I keep failing past-trial papers LOL (1 Viewer)

[ben]

I'm not looking forward to my maths trial exams in a few days.

I thought I was prepared well - done all excel revision questions with no trouble and done several trial papers.

But I'm on my like 6th trial and still having difficulties with usually questions in 8 onwards. I have no trouble understanding the worked solutions - it's just a matter of linking what I should do for the questions.

If I could, I would keep doing trials and revision exercises, but it's pretty time consuming and have other subjects to worry about.

Anyone have any tips on how to keep alive by the time you get up to question 9 and 10 and you've been sitting in the exam for like 2 hours.

 

[Morgues]

I suggest this........
Do the first few questions (1&2) that should be fairly easy and get your confidence up then tackle the 9&10 questions that are usually fairly tricky do as much as you can and then go back to questions 3-8

If it still doesnt help then dont despair, I know in the 2 unit papers at my school the last question is usually very difficult and goes over the head of most 3 unit students let alone 2 unit

 

[Minai]

in addition
USE the reading time to pick out questions that u think "thats kinda tricky" and leave them till the end
do ALL the questions u kno u can do all first, no matter if its Q1 or Q9, then spend the end of the exam on the harder ones, as it gives u more time to think, and the formula/method may come to u after doing an earlier question

 

[Big Willy]

I dont know about you, but i find 2unit easy; its just i make heaps of dumb mistakes

 

[souldancer]

the last few questions on the 2 unit test are there to seperate the best students from the rest. one thing to remember is have a go u wont lose marks for attempting the question, but sometimes u will earn marks for any working out you did.

also, if a question is along the lines of, "show h=r/3, hence find the height." and you dont know how to show h=r/3, just do the rest of the question first, then when u've done everything else u can, and have checked ur other answers, go back and try and nut it out.

 

[ben]

Thanks for the tips.

I am confident with Q1-6 (Although I loose about 12 marks with stupid mistakes EVERY time - usally stuffing up easy multiplication, or switching from negative to positve for no reason etc.)

Question 7-8 depend on the topic.

Question 9-10 are like - ARGH!

+ My maths teacher won't go through them in class. I asked him like question 10 from the Sydney Grammar 2001 Trial and he said no! He said that question 9 and 10 were designed to separate the 3U students from the 2U and that it wasn't worth the effort for 2U students to worry about them. Just make an attempt.

That irriates me that he won't help. However, I usally have no trouble going through worked solutions anyway.

 

[Slice of heaven]

Originally posted by ben
Thanks for the tips.

I am confident with Q1-6 (Although I loose about 12 marks with stupid mistakes EVERY time - usally stuffing up easy multiplication, or switching from negative to positve for no reason etc.)

Question 7-8 depend on the topic.

Question 9-10 are like - ARGH!

+ My maths teacher won't go through them in class. I asked him like question 10 from the Sydney Grammar 2001 Trial and he said no! He said that question 9 and 10 were designed to separate the 3U students from the 2U and that it wasn't worth the effort for 2U students to worry about them. Just make an attempt.

That irriates me that he won't help. However, I usally have no trouble going through worked solutions anyway.

Don't listen to him,you can still do really well and to your surprise find that you will be able to beat many 3unit ppl, not all are that good, also since you can read worked solutions and understand them well , I suggest that you try and work in tandum with similar styles of questions. you know like using the solution of one question to help you solve another, it works well for me when I get stuck and most 2unit questions from year to year whether it be trial or the hsc are pretty similar so do as many as possible and you wont go wrong, also most importantly try and understand the method involved and keep an open mind and be flexible, cos just rememberng things in maths(besides formulas) won't help with those q9-10.

 

[ben]

Originally posted by Slice of heaven


Don't listen to him,you can still do really well and to your surprise find that you will be able to beat many 3unit ppl, not all are that good, also since you can read worked solutions and understand them well , I suggest that you try and work in tandum with similar styles of questions. you know like using the solution of one question to help you solve another, it works well for me when I get stuck and most 2unit questions from year to year whether it be trial or the hsc are pretty similar so do as many as possible and you wont go wrong, also most importantly try and understand the method involved and keep an open mind and be flexible, cos just rememberng things in maths(besides formulas) won't help with those q9-10.

Yeah, well i managed to come 12th (out of about 180) in 2U - beating a lot of the 3U people. Which is why my teacher's arrogance is soo irriating.

Thanks for the tips, i'll try and relate hard questions to similar problems - after doing quite a few past papers in the last week or so - there does seem to be repetition

 

[Minai]

12/180 is pretty awesome

and your teacher seems like an asshole, if the question is there, its meant to be done by all candidates, not just as a luxury for 3U ppl...u seem apt at the basic Q1-7 stuff, so just keep practicing those "component B" type questions and u'll b fine

 

[ben]

i think he just doesn't want to confuse the rest of the class - who on the last lesson before trials... some still don't know how to do a basic max and min problem.