Hey everyone hope y'all staying sane during the final stretch of VCE. Having survived this process exactly a year ago now I thought to procrastinate on my med exam revision to write a quick guide on some last minute prep tips.

An advice I vividly remember hearing from past students every year around this time is that “the best last-minute revision is no revision." And at the time my first reaction was WTF are you crazy???? I couldn’t comprehend how anyone could possibly not be doing anything the days before the most important exams of their life.

That was, of course, until I faced the same situation myself. That was when I realised… they were right. Doing any more practice questions or revision the days before an exam will only cause unnecessary stress for very little benefit in return. And at this point there’s nothing more important than confidence. Because what is the point of knowing everything if you don’t have the confidence or the proper focus and get it down on paper in the real deal? Now this isn't me suggesting to drop everything and put on Netflix. Instead, trust that your hard work over the course of the year is enough, and take it easy. Stay consistent but don't sacrifice your sleep or food in order to cram that extra exam. Here's what worked for me and I suggest doing. (This is going to be STEM focused since I'm a one-trick 😅 but there should be something helpful for everyone)

The Week Before

Make the most of this time! However, don’t go overboard and grind endless papers. If you feel confident enough, I would even suggest doing no extra exams, at all. It is better to use this time to review your past mistakes instead, or alternatively, doing the difficult questions in the previous exams you come across. This is a light but efficient form of study, and can also be a confidence boost! You can really see how much you have improved, and rest assured that there are countless mistakes you have discovered which you won’t make again.

The Day Before

Don’t do too much work. Put simply, no matter who you are, it is very unlikely that you will drastically improve anything in just 24 hours. Take care of yourself, take it easy, and try your best to destress. If you’d rather feel productive, you can glance through your notes, doodle a mind-map, look at your mistakes log. But make sure it’s not effort intensive, and stop as soon as you feel tired!

And also, make sure to prepare the pens, bound references, dictionaries, whatever you’ll bring to the exam room, AND MAKE SURE TO CHARGE YOUR CAS!!! Nothing worse than your CAS running out of battery in the middle of Exam 2… 😢

The Day of Exam

Hopefully you will wake up feeling refreshed from plenty of sleep. And if there’s ever a time for a healthy, nutritious breakfast, it’s now. Just don't drink too much liquid.

Make sure to get to the exam room with plenty of time to spare, and try avoid talking to other people while everyone is waiting outside. You risk hearing unhelpful information; before my exam, people wouldn’t stop hyping up conic transformations (???). It’s just not a good idea talk to stressed out people in general.

Now for the final step, just walk into the exam room, and go ace it! Good luck! Happy to answer any questions below 😃

VCE Class of 2021 (99.90)
Monash Medical School Class of 2026
RAW 50 Exam Prep Resources

This is a question for spesh in particular, but I was wondering what would u say is the best way to approach questions that are non-routine and how can I avoid mistakes. For mistakes, I've tried to reduce it down by making a mistake logbook but it doesn't work.

Is there any other ways to reduce my mistakes and are there any ways to maximise my marks for the separator questions?

Thank you for your exam tips!!

    Anthony_Watson

    Making a mistake log is definitely the right first step, but like you pointed out unfortunately by definition separator questions are non-routine and it is unlikely you would have seen a similar question before. My friend Larry (raw 50er in both MM and SM) has written quite a comprehensive guide already that you can check out, but my biggest advice would just be to focus not on the technique of solving the question but on the mindset to approach these questions. For example, your initial thought shouldn't be "which formula should I use", but working more creatively to consider all aspects of the question and trying to visualise what it is asking you to do. And that will naturally come with experience

    VCE Class of 2021 (99.90)
    Monash Medical School Class of 2026
    RAW 50 Exam Prep Resources

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