im aiming for both 3u and 4u to at least get an ATAR contribution of 97+

 

[WeiWeiMan]

I am aiming to e4 extension 1 and would be happy to be in the 80s for 4unit (although an e4 would be nice). What are your guys tips to do well in these subjects.

Whats really putting me off for 4u though is that we had this pretty 'naturally smart guy" who only got an 81 whih makes me nervous for what I will get as I can probably work harder then him but don't have as much natural smarts as he had.

Im aiming for both 3u and 4u to at least get an ATAR contribution of 97+

Yeah pretty naturally smart guy getting 81 doesn’t rly mean anything. He must’ve bombed or smth

I reckon:
To learn content, mcgrathematics and Cambridge textbook (for 4u its rly good idk about 3u)

For gettin good, Cambridge enrichment, carrot sticks and spam past papers trust

Edit: also rly try to mimic exam conditions as closely as possible and genuinely challenge yourself. I tend to mind blank and have my meh problem solving abilities fail me during stressful exams cuz of that. also, hsc is genuinely one of the more difficult exams, defo harder (also accounting for actual stress compared to sitting an exam in your room) than almost all trial papers bar maybe some badly written NSB ones and BOS

 

[funnytomato]

It kind of varies a bit depending on what is your current level of knowledge and skills and any gaps you may have had accumulated from earlier years.
Whether 'naturally smart' could make a difference but there are many other actionable things which would also be quite important or can compensate any potential differences in 'natural ability'.

But roughly this is what may be helpful:

1. Understand: make sure you actually understand what each concept/formula/theorem is - which practically means you should be able to:
a) explain it to someone else clearly
b) know the common applications of it in actual questions and vice versa(i.e. spot what they're testing when you see a question)

2. Speed and Accuracy: For the easy-medium difficulty questions you could avoid 'silly mistakes' by practising and doing those under pressure(time yourself and iteratively reduce the time needed whilst improving accuracy).

3. Identify and fix any gaps: If you have issues with any of the previous topics or skills you should address it to avoid further debt.
E.g. if you're doing complex numbers you should be comfortable with any potential relevant topics such as polynomials, trig and circle geometry etc
Or even more basic things such as operations with negative sign in front of a bracket.

4. 'Challenging' questions: One thing you need to bear in mind is that with the more difficult questions it is still related the concepts you have learned in the syllabus. The only difference is that some students can see the connections more clearly(whether from 'natural ability' or more practice).
You can get better at this by firstly mastering point 1 above(understanding is VERY important) and only after that practice harder questions(whether from textbook enrichment/challenge, trials or HSC) with the goal of recognising the common techniques, patterns and tricks.
As you practice more with that goal in mind - more of the questions which seemed 'hard' before would become more 'normal'.

And also never overlook points 2&3 as well since a 2-marker in Q11 is not worth any less than a 2 marker in Q16.