Yep. Only three weeks until the Visual Communication Design (VCD) exam. That’s just twenty-one days to get ready for what I think, is probably the best exam you’ll be doing for your VCE.
What do I mean by the VCD exam being the best exam you’ll do?
Well, if you didn’t know already, the Visual Communication Design exam isn’t boring like most other subjects. This is because the VCD exam consists of more than just writing. Your drawing, and design skills, are main components to the mark allocations as well.
Quick Visual Communication Design reminders:
In the exam, you will have fifteen minutes of reading time, with one and a half hours of writing time.
The Visual Communication Design exam is worth thirty-five per cent of your entire study-score.
If you get lazy with exam revision, then your study score probably isn’t going to accurately represent the effort that you put into your folio.
In reference to my last point, I think we can all agree that this would be a terrible position to put yourself in. Well, guess what? If you give exam revision a proper crack, chances are you’re going to finish the year triumphantly.
The Fundamentals
Alright, so the first tip is the most boring – key knowledge and terminology.Revising the fundamental knowledge of Visual Communication Design is a wise thing to do. Why?
Because if you do not demonstrate your understanding of the key concepts, then you will struggle to prove to the assessor that you actually know what you’re talking about.
If you look at the VCAA Study Design for Visual Communication Design, you’ll come across pages 11-13, which literally define the broad study specifications for you.
There is also a Technical Drawing Specifications Guide, which is essentially a bible on the necessary technical drawing knowledge. Knowing this stuff well is going to bring you easy marks in the exam. Not many students are going to make the effort to become experts on the small stuff. But, the small stuff is what will make you stand out.
VCE is mostly a game of memory. Remembering the core concepts, drawing conventions, and the nitty-gritty nuances (like line styles and orthogonal drawing dimension placement) is integral for success in the Visual Communication Design exam. Old-school cue-cards can actually really help remember concise definitions for key concepts/terminology.
Furthermore, revising the core concepts and fundamental knowledge is what puts you in the best sort of position for this exam. Why won’t you be the student cracking under exam pressure, trying to recall if contrast is a design principle, or a design element? Because you’ll remember that VCAA explicitly states all the design principles on page 11 of the VCD Study Design, one of which is contrast.
Getting confident with the content negates silly exam pressure mistakes. You can achieve confidence through rigorously revising the study specifications pages.
Ok, so that’s the tedious stuff out of the way. Let’s get into the revision tactics that are unique to VCE Visual Communication Design.
Fun Practice Exams
Just in case you didn’t know already, the relevant study design for Visual Communication Design is from 2013 to 2017. If I throwback to when I studied VCD in 2014 – the only relevant past VCAA exam was 2013. Back then, I was pretty lazy, and because anything before 2013 was considered ‘irrelevant’, I didn’t complete them. Upon reflection, I advise that you do go beyond the current study design. The content before 2013 is still going to be very beneficial to your exam revision.You should also look for additional resources online, searching ‘VCE Visual Communication Design practice exam’ on Google is always a good start. Alternatively, you could ask your teachers if they have any practice papers. Getting a wide range of practice material is really going to help when it comes to maximising your revision.
Now, the reason why I have titled this section as ‘’Fun Practice Exams’’ is because that is how you ought to be thinking about them. Why? Because during the organisation of revision for all the different subjects you are studying, it would be wise to treat VCD practice exams like study breaks… kinda.
This approach might sound bizarre. But it worked for me.
Practice Exam Approach
I’m suggesting to approach the practice exams positively because of a few reasons:
– The writing aspect to the VCD exam is relatively light, and doesn’t require much heavy thinking. So, written responses don’t drain a lot of mental effort out of you. Although there may be plenty of questions requiring a written response, they will more than likely demand a concise answer that doesn’t have you writing a whole lot. *
– Many questions require you to be thinking creatively and to draw/design. Many drawing questions are worth big marks. And these big marks, aren’t difficult to get. All it takes is time management. Through doing more and more practice exams, you’re going to get quicker at particular drawing questions.
– Render questions, if included, are usually worth around 8-12 marks in most VCD exams. These questions require you to render a particular object/image, fulfilling criteria (like a design brief), with relevant non-digital media – such as pencil, marker etc. You should print out multiple copies of render questions and trial your abilities with various media to see what will produce a good quality response efficiently.
*Disclaimer: My first dot point might not always be the case. However, past VCD exams tended to give minimal line space for many written response questions (relative to the mark allocation).
In my opinion, the line space is on point with how much you should be writing. Avoid writing more than you need to. If you write excessively just to try and guarantee marks, you’re wasting time on marks you’ve probably already made. This error results in losing crucial minutes on the questions that require more time for drawing/designing.
Visual Communication Design is Refreshing
VCD practice exams are far different to theory-heavy subjects. You’re going to be drawing, designing, writing concisely, and thinking creatively. This style of exam feels refreshing, when comparing it to Psychology, or Legal etc.
So, approach VCD practice exams with a desire to do them. Have the desire to feel refreshed with what you’re doing. When you appreciate the exam itself, you can enjoy revising.
It’s a different sort of revision. A sort that gets your creative juices flowing nicely, all whilst benefiting you when the real exam comes around.
Honestly, many students could probably get an A for their VCD exam if they had all the time in the world. But the reality is – the exam is only 90 minutes. The faster you get at writing, designing, rendering, and drawing, the more time you have to complete the entire exam with high quality responses.
One last thing, make sure you hassle your teachers into marking your practice exams and providing you with feedback. Luckily, my teacher was great and really pushed me to try harder (by marking my answers critically). Make sure yours do the same.
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