Possibility of 92+ without notes (1 Viewer)

[AKONS]

G'day everyone

I've been tossing up a thought in my head recently about economics. Is it possible to just not write your own notes, and instead use another individual's notes (for quick study and then go straight into practice questions) and still get a HSC mark of 92+?

I'm really hesitant to take what feels like a big risk, but surely spending all that time making notes from the textbook can't be as good as pretty much going straight to practice questions.

I really would appreciate hearing what you guys would do in my position

 

[Jes03]

[/QUOTE]
Hi AKONS,
I don't study economics, but personally I wouldn't use this approach considering you are aiming for a high study score. I can understand this technique to refer to another individual's notes because it would definitely save a lot of time not doing note taking from the textbook, but if these notes aren't comprehensive or understandable to you, it might not be beneficial. I often find that although lots of students learn the same content, people take notes very differently and what makes sense to one person may not be understood by another.
I guess you would need to look at the syllabus and then at the persons notes and ensure they have everything that is required to be learned for that subject otherwise there might be content missing. For example, you might come to a question and not be able to find this in the notes then will need to refer to the textbook or other learning materials which may end up taking time.
If you believe the notes are well written and you can understand them as if you had written them yourself, I guess that might be okay. Maybe go through them and for anything that isn't clear, you could write your own notes or wait until you cover this material in class?
Personally, I like to elaborate on the content and add notes to the basic material. It depends on your study style and how detailed you like your notes to be.
Also, I think the action of actually making notes and writing summaries etc. is helpful in learning as well. If this person's notes meet your standards, then I think doing that could be useful, but personally I would like to take my own notes.
Good luck throughout 2021! Hope you get the ATAR your aiming for

 

[totally_screwed]

I think it's a bit early for you to be asking this question, you'd have to be in a desperate situation to consider not writing notes at all especially for a humanities subject like economics that is content heavy I assume.

you still have several months before trials and even longer before HSC. maybe for your internal assessments which are a lot sooner, you can rely on someone else's notes and instead do more questions because this is still a valid way to prepare, however I recommend also taking the time to write up your own notes throughout the year so that you have a finished set before trials. completely not writing your own notes is a bit risky I think (you've acknowledged this) and the note-writing process is really important because it gets you thinking, understanding and reflecting, definitely not a waste. your notes would be tailored to you, contain the level of detail you're happy with, examples you're more likely to remember etc. you'd benefit more from your own notes than someone else's, not saying that you can't benefit at all from the latter but given you have so much time between now and the HSC, you should write up your own it's impossible to regret doing this

 

[YonOra]

Yeah cool, so this is a bit of a contentious one. It's really a case-by-case circumstance, and you have to know yourself (in terms of studying, retention of info, etc.) well enough to make a judgement call. Unfortunately, as we're in Year 12 now, trial and error of different study styles is a bit unrealistic, so base it off of your other subjects for reference I'd say. I noticed you did Business in Year 11, so how did you study for that? It's the only other Social Science subject you can really go off, although I'm sure you know that Economics is a significantly more academically intense course.

There was a guy on BoS, @mreditor16 who wrote an entire entry on his 'unconventional' study techniques, which involved no note taking and he state ranked, with an external mark of 99.

I myself will use a mixture of writing my own notes (staying up to date with statistics) and integrating great portions of others. Honestly, It's more of a comfort thing than anything else, and for what it's worth i'm aiming for around the 95s.

So, yes a 92 is very achievable without writing notes, but again you just have to know if it's right for you.

Best of luck.

 

[AuroraXT]

I personally used other peoples notes for Economics + only doing past HSC questions and received a 92 external mark (91 overall) in 2020, so it seems very possible considering how you already received a 96 in Business Studies. While Business and Eco may seem to have similar levels of content (4 topics), Business is alot more rote learning while in Eco, once you learn topic 3 properly (Economic Issues - essentially the fundamentals of Economics), everything else is pretty easy to catch on. Topic 1 also has a lot of Globalisation stuff from business so that's an added bonus.

However, I do recommend writing practice essays and making statistic lists that can be used in your essays early on because that's where the majority of marks are generally lost. Reading other people's notes OR Making your own notes will get you through Section I (Multiple Choice) and Section II (Short Answers) since the level of depth required isn't much (a maximum of 6 marks but even then the questions they can test for this are very limited). However, Section 3 (Diagram/Stimulus Essay) and Section 4 (Non-Diagram/Stimulus Essay) require alot of depth and it's frankly hard to band 6 every essay due to the fact in can be from any topic. Therefore, its better to tackle some essays and learn some stats early on (e.g. Mining Boom+GFC+Covid policies in relation to eco growth/inflation/unemployment/current account).