General Advice - Secrets to VCE Success

[brendan]

Study advice

Student Academic Guide by Melbourne University
http://tlu.ecom.unimelb.edu.au/LMS_student_guides.html

How to write well by Greg Mankiw
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-write-well.html

Motivational/general advice
'Perfect' students happy to share plaudits with family

VCE top performers: the singer, the juggler, the birthday boy

Familiar faces were best in the state

HSC aces with the world at their feet

Maths whiz has eyes already on Nobel prize


With exams for the class of 2007 to begin on Monday, Bridie Smith asked four of last year's VCE star achievers to share their tips on performing under pressure.

Top five tips for success

Public pupils excel in VCE results

threads:
Advice on how to write well

Message from a VCE2005 student... 

If you could do VCE again which subjects would you have done

Comment, or add your own secret to success

[AkirA]

Jean said she couldn't have done it without the support of her parents and brother who had a calming influence on her, despite a rigorous study routine in which she studied for four hours each week night and three hours a day on weekends.

So typical of Asian kids...
I think that's going overboard

My study routine was around 1-2 hours a day max, Fridays off, 2-3 hours on Saturday and about 2 hours on Sunday. I was a night person, and was at my most productive in the wee hours of the morning - that is, 3-5 am.

I also went out a lot, like to the pub, to gigs. Social life is needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle!

[cara.mel]

There is physically not enough hours in the day to do 4 hours of study at night, especially if it's above and beyond homework. Eg getting home at 5:30, having to help around the house for a bit, dinner, that's like 3 hours max if you want a little bit of time for yourself, which is necessary to prevent going crazy.

And the last one said 114k people accessed their results on the internet. There's not that many students.

I was just self-motivated. Never told to go study, even if I went on the computer all night etc.

[azhtey]

And the last one said 114k people accessed their results on the internet. There's not that many students.

People prob re checked their results, i know i have

[joshuamorgan]

Probably Odette refreshing the page in disbelief

[Odette]

Probably Odette refreshing the page in disbelief

Haha yep that was probably me
Lost count after 10

[droodles]

U HAVE TO FIRE UP LIKE SUPER SAIYAN GOKU TO GET 99

[Daniel15]

Droodles' advice is by far the best advice I've ever heard. I think it'll be replacing the quote currently in my signature
 

My study routine was around 1-2 hours a day max, Fridays off, 2-3 hours on Saturday and about 2 hours on Sunday. I was a night person, and was at my most productive in the wee hours of the morning - that is, 3-5 am.

Mine was about 1 hour per day, nothing on weekends

[Collin Li]

Mine degraded from inconsistent 2 hours a night, if I was lucky, to nearly no regular study, with the occasional past exam.

That said, I went to TSFX, and that probably substituted my regular study sessions (2 hours per subject per week)

[phagist_]

This is what I did and served me very very well.

I chose subjects I enjoy (THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!) they are;

English
Spesh
Methods (CAS)
Physics
Psych

I'd get home at about 3:50, I'd get changed and straight into my homework at 4.
I only really concentrated on spesh thoroughly at the start of the year - but I did enough for methods and physics so that I was confident.
For Pysch I didn't put in much (any) work until about 1 week before SACs... I'd write up all the notes and commit them to memory of the week.
For English I never really did the homework (I DID read the books) and only really practised about 1 week out for SACS.

I'd spend about 30-45mins on Spesh making sure I understood it all, and then about 30mins on Methods.

This served me well for the first term.

First term holidays come - physics, physics, physics and psych, psych, psych - prepare for mid years!

About 1 hour a day on each over the 2 week break set me up well for the exams.

For Spesh and Methods, I'd do the holiday homework set and pick random questions from exercises I had previously done - just to reinforce and get my confidence up.

I did no English

Term 2 Followed the same pattern, except leading up to mid years my focus was shifted to both physics and psych. (I think psych is a good subject to do if you can remember stuff well as you can cover a whole unit in about 3-4 days of solid WRITING out notes).

Term 2 is hectic with both SACs and exams - this is where you start to stress a bit.

Term 2 holidays came, my focus was once again shifted to Methods and Spesh (as I'd just done the mid years for psych and physics, we hadn't really covered a lot of new material).

Review everything I had done in both maths's and once again choose random questions from the exercises we'd already completed in school along with the assignments we were given for each one.

Term 3 - SACs were still prevalent and end of year exams now came into focus.
I started lifting the workload gradually and about halfway through the term my night would be;
Each night would still consist of methods and spesh (predominantly) but now reviewing/rereading english texts that you covered at the start of the year. So about 2 hours max per night (I took weekends off, I probably shouldn't have haha)

End of term 3 (we got 3 weeks holidays) I started hitting up the school library for about 3 hours a day, just reviewing coursework and getting confident on such.

End social life until end of school, and begin practice exams, A LOT of them!

This 3 week holidays was my business end... I knuckled down and made sure I was VERY CONFIDENT on most topics of my subjects.

Term 4 is again hectic.. with valedictory and the services my school offered we lost about 2 weeks.

Now its about 2 weeks out from exams (and I am fairly confident... but need some polishing - mind you I haven't really started studying for english - maybe about 2 or 3 essays over the holidays).

These 2 weeks (we've finished school) I get into gear - heading up to the state library for about 6~7 hours a day with some mates, doing fucking everything!
English essays - about 2 a day (only focused on texts then towards the end some analysis - i never ended up doing a practice POV before exams haha) and practice exams for every subject... I'd get home and just relax - my philosophy was work hard at state library, but home was for chillaxing time.

I stopped going to state 2 days out from start of exams and just chillaxed and cleared up some last minute questions.

Exams begin.

Then I'd just study for the exam I had next - as by this stage I was really confident in my ability to do well and new the coursework really well.

All up for the end of year exams I did about 6 Physics, 3 Psych, 10 Spesh, 8 Methods, 0 English prac exams.

end result = me fucking happy, schoolies and copious amounts of alcohol/ganja!

My method isn't the best haha especially when I jumped in the deep end doing like 6-7 hours a day (mind you there was a 1 hour lunch break:P).

But choose subjects you enjoy and can handle without too much fuss (while not neglecting) but so you can concentrate on the harder subjects, however don't forget that every subject counts equal!

Enjoy your best year of school ever!

Most important is get CONFIDENT with the material, I cannot stress that enough. If you are second guessing your ability to do problems then you will struggle. Ask questions as soon as they arise and learn to UNDERSTAND what the examiner is asking.

[Collin Li]

I chose subjects I enjoy (THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!)

I concur, however, it was not possible due to English being compulsory

...that said, I do enjoy reading and writing, but I just have an opposition to the VCE English course.

[phagist_]

...that said, I do enjoy reading and writing, but I just have an opposition to the VCE English course.

haha, my exact feelings! (hence my little work until the end of year in English )

[droodles]

how can studying make u get good grades, u have to consider that some people are naturally talented at maths and other specific subjects. Studying for x amount of time doesn't guarantee u will get 50 or whatever in a subject

[Ninox]

how can studying make u get good grades, u have to consider that some people are naturally talented at maths and other specific subjects. Studying for x amount of time doesn't guarantee u will get 50 or whatever in a subject

yeh i know someone like that. lazy as hell, but beats everyone in almost every methods and spesh tests/sacs, and got 99 twice 2 for monash uni maths exams. No 50's for him though.
admittedly, you're right. Chance also has a pretty big part. I'm sure there were lots of smart people who worked really hard and who for whatever reason choked on the day of exams, resulting in bye-bye 50, including myself on methods 2. And the opposite applies too, some of these people ace the exams on the day and get 50. my school's dux did in methods and beat my ENTER by 0.05. On the other hand, I whooped him with my 50 in chem to his 43. and he consistently averaged slightly higher than me on most chem SACs. i evenly spread my revision time across all my subjects, except lit... bad move in that regard LOL.

i would always work for as long as was possible a night during most of year 12, about 6hrs a night with more on weekends. BUT I AM overestimating since this includes... um... msn convos, shower, dinner, breaks, tv, procrastination... you get the picture 

so yeh
Natural talent + hard work + luck = 50
you dont need calculus to work that out   

[Ninox]

I'd also like to add that studying with some actual interest, will and desire to do well can improve your grades. a friend of mine, shocking at chem all the way through semester 1, knuckled down before the midyear exam and pulled off an A+. I'm sure he could've done better, but he gave up on chem during semester two.