In her VCE, Beth Flavelle studied all three maths subjects, so she knows what’s up. If you want your maths questions answered, click here: Further Maths | Maths Methods | Specialist Maths.

This is the thing that got me stuck when I did my VCE. I wanted my bound reference to be perfect. I wanted the sick street cred that comes with it. And I also didn’t want to go into a complete panic every time a SAC came up.

Your motivations might be different to mine, but here are a couple of things to think about when you make your bound reference.

FEATURES OF A KILLER BOUND REFERENCE

An index to keep track of each section, if you feel like numbering every page. Otherwise it’s pretty straightforward: just leave a blank page at the front and come back at the end to fill it in.

Labelling your pages is a similar, but faster, process; chuck a sticker on the outside edge of the first page and you’ll see it while you’re flipping through. If you don’t have unique stickers, writing ‘Vectors’ on the outside edge of your book works just as well. You could pop a little drawing of a vector on one of the outside corners like a flip book animation. Then, when you pass from vectors to univariate data, the image will change and you’ll know when to stop. The possibilities are pretty open, but most labels end up on the outside edge because they’re easier to see like that.

Similarly, cutting or attaching tabs or separators is another good way to find things quickly. This could include, for example, folding a dog ear on a book you’re reading. Sectioning off half a centimetre or so from the edge of your page and leaving a tab means you can just feel for the part you want to go to. Linear relations? No problem – third tab from the top.

As for actual content, topic summaries are very convenient; they’re essentially summaries of your summaries. A group of chapters from your textbook might turn out to be 8 or 9 pages in your bound reference, so you’ll have to do some flipping to find anything. A topic summary helps to avoid that – it simplifies the whole area of study by condensing it down to one page. To actually do this, drop the explanations altogether and just list the rules or diagrams, and pop your completed page at the start or end of a section. Typing this will help fit it all onto one page, but that’s optional.

Calculator guides for features on your calculator can be handy. They come in a few sizes: full written descriptions with screenshots like you’d see in your textbook, listed instructions or menu codes. I found a mix of these worked for me; sometimes I’d just write a menu code, other times I’d write instructions. It depends on how confident you are with your calculator, but if you’ve got the time (and pages) to spare, the more detailed route is the most foolproof come exam time panic.

Organisation is tough. When you’re on a page looking for something, you want to find it quickly. For example, writing formulas in red and highlighting them in yellow means that you will know without even reading it that there is a formula on the page. The easiest way to mark features on your page is with highlighters. Just chuck up a green box around your super important ‘don’t forget the dx’, or double underline titles. The possibilities are endless, but I recommend having a few coloured pens or highlighters to make it easier. I wrote all titles in black, all the boring theory in green, important notes in red, and everything else in blue. Using sticky notes is good, too – gluing one down and then writing something on top of it makes it stand out.

Typing is neater and more space efficient, but much slower. Handwriting is how most people go. It’s easy, you can do it anywhere at any time – but it can get messy and it’s hard to edit. It’s up to you.

Making a system that suits you and the supplies you have is important. If you don’t have different coloured highlighters, don’t base your system on highlighters – consider using symbols or underlining things instead. If your summary is really short, don’t bother with an index. Maybe you want to throw in a section for past exam questions. Cool – do that. It’s your summary and the chances are I will never see it!

WHEN AND HOW?

I suggest working on your bound reference every day. I would do mine at lunch times at the end of the week, but if you do more than one maths class it starts to get very tedious. 10 minutes a day (not including weekends of course) and your summary will be up to date all the time. Just make sure you do it regularly. Do it while you brush your teeth if you need to!

YOUR REFERENCE IN THE EXAM

I had a friend go into our Further exam with six duct-taped pages, and he got a 40. I had another friend go into Methods with 200 pages of summary who got under 30. Half my Specialist Maths class went into the exam with their textbooks, and most of them did quite well.

Personally, I didn’t touch my bound reference in my exams (except when I forgot what an obtuse angle was). Think of your bound reference as a manual for some arbitrary appliance in your house – you probably only care about it when you have no idea what you’re doing. You certainly don’t need the manual every time you do your laundry, and it’s the same for your maths exams. Having a perfect bound reference won’t carry you through your exam and get you a 50 (it probably doesn’t even have arms), but it can help you if you forget something.

Good luck!

Want to vent or muse about your own VCE journey? Try this thread here!