How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)-99+ ATAR graduate (4 Viewers)

[astroman]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

does it matter what two texts i choose for my module b? Everyone is doing sadat and keating and this just makes it repetitive for the marker as well as makes it harder to make your essay stand out from others, what other two speeches can i do?

 

[strawberrye]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

does it matter what two texts i choose for my module b? Everyone is doing sadat and keating and this just makes it repetitive for the marker as well as makes it harder to make your essay stand out from others, what other two speeches can i do?

It depends on the question, you should select speeches that best answers the specific question. Don't worry abut what everyone else is doing, as long as you answer the question well, you will get the marks.

 

[Green Yoda]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Need motivation! I just passed my last assessment in maths and my confidence is down. I love maths though

 

[aanthnnyyy]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

If you have any questions related to senior study, please feel free to ask, don't be afraid to ask-this is your chance to get a comprehensive answer from a HSC graduate who has probably been through all that you are going through right now

How to get through trials with one subject everyday (16th-24th) ...?

 

[strawberrye]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Need motivation! I just passed my last assessment in maths and my confidence is down. I love maths though

Don't seek motivation from others-create your own motivation and your own motivating story. Letting your results in one assessment define the rest of your HSC maths results is not a wise choice. Remember to never make the same mistakes and persist-because persistence and optimism will be the key to improving your results and equally, if not more importantly, enhance your enjoyment in your studies. I always have a motto that I follow till this day, this might be of some help to you: "When you fail, dust yourself off, pick yourself up and try again"

How to get through trials with one subject everyday (16th-24th) ...?

Without knowing the specifics of your subjects, your strengths in each subject and how spaced out your exams are along with other circumstantial factors, I unfortunately cannot give you very specific advice on how to get through your trials. What I can give you is my top three short tips during this period:
1)Make sure you plan your study time well-planning is the key to make sure you get everything done, and spend more time studying for your weaker subjects than your stronger ones-but obviously if exam is closer for whichever subject, study them first.
2)Make sure you select study methods that are efficient and high returns-i.e. doing past exam papers under strict exam conditions, getting a tutor/teacher or someone to look over your essay attempts for English-don't select a study method that yields little return in terms of retention or gaining of knowledge for yourself
3)Make sure you pack everything for the exams beforehand (it saves you a lot more panic than you think)-keep calm, visualise you are going to do well right before the exam-and just try your best-don't be scared-because the trials is a time for you to shine and display to the teacher how much you have learnt and grasp your knowledge so far this year-

All the best of luck for your upcoming trials

 

[sumtgk]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

sorry if this has been addressed before
I am coming first in both 2U and 3U, but with marks that aren't even greater than 80%, and I feel like this isn't good enough as I am aiming for doing 4U in year 12. The tests aren't particularly hard, so I think that we are all just trash due to lack of preperation and applying ourselves outside of school work. So what should I be doing outside of assigned textbook work to study maths? and is grinding questions the only way to really study for prelim and hsc maths?

 

[strawberrye]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

sorry if this has been addressed before
I am coming first in both 2U and 3U, but with marks that aren't even greater than 80%, and I feel like this isn't good enough as I am aiming for doing 4U in year 12. The tests aren't particularly hard, so I think that we are all just trash due to lack of preperation and applying ourselves outside of school work. So what should I be doing outside of assigned textbook work to study maths? and is grinding questions the only way to really study for prelim and hsc maths?

This depends on what textbook you are using, I think if you feel the test isn't that hard-you should revise over all the mistakes-and ideally if your financial circumstances allows it, maybe starting 4 unit maths tutoring in year 11 would be a good idea. Grinding question is a main way, but ultimately understanding and applying concepts are the key-just go with the approach that you find works the best for you

The following is an extract from my senior study guides which I have copy and pasted here for your convenience-hope this helps a bit
The only way you can study for maths is essentially to understand mathematical concepts, apply your understanding by practice questions of increasing difficulty, and checking your answers and working out with those provided by the textbook or with your teacher/tutor. Before each maths exam, I would also do a summary of all the formulas that I would need and all the tips and tricks for each topic and revise over that before the exam.

One very important tip is to avoid exposing yourself to new, difficult questions the day before the exam-you would often be panicked and this would worsen your exam performance because you are not entering the exam with a calm, clear mind.

Well, I had a habit to try to do my maths homework before it was set-so that I had more time for other subjects like English. I used an actual grid book-I found it particularly useful when I am drawing trigonometry graphs, but it is up to you, it doesn't really matter what type of book you use as long as you set out your questions neatly and in a legible manner. I did divide my pages in half, not to save space, because it was the format I was accustomed to. I would write out the question, write my working out, and ticked or crossed my own work by marking my answers with those of the textbook. And if I got a question wrong, I would re-do it several times until I get it right or I could ask my teacher. When I understood the mathematical concepts, I would then do practice trial papers to consolidate my knowledge.

One last important tip I can give you is that you need to ask questions the minute you don't understand something-don't leave any maths lessons without understanding everything about the maths concept conveyed-because maths is a sort of accumulative subject where if you don't understand something and don't clarify it, it can have a snowball effect. I have a habit of writing tips on the silly mistakes I've made or tips to do a certain type of question alongside questions I got wrong and I re-do these questions before the exam and remind myself to avoid making these mistakes.

MATHS is a subject that needs to be practiced on a daily basis, you cannot get away with studying it the day before the actual exam. You need to understand the approach to achieve a solution to the problems, not just knowing how to answer a problem, but knowing the different types of problems you can encounter in any topic and the variation in the solution method to achieve them. Essentially, practice, practice, practice is the key to succeed in Maths.

 

[Sien]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Much of prelim chemistry isn't in hsc chemistry. If i already know the core knowledge in prelim need in hsc, should i start hsc chem myself now?

 

[strawberrye]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Much of prelim chemistry isn't in hsc chemistry. If i already know the core knowledge in prelim need in hsc, should i start hsc chem myself now?

Theoretically, there is nothing stopping you should you desire to, but I would strongly recommend you prioritise your preliminary studies over learning HSC content beforehand-because knowing core knowledge is different from grasping the skills you need to succeed in chemistry in the longer term.

 

[barcyy]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

What would you do if you didn't understand a mathematical concept?

 

[strawberrye]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

What would you do if you didn't understand a mathematical concept?

I would ask the teacher, I would watch Youtube videos, I would read the textbook and do practice questions until I grasp the concept.

 

[astroman]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

What would you do if you didn't understand a mathematical concept?

look at a textbook or tutorials

 

[strawberrye]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Hey strawberrye, firstly thank you for your advice offered throughout the thread! I have a question regarding writing notes and practicing.
Currently my humanities subjects are economics and SOR1 and the only notes I've made so far are two topics for Eco (there are four in total) and a few dot point notes for SOR. Do you think it'll be an alright approach to spend some time reading class notes + textbook+ state rankers notes (I know you don't approve ) and then more time on practicing (past papers, essays)? Because I started writing more notes yesterday and it took a lot more time than I thought it would and at this stage, do you think I would be better off practicing more for the upcoming trials? (Week 3 next term) Especially for SOR, should I just write an essay according to each dot point?
I don't think you do these two subjects so perhaps I'm asking too specific questions :3 any advice would be much appreciated!!!

Hi Anohana,
Firstly, thanks for letting me know that you found this thread helpful-it is very encouraging I think that if writing economics notes are taking a lot longer than you thought it could, then you can probably read over notes and practice past papers. However, there are several things you should be aware of. Firstly, make sure you meaningfully decode the information in the notes, for example, try to orally explain dot points in your own words, connect different dot points together, do practice past papers under EXAM CONDITIONS without any notes open, and if possible, perhaps get a teacher/tutor or another person to review your exam answers critically so you know where you can improve each time. As for SOR, I personally am not very familiar with the syllabus, but I think it would be better if you make notes for the dot points and practice amalgamating that information in essays under exam conditions. I, however, am not familiar with how similar the exam questions are on the same topic across different papers, so you should consult your teacher or the actual papers to make a thoughtful judgment yourself.

The key to excelling in trials in general is to plan your time well and stick to whatever plan you come up with. All the best for your trials, hope my advice helped a bit, and as always, if you have any questions about any aspects of your studies at any time, please feel free to ask a question on this thread and I will reply as promptly as possible

 

[Green Yoda]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Hey for my subjects next year I have chosen physics and biology as my sciences. They are not the two mainstream science combos people pick. I really suck at chemistry, so how much of the lack of chem knowledge will effect me or these two sciences. When I mean I suck, I really really suck.

 

[DatAtarLyfe]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Hey for my subjects next year I have chosen physics and biology as my sciences. They are not the two mainstream science combos people pick. I really suck at chemistry, so how much of the lack of chem knowledge will effect me or these two sciences. When I mean I suck, I really really suck.

Chemistry has minimal reference in physics, only in electrical energy will you have to mention the behaviour of electrons in a conductor. Motors and generators in the HSC may require the same sort of information. Apart from that, physics is pretty macroscopic.
However, i don't do biology so i'm not to sure of specifics but i'm almost positive that you going to have to know atleast the model of an atom, how electrons behave etc. You might also need to know the different bonds for when you study stuff like the structure of DNA.

 

[anohana]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Thank you for your reply, strawberrye!

 

[blackbird_14]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Chemistry has minimal reference in physics, only in electrical energy will you have to mention the behaviour of electrons in a conductor. Motors and generators in the HSC may require the same sort of information. Apart from that, physics is pretty macroscopic.
However, i don't do biology so i'm not to sure of specifics but i'm almost positive that you going to have to know atleast the model of an atom, how electrons behave etc. You might also need to know the different bonds for when you study stuff like the structure of DNA.

Nah Bio doesn't require too much knowledge of chemistry- a little is helpful, but it's not essential.

 

[BlueGas]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Nah Bio doesn't require too much knowledge of chemistry- a little is helpful, but it's not essential.

Doesn't require too much knowledge of chemistry? Brah there's no atoms, electrons or any sort of bonds (maybe hydrogen bonding but that's it) that you need to learn for the Biology HSC course.

 

[DatAtarLyfe]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Doesn't require too much knowledge of chemistry? Brah there's no atoms, electrons or any sort of bonds (maybe hydrogen bonding but that's it) that you need to learn for the Biology HSC course.

So to sum up everything OP, chemistry is not required in bio and has minimal usage in physics

 

[strawberrye]

Re: How to excel in senior year studies (yr 11/12)

Hey for my subjects next year I have chosen physics and biology as my sciences. They are not the two mainstream science combos people pick. I really suck at chemistry, so how much of the lack of chem knowledge will effect me or these two sciences. When I mean I suck, I really really suck.

Hi Rathin,
I don't think that would be a severe problem, however, I think biology has some sort of chemistry in it-though most of it is memorising, and physics-chemistry knowledge in general shouldn't affect your performance, but experimental skills and ability to carry out calculations/applying formulas will always be moderately important.

Hope this helps a bit