Wow, new site and a new update to the journal. Its been 4 weeks and it feels like nothing, currently still enjoying all my subjects and just getting used to the use of all the new assessment types.
Specialist, methods and chemistry are my easiest I feel right now (as in I feel on top of the content)
but biology and physics, they aren't hard per say but biology has A LOT of content for such a small time span and physics isn't as "tough" as bio but I'm just having trouble grasping some of the concepts like I do in methods/specialist etc.
I hope to provide a more in depth update (about English and the actual content I'm studying) in the next fortnight but for now I'm out.
Journey of doing the "suicide six"
13 days later
and poof, just like that its been two weeks, I've received 4 assignments so far and I feel somewhat confident going into the quizzes we have every 2 weeks for chem and physics. Every time I walk into class I feel a lingering shadow is following me that keeps reminding me that I don't know what I'm doing in class and that I am going to fail all my subjects, I think this is due to my desperation of academic validation, I really need to work on it because it will destroy my mentality throughout year 11 and 12.
As you may know by my last journal on the old site, I am studying the for the UCAT, if anyone has sat or is studying to sit the UCAT, when did you start preparation? I don't know if starting in year 10 is a bit excessive but I've done it and do not know if its the right move for me.
Question
What are some good study strategies I can use for my subjects? I have made some flash cards and rewritten notes/summaries but I am having trouble with the sciences, we have quizzes in class every 2 weeks and the lowest grade I got was 60% and highest was 85%. I really need to be aiming for 90-95% ,so how do I do it?
I'm too early in the topics to do practice exams (I think), so I will make a list of things I do and hope someone edits it to best suit me by using better study strategies:
- flash cards (anki)
- write summaries
- reread notes
*watch YouTube videos to consolidate understanding
Rereading/rewriting notes isn't very worthwhile cuz creating flashcards from notes already solidifies it in a much more productive way with the spaced repetition mechanism. I don't recommend flashcards for calculation questions, they're better for memorising pedantic stock responses expected from you by VCAA. Don't push yourself with those quiz scores cuz they don't contribute to your SAC marks, just try to understand the concepts covered regardless of your results in them. One study strategy I used a lot in biomed + uni chem units is to teach the concepts I'm learning to my peers, either in group chats or on the unit forum. The ultimate goal is to explain this concept to a twelvie such that they understand it. If you can do this, you can certainly explain to the assessor that you know your sh*t on your actual SAC/exam. You can also try writing your own exam-styled questions after you have attempted a few past exams to reverse engineer how the marking scheme works
I failed the UMAT in my days with a 57th percentile so I doubt I'd be much help with the UCAT
Howdy Patty!
As Billzene said, flashcards are really good.
Another thing is making sure you "answer" the success criteria. If you could get a printout of this from your teacher, it would really help in determining what you need to study, and what to look for in your textbooks or YouTube videos.
Another recommendation would be brain dumps. After school, without looking at your notes, just write down everything you remembered from that one lesson. After writing as many things as you can in 5-10mins, re-read your notes and find gaps in your knowledge. I found this helped with senior Chem and Phys, as this really pin-pointed my weak areas.
I also keep a book, with every single mistake I've ever made from Year 11 Term 4 up until now. Its called a mistake log, and I write down the date, colour-coded by subject and the explanation underneath. I usually use it for maths.
Hope this helps,
-jinx_58
jinx_58 I can vouch for the error log. In VCE we have this very easy maths subject called Further Maths (dunno what it's called for you guys), every dumb mistake in this subject is penalised by a lot (-1 mark on exam = -1 study score) cuz everyone finds it so easy. Forcing yourself to record every mistake no matter how small kinda makes you subconsciously avoid dumb mistakes, in addition to being a great revision tool to target your weaknesses
13 days later
here is my update, and phytoplankton I am going to include how the scheduling has been going to keep you updated 
.
Specialist, chemistry, English and biology assignment drafts have been handed in and I am relieved, this term there has been so much more effort put into English than I usually put in and I am proud, although math is usually my best subject I think the assignment is really going to screw me over as I have not had much practice writing math assignments.
Timewise it gets stressful at times, but I do feel on top of everything. Currently I am working Friday nights and all days on Sunday in which I bring my laptop to study on my hour break. Other than that the content increase has not been my major issue its the amount of things I have to do in such a small time that bugs me.
Note: I have been using a scheduling app, however I felt that scheduling my day by the hour wasn't going to work so i downloaded an app that would remind me of what zone I'm in, e.g. between 3-7 its in study zone, but I have a to do list that I must complete, this has made me procrastinate less and engage with the content.
Although I have been receiving answers on how to study efficiently, I don't seem to use the tips i am given, for example i just read over notes, do practice questions for math only, only do homework for English and only do flash cards for biology as well as just watching videos on physics and chemistry.
Kind regards, patty
16 days later
here is another yet happy but also sad update on the journey, I've gotten my grades back for 3 subjects, physics, English and biology. again, I'm not happy with the results bar physics, I've always been the "math's and science" student but assignment writing is where I am crap , I received an A in physics, a B in my biology report and a 15/25 in English, realistically I should've done better in my biology as I did not put as much time into it as I should've, however for English I really tried to enjoy it but I just can't. The actual content that is taught in math's and science is the easy part, it is just writing it up that I cannot do well. for context the physics result was from an exam.
I really want to get better at writing English and science reports and I do have the knowledge, but I seem to have some trouble with it all, if anyone has had this issue or knows how to improve in English and/or science reports then please share. I genuinely have been studying a lot and its good to see it pay off in recalling the content and understand it all but it sucks that I cant write good reports/ English assignments.
Anyway, I am not in a good mood after getting my English and biology so I am really going to have an even stricter schedule next term and have a heavier focus on English and Physics (I have a research report for physics and block exams for everything else so hopefully do better in the exams because that is what I am better at).
Any tips on how to improve at it? I used all the feedback, read high level responses, proofread it all but it just doesn't click in my head.
a month later
- Edited
I just wanna know the results you'll get doing all these lol. I'm thinking bout not starting 1/2 for spec but we'll see.
Mind you I'm in year 10 so giving advice from my pov is kind dumb (LMFAO). Anyways, for each assessment what I do is just write a bunch of dot-points. Dot-points, dot-points, dot-points. For assignments, make a few dot-points for each sub-section in your work on what you should do or talk about. If you feel that something isn't strong enough, like for a science ia3 your 'analysis' for example, you could add a dot-point to "write more details and how these respond to the RQ".
It's been really helpful tip for my assignments and has made doing my essays a lot easier. For exams, I just skim through as many pieces of information I can find right before the exam and recite some important facts in my head. Another tip, please go from the 1st question to last, exams are made like that for a reason!
Anyways I wish you the best of luck for your block exams and hope you find the best tips to use!
2 months later
DumbNerd sorry haven't had much time to reply but now that I'm on holidays I have time. Yay! I did well in all my exams and I did get a B in English, although it isn't what I wanted I know how I could've made it better and the mistakes I made are things that I know I wont make again.
Results for block exams:
Math methods: A+
Math specialist: B+
Chem: A
Physics: A
Bio: A-
English: B
Overall happy with most results and I am going to continue these subjects next year, was a bit disappointed with my spec result as I have been maintaining A+ in exams all year but I know I made a few careless mistakes in the test.
Also if anyone could help answer one of the questions from the test that would be great!
Prove sin(A+B)=sinAcosB+cosAsinB
We had a topic of proof and geometric proof with vectors as well as a trig topic, this was under complex unfamiliar as it combined those topics. My teacher said that the solution he expected was to use Pythagorean identity but I tried and did not get it ahah. That's it for now, I hope everyone's year has gone well and good luck with everything!
If you have any questions about the subjects don't hesitate to ask!
a month later
ok its been a couple months now and I am starting to get settled in with unit 1.
Just want to keep updating this journey to remind myself why I am doing all of this.
I have actually started enjoying bio and have nearly finished unit 1 topic 1 already (working ahead). I am thinking of doing this for all subjects except methods (worked ahead last year). do you guys have any tips on how to manage time so I am not studying for hours each day, preferably want to set aside 1 day to just relax. Spec is good but idk, I don't think I will ever "get" proof.
At this point I am just waffling ahah, just wanted to update this journey because why not.
19 days later
Leeshi Hello!
It most certainly is not easy however it is not like what I was told. I am on a spare right now so this will be rushed and if you have any further questions don't hesitate to ask! Personally I have worked ahead in physics, bio, methods and specialist. I feel like even just reading ahead consolidates what you learn in class and that has been a sole factor in why I find the amount of content alright. if you stay on top of all the notes in class, read ahead maybe 2-3 weeks you will be fine. But for me I have finished all of year 11 biology content already and just revising and perfecting memorizing everything. The content is not difficult to memorise nor understand if you try, Like for chem the concepts are challenging at first but the more in depth you get the easier it is to understand where you were at before. Don't worry about the memorization or difficulty just make sure you are willing to focus on understanding and you will be fine. Again this was rushed in the span of 2 mins so ask if you need anything else and I can reply later today!
Patty
We're allowed only six subjects but I would also like to study languages... Should I just forfeit languages because many people say that languages has a higher score for ATAR points.
Leeshi
Hello again, Honestly its all up to you. Whatever you prefer go for it. Doesn't hurt to try it
Also, although the subjects may scale higher does not mean they will get you a better score, remember, the reason they scale is because they are hard and it is better off going with a subject that you are good at and doesn't scale too well than go with a subject that scales a lot but you barely pass.
Hope this helps!
Thank you! I will see how I go for this year and see what subjects I do very well in.
Also if anyone has completed biology, chem, physics, methods and spec this is for you.
Were units 1&2 easier or the same difficulty than 3&4, I have been told this is the case for Biology but I don't know whether to believe it. Just curious and it would give me a good idea on how to prioritize my subjects.
lil N
Chemistry Unit 3 is pre chill, but Unit 4 requires you to be on the ball and a lot of memorisation. Practice questions and drawing diagrams out multiple times should help
Physics, unit 3 calculations go from linear to quadratic and it becomes slightly more complex to apply the right equations to the questions. Unit 4 really requires a lot more understanding (except topic 3, you can kinda memorise some things) than Units 1&2.
U3&4 Methods is just building upon Unit 1&2 methods so if you get the basics, you should be right.
I didn't do spesh or bio so I hope someone will answer that one.
Feel free to ask more questions,
-jinx_58
7 days later
Hello all, just want to do another update as I have received my PSMT's for methods and spec, and also have started getting closer to revision for my data tests, there is 1 per science which means I only have 3 block exams! the topics that the assignments are based on for methods and spec are piss easy, however the spec assignment required me to learn how to code to calculate the average number of times it would take for a brute force hacker to obtain a password (had to run code 10000 times), which took a while with the help of a friend. and on the other hand my methods assignment is similar to the one I had last year and so I should do better (I really should've done better last year for the PSMT).
I did a physics practical today and that was quite fun, although they are usually quite easy this one took a while to set up.
Just wanted to update this journal as it is my way of recording my progress
Patty.
Leeshi Languages dont get u really a 'higher' score, but some unis offer adjustment factors to ur atar if u do a language and if u do specialist. U get 2 points added respectively for each criteria, so if I did spec and german I would get +4 on my Atar (90 --> 94), but you dont really see that number, its just the number universities see when accepting you.
11 days later
- Edited
major question!!!
I was researching the ESP program at UQ and wondering how it works, I have a few questions and if anyone has done it before or knows the answer please help me out:
Will it replace a subject that I normally take or will it be a 7th subject?
Does it contribute to my atar? I want to take the calculus and linear algebra 1 subject and I assume it is difficult hence would be great for my atar (assuming it scales), not that it is the reason I'm doing it just curious.
Afterall, it is not the end of the world if I don't take it however I really enjoy math's and the topics that it covers are really interesting, like Taylor series. Also, i've been looking at engineering/ med so for engineering it would help but not so much med. IDK I just need help because I really want to do it but unsure if it benefits me.
Patrick.