trial help (1 Viewer)

[maxxxxx]

so for me trials are about four or five weeks away and at the moment I’ve been doing roughly 3 to 4 past papers per week and I want to increase that number up as well. On each extension one paper I’ve been getting in the mid thirties out of 70 which is really concerning me because no matter how much I am revising each subject individually revising certain forms of questions and revising common trial question forms I’m still scraping a passing mark.
I know that extension scales as well and from what I can see the marks that I’m getting still scale to roughly an E3 if they were HSC Marks. At the moment I’m struggling the most with projectile motion and very specific binomial expansion questions which are never actually covered in content like terms which are independent X and expanding combinations to prove identities and what not. Should I be concerned about the results that I’m getting practice papers? and other than just revising topics and doing pass papers is there anything else I should be doing? I’ve spent most of my time on extension one with some revision on advanced. This is a very stressful period I think for everybody; would really appreciate help.

 

[jimmysmith560]

Your concern is likely justified. Essentially, getting consistently high marks in past exam papers indicates effective preparation and will likely result in favourable performance in the actual exam (both trial and HSC). Depending on your goals, you may consider a particular mark as being good, whereas another student may not, and vice versa. However, given your post, it would be reasonable to assume that your goal is to achieve the best possible results in Mathematics Extension 1, in which case your marks in the past papers may not be enough to maximise your chances of performing well in the actual exams.

It seems that you are following an appropriate approach to prepare, although perhaps the issue is that you are not doing enough. Completing substantial practice material is important because it allows you to identify and gradually address areas of improvement by subsequently attempting similar questions (i.e. the more you practice, the better you can become). Further, it gives you an opportunity to seek clarification regarding aspects of the content that you may not fully understand, as well as an opportunity to revise basic aspects of the content if needed.

It is also important to note that you should also thoroughly prepare for Mathematics Advanced, that is, do not ignore it, especially if you are confident that you can do well in this subject. While Mathematics Extension 1 is a high-scaling subject, Mathematics Advanced is a 2-unit subject, and favourable performance can therefore make a greater contribution to your ATAR than it can with Mathematics Extension 1, which is a 1-unit subject.

I hope this helps!