Countdown to the VCE Further Exam - Part 1

There are just three weeks until the VCE Further exam!

Now, some of you may be feeling a sudden overwhelming sense of doom. Or, on the contrary, maybe you’re a little too comforted that you still have several weeks to study. Whichever emotion you’re experiencing, if you follow these easy steps, that Study Score you’ve been dreaming of can become a reality.

1. Notes! Notes! Notes!

You should have already been exposed to pages upon pages of notes throughout the year. Now is the time to take those notes provided by your teachers, textbooks, or websites, and condense them into your own. Yes, a little extra effort is required, but you’ll have your bound reference book in Further exams, so having a decent set of well-constructed notes, can make or break you in time constraints. Plus, the process of compiling these notes can help you immensely in consolidating your knowledge.

Your notes should be concise. There is no point having the biggest set of notes, if you’re only going to waste time flicking through countless pages in an attempt to find one formula. So go through all your current notes and be sure to only include information on the content you don’t yet understand or remember in your new set. Leave out information on concepts you already know off by heart.

2. Know your Further exam notes!

Ensure you know your notes and where to find particular theories or formulae. Group them into their certain modules and then again into specific concepts. Use different colours for different modules to ensure you can efficiently navigate amongst your notes.

For example:

Networks and Graphs:

Common Terms:

– circuit: a path that starts and ends at the same vertex

e.g. ABCA is a circuit

3. Get organised – get printing!

(Now’s not the time to worry about the environment and all the trees consumed through printing copious amounts of pages!)

Get familiar with this Further exam archive as it will be your life for the next three weeks. Print out your relevant study modules from all past Exams 1 and 2 from the years 2006 through to 2015. Combine them into a book with the intention to complete the entire book over the next two weeks.

Begin from 2006 and work your way forward. Start off un-timed then as you become more confident, limit yourself to the restricted 1 hour and 45 minutes you will have in the actual Further exam

4. Study smart!

The most crucial part of doing practice exams is not actually completing them but rather correcting them. DO NOT just mark it right or wrong, especially not in multiple choice questions. VCAA provide you with extensive worked solutions for each question, so be sure to read through them and understand why you didn’t get the mark.

Whilst completing these practice exams you should notice obvious trends within questions. Often the same type of question will pop up in exam after exam so be sure to take note of these. Make sure you know how to answer them, as there is a high chance you will encounter a similar question on the real exam.

You should also notice trends within your own answers. What are you always getting wrong? What do you clearly already know?

Ask for help on the questions or concepts that you still don’t quite understand and move on from the questions you already have down pat.

With limited time it’s all about smart learning and focusing your attention on areas where it’s needed most.

5. Ask questions!

Over the next three weeks you’ll be working your hardest to revise and study and you might as well make your teachers work hard too. Ask them numerous questions, they’re there to help so take advantage of them.

Study now as though the exam was 2 weeks away. Take this approach so when it does come down to crunch time and the daunting Further exam gets closer, you can spend your time refining your skills rather than learning new content. Don’t leave it all to the last minute! In the end time will be your main enemy.

All the best with your studies, and stay tuned for more ATAR Notes exam prep tips over the next few weeks!