How to track improvement with past papers? (1 Viewer)

[synthesisFR]

How do I know how much I am improving while doing past papers for maths? Bc every school sets papers at a different difficulty and even between years, the difficulty varies. So I could be getting really low for some and high for others, except there isn't a way to track how much i've improved. Also the marking criteria is really different, some schools are very strict in the guidelines while other schools give a pity mark or smth if u made a good attempt.

 

[carrotsss]

I kinda mentally judge the difficulty of each paper and factor in the school, and then convert it to a “HSC mark” using rawmarks.info and comparing it to the difficulty of certain years (eg 2022 physics was a joke). Then I plot that on a colour coded graph in google sheets:

 

[Life'sHard]

Don't worry about marking criteria. It's either right or wrong.

 

[synthesisFR]

Don't worry about marking criteria. It's either right or wrong.

not when theres 2+ mark questions, they give marks for different things some say that u need to derive an identity or figure out something

 

[Life'sHard]

not when theres 2+ mark questions, they give marks for different things some say that u need to derive an identity or figure out something

I’m not too sure what you mean? If they ask you derive certain steps then do it? The working out and intermediate steps should in and of itself be indicative of solving for the answer. How are you going to bake a cake without the correct ingredients and steps… working out should be logical

 

[dumNerd]

Don't worry about marking criteria. It's either right or wrong.

not true at all you should definitely worry about the marking criteria , always small things to consider especially for internals if your teachers are gonna be picky

 

[Life'sHard]

not true at all you should definitely worry about the marking criteria , always small things to consider especially for internals if your teachers are gonna be picky

Uhh well your teachers would make it abundantly clear what “small things” should be considered when solving certain questions. It does not take away from the fact that

The working out and intermediate steps should in and of itself be indicative of solving for the answer.

are you saying that if a marking criteria does not include alternative working out that your answer is immediately incorrect? Of course not. The fact of the matter is that regardless of how you solve a question there will always be a right and wrong answer. Worrying about the semantics and small details should be already inherent (made clear from ur teachers) in regards to solving the question.

In relation to the original post. You should be solving the questions at a reasonably high degree in terms of steps taken. But as I’ve said varying marking criteria’s are redundant if you understand the content and know how to get the exact solution.

If you’re doing these papers and marking with “half marks” then that’s something else entirely. You need to be harsh with yourself to improve. Half marks are just by products of failed attempts…

 

[Average Boreduser]

Uhh well your teachers would make it abundantly clear what “small things” should be considered when solving certain questions. It does not take away from the fact that


are you saying that if a marking criteria does not include alternative working out that your answer is immediately incorrect? Of course not. The fact of the matter is that regardless of how you solve a question there will always be a right and wrong answer. Worrying about the semantics and small details should be already inherent (made clear from ur teachers) in regards to solving the question.

In relation to the original post. You should be solving the questions at a reasonably high degree in terms of steps taken. But as I’ve said varying marking criteria’s are redundant if you understand the content and know how to get the exact solution.

If you’re doing these papers and marking with “half marks” then that’s something else entirely. You need to be harsh with yourself to improve. Half marks are just by products of failed attempts…

fk the half marks, they are just wrong answers bruh

 

[synthesisFR]

If you’re doing these papers and marking with “half marks” then that’s something else entirely. You need to be harsh with yourself to improve. Half marks are just by products of failed attempts…

Not half marks just knowing how much to distribute
e.g. for a 3 mark proof quesiton, for the first mark u would need some sort of progress and for the second mark u would need more progress , so if i cant solve it bc no one gets 100 in any exam unless u gonna state rank which u probably wont

 

[Average Boreduser]

Uhh well your teachers would make it abundantly clear what “small things” should be considered when solving certain questions. It does not take away from the fact that


are you saying that if a marking criteria does not include alternative working out that your answer is immediately incorrect? Of course not. The fact of the matter is that regardless of how you solve a question there will always be a right and wrong answer. Worrying about the semantics and small details should be already inherent (made clear from ur teachers) in regards to solving the question.

In relation to the original post. You should be solving the questions at a reasonably high degree in terms of steps taken. But as I’ve said varying marking criteria’s are redundant if you understand the content and know how to get the exact solution.

If you’re doing these papers and marking with “half marks” then that’s something else entirely. You need to be harsh with yourself to improve. Half marks are just by products of failed attempts…

I think hes talking about not just math. For example, whilst the marks allocated on a maths problem is pretty easy to determine, ones for science require a much more intensive though process, and additionally some schools may vary on what they want in responses, which really does not make sense- pretty much Australia's cirriculumn in a nutshell.

 

[carrotsss]

Not half marks just knowing how much to distribute
e.g. for a 3 mark proof quesiton, for the first mark u would need some sort of progress and for the second mark u would need more progress , so if i cant solve it bc no one gets 100 in any exam unless u gonna state rank which u probably wont

I think part of what he’s saying is you should be aiming to get full marks on it anyway, and when ur doing practices it’s more worthwhile to just figure out how to do it properly rather than waste time giving excuses and partial marks

That said imo awarding partial marks is helpful for tracking what mark you’re looking at in an exam, which enables you to focus your study more effectively (eg if you’re looking at like 90 in a subject and 80 in another then maybe you’d focus on the 80)

 

[synthesisFR]

the whole point of marking correctly is to see what marks i would be getting for an exam- because exams are marked that way u dont just get 0 out of 3 for a question if u actually met the criteria for 1/2 marks
and u cant just get 100 everything esp in the hsc so how is that even realistic then

 

[Life'sHard]

Not half marks just knowing how much to distribute
e.g. for a 3 mark proof quesiton, for the first mark u would need some sort of progress and for the second mark u would need more progress , so if i cant solve it bc no one gets 100 in any exam unless u gonna state rank which u probably wont

Still not quite clear what you’re asking. The mark distribution is just a result of your working out. Obviously for questions like mechanics there are fundamental variables you must solve for before attaining the answer… I assume that’s where you’ll get your “first mark” and so forth.

I think hes talking about not just math. For example, whilst the marks allocated on a maths problem is pretty easy to determine, ones for science require a much more intensive though process, and additionally some schools may vary on what they want in responses, which really does not make sense- pretty much Australia's cirriculumn in a nutshell.

I mean it’s in the extension 2 category lol.

the whole point of marking correctly is to see what marks i would be getting for an exam- because exams are marked that way u dont just get 0 out of 3 for a question if u actually met the criteria for 1/2 marks
and u cant just get 100 everything esp in the hsc so how is that even realistic then

“Marking correctly” too tedious and pretty much redundant if you’re looking to improve.
These are practice papers… Aim for 100. Questions that you didn’t get correct give them a fat 0 and try again. What are you looking to learn from a 2/3 mark q. The matter of the fact is you got it wrong and that you will need to redo it anyways to get the full marks… so why not just give it 0. For the occasional calculation errors, sure you can skip those but generally give the qs u did wrong a 0.

It’s also kind of demeaning saying attaining 100 in the hsc is unrealistic. Why limit yourself to that belief? Aim for perfection if you truly want to improve. Even if you don’t reach it you’ll sure as hell land damn close with the hard work and dedication.

 

[Average Boreduser]

I mean it’s in the extension 2 category lol.

fair point

 

[carrotsss]

For the occasional calculation errors, sure you can skip those but generally give the qs u did wrong a 0.

I usually only give partial marks for errors like these because it’s a way to mentally “punish” and reduce silly mistakes whilst not being unreasonable and knocking all of the marks on a high mark question over a tiny error

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

If you’re doing these papers and marking with “half marks” then that’s something else entirely. You need to be harsh with yourself to improve. Half marks are just by products of failed attempts…

This ^

Always be extremely harsh in your practice so you feel the generosity of high school marking... and also to get used to how uni markers mark

 

[carrotsss]

This ^

Always be extremely harsh in your practice so you feel the generosity of high school marking... and also to get used to how uni markers mark

Tbh even when I feel like I’m being lenient my schools marking still feels generous

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

Tbh even when I feel like I’m being lenient my schools marking still feels generous

not high school necessary moreso i mean hsc but marking varies from school to school. sometimes my teacher would be extremely petty or sometimes kind.