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peter.g15

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How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« on: October 02, 2018, 09:35:51 pm »
+37
Hey all!
I've been writing this psych guide for a bit of time now and hopefully it can help you guys out if you're trying to figure out how to study well for the upcoming psych exam, or if you're doing 1/2 now and looking for advice for next year. Whatever, it is, these tips and FAQ should be of use (I hope), so enjoy!

1.   Research Methods
Research methods in psychology is probably one of the most (if not the most) important section that you need to properly apply yourself within the exams and SACs. I admit, it can be pretty tedious at times and boring, however, don’t underestimate how useful it is. Try to consistently practise identifying and operationalising your independent and dependent variables, as well as the hypothesis in a clear structure (I personally used the If-then structure as recommended by teachers). I would also recommend trying to think of potential extraneous variables (and confounding, but difficult to prove) that can be applied to many scenarios. Having said all this, do not make things non-specific to the question! (I’ll touch on this more later). As a last point, if you’re thinking of undertaking psychology at university (or extension subject), these research methods will make your life so much easier :)

2.   Scenario Questions
You may have or may not have noticed it, but the majority of questions on the psychology exams are scenario based and involve specific people and their experiments. Sure, this makes the question more ‘intesting’ and easy to remember, but it also gives examiners another reason to take marks off you. It is really simple to avoid this. You simply have to refer to the name of the person or just be specific towards what they are testing. For example, if a question asks “Identify and explain the type of reinforcement James is using to teach his dog to sit on command.”, you may answer it by saying: “James is using positive reinforcement as he provides his dog a treat every time he sits on command. Thereby increasing the likelihood that his dog will sit on command in the future as a desirable stimulus (food) has been provided.”.

3. Practice Questions
Personally, the best way to study for a content heavy subject such as psych is to do practice questions and not to spend your time trying to remember every single detail of your notes. This will not work because some examiners can be quite picky on the wording you use. Therefore, practice writing answers and marking them (harshly) to see how you can better improve your answers. Writing in dot points is also allowed in the exam (and most likely SACs too),  so this can help you to structure your answers clearly. However, it is not necessary and could disadvantage you if you aren’t used to it. I didn’t use dot-points in the exam, but I did try it out in my SACs and it was helpful at times.

Also, checkpoints are useful, however are not necessary. Last year, I didn’t purchase checkpoints for psychology and still got a 50. However, I did go through past VCAA exams myself and do the relevant questions. You might ask, “what about practice exams at the end of the year? Won’t seeing the questions ruin it?”, however, I honestly doubt that you’ll remember the questions you do throughout the year, unless they are particularly memorable or difficult. So I wouldn’t worry too much. If anything, it’s preparing you for what the real exam should be like (hopefully) because VCAA will ask questions in the similar way each year.

4. Revise consistently
Having said to ‘not memorise your notes’, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t revise at all. What I mean is that you should be revising every week (or preferably every class) to review what you do and don’t know. This is a lot easier if you’re doing psych early and don’t have other 3/4 subjects to balance. Saying that though, I wasn’t able to stick to this all year round and definitely took time off. However, please make the effort to not cram and to either revise notes, or do practice questions throughout the year.

Another tip is to try to link different concepts together throughout the year. For example, stress from Unit 3 AOS1 can relate to Unit 4 AOS2 mental health section. Drawing links together will help you at the end of the year when revising and also when answering that 10 marker at the end of the paper.
I also would have another piece of advice regarding this, and it’s a bit of an annoyance of mine, but here it goes. Please, please, please, please, please, pleasseeeee do NOT re-write your notes as a method of studying for something. Not only does it take up your time, but it also doesn’t work since you’re simply copying out your notes. Instead, you might want to make your notes more concise or more neatly organised (easier on the computer obviously), that’s fine, but please don’t re-write your notes to study for the exam.

5. Ask Questions
Another useful piece of advice would be to ask your teacher or your friends (if you trust them haha) any confusing topics or questions that you come across. Or, you can always post them here on AN and someone should be able to give you a good answer ;). I also found it useful to answer questions that other friends may ask me. If I was able to change the way I thought about the concept to match the way they needed it, it shows a deeper understanding of the topic and will help you understand it. Alternatively, you can teach your bedroom wall (or walls of your house). It might sound crazy (and look), but I would sometimes walk around with my notes and talk to an imaginary person and try to explain the concept I’m trying to remember.

Frequently Asked Questions
1.   How many practice exams did you do?

I did 26 exams all together. However, in no way are these full length exams where every question is relevant. In fact, all of my exams except for about 3-4 were not from the current study design. Obviously, doing more exams in Year 11 is easier than if you’re doing psych in year 12. However, it is the quality of your exams and your marking/learning that is most important. What I mean by this is that you have to mark these exams as if you were a grumpy VCAA examiner who still has 200 papers left to mark by the end of this week. If you miss a keyword, take the mark. Don’t think to yourself “Oh, that’s what I meant to say”, because examiners can’t read your mind (luckily lol). All in all, you’ll probably end up marking more critically than how they mark, but this will teach you proper question technique and refine your answers to the necessary bits. After marking your exams, take note of what areas your knowledge/skill is lacking in and try to revise your notes in that area or practice more questions around that area.

2.   Did you type or handwrite your notes?
 Throughout the year, I handwrote my notes and they were basically straight copies of the powerpoint (bad idea too). However, I found that handwriting was a bit of a pain and couldn’t be easily edited and reorganised. So, I actually started to re-write my notes (gasp), however, I was summarising them and re-wording them as I went – I choose to give myself an OK for this. Having said this, I would recommend that you stick to one method throughout the year and don’t change (unless you really have to or really want to). I personally endorse the typed notes method, but hand writing exam answers (sorry trees) since that’s what the exam requires.

3. How do you tackle the 10 marker?
Well, there’s no doubt that it’s a hard question to answer and very few people score 10/10 (or even 9/10) - really, I don't even know what I got either. However, I would recommend trying to plan it out like an essay of sorts. I would underline the text given to me (beware of this because they will sometimes slip in another command term within the ‘junk’ text) and find out what they want me to answer. I would then plan it out as best as possible and think of all the inter-relations that the topic may have (as I said before, link your concepts together). I would then use this plan to write out the response as clearly as possible. Remember, this isn’t meant to be a giant slab of text. You are definitely allowed to (and I would encourage it) to use headings, subheadings and possibly tables. This will make the information easier for you to scan through and for the examiner to read (you want them in a good mood). I personally think that there are really only two main topics they can ask due to their size. Those being related to sleep, or mental health. I personally predict that mental health will be the topic of the 2018 exam. However, knowing VCAA, they may throw a curveball and give you something different, so be prepared.

4. Did you do tutoring?
No. I didn’t to tutoring for any of my subjects in Year 11 (accounting and psychology) or Year 12 except for English language. Tuition isn’t really necessary, however, if you feel that you need someone to mark your questions, explain it in a different way to your teacher or just to simply go ahead, by all means, get a tutor. (I’m considering tutoring in 2019 depending on uni btw :o).

5. Did you go to revision lectures/purchase extra resources?
I did purchase notes at the start of the year and used them at the start (plus the research methods section), however, I used them less and less towards term 2 when I found that they were too in depth and difficult to follow for myself. So I just used my own notes. I did also go to a revision lecture at school (run by Connect), however, I didn’t find it useful since it was a very brief overview of the subject. I also bought the NEAP SmartStudy exam and question booklet the start of the year. It was basically just extra questions to do before SACs, however, sometimes the solutions wanted a lot more from your answer than what VCAA typically wants. Otherwise, it provided some good resources for the 10 mark question at the end.

Can’t speak for the other lecturing companies as I’ve never tried them, but you can’t really go wrong with anything free

6.   What SAC scores did you get throughout the year?
Honestly, I never like answering this question since it can make it seem impossible/give false hope in your results. This is because each schools’ SAC difficulty is different from each other and therefore cannot be compared. I also have no clue how hard my school’s SACs are, but I assume they’re on the tougher side (no clue) since we’ve had six raw 50 scores in the past two years (three in 2017 and three in 2016), plus a premier’s in each year. You can also probably find my school now, but oh well haha. So all in all, please don’t be disheartened/too ego-boosted when you see my scores here:
-   Unit 3: 93%, 95%, 92%, 83%
-   Unit 4:  100%, 96%, 94%

With the exam, I have no clue what I got since I didn’t order a statement of marks (a 50 is a 50!), but I assume a high A+. All my GA’s on the scores page were A+ obviously.

Please do take these results with a grain of salt though. In the end, the exam is what counts (a whopping 60%, plus it scales your SACs). In addition, one lower score will not ruin your dreams of a 50. When I got that 83%, I was honestly pretty cut about it and I thought a 50 was out of the question, but obviously, I was very wrong. So if you get a score that drops from your usual range, please don’t be disheartened and treat it as a learning opportunity. In the end, individual SACs by themselves play an insignificant role and don’t truly matter that much (still try your best though). Also, keep in mind that I was a Year 11, so I had a lot more time compared to Year 12s undertaking the subject to revise/do questions/exams. However, just because you are in Year 12 doesn’t change anything. The other two 50s at my school were Year 12s ;)

7.   Day before and of the exam
The day before, I didn’t do a practice exam or any psych questions. Instead, I chose to do some light reading of my notes and stay off social media (I was scared of friends asking my stuff and getting stressed – turns out every one shut off social media though). I got an early night of sleep and took it easy.
Day of the exam, I woke up really early for some reason (I think 6 something), which is unusual since I normally only wake up at 8 on most days. I did some light reading of notes again (not necessary) and had a good breakfast and mostly tried to stay calm (this was my first ever VCAA exam). I got school like 30 minutes early (as recommended) and talked with friends – obviously no one was stressing each other out and we were encouraging each other.

During the exam, you start off and you might be a bit nervous, but you’ll get right into it and the nerves should disappear. I also did the exam from front to back cover, no jumping around. During reading time, I focused on the large slabs of text in the paper (2017) and thought about the 10 marker.

_________________________________________________________________________________________
Anyway, that's it! Hopefully all of this covered everything that most people want to know, otherwise, feel free to PM me some questions. I’ll probably be pretty busy coming up to exams now, but I’ll do my best to answer them :)

Good luck!
- Peter
« Last Edit: October 02, 2018, 09:37:36 pm by peter.g15 »
2019 - 23: Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine @ Monash University

Bri MT

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2018, 10:01:40 pm »
+9
I just thought of an acronym for the approach Peter has described for us (and which I support/believe in)

Teach
Ask
Practice
Scenario


Thank you Peter for a great post!


Edit: I've added this to the resources thread
« Last Edit: October 03, 2018, 04:15:02 pm by miniturtle »

lleeea

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2018, 10:19:46 pm »
-1
Hey all!
I've been writing this psych guide for a bit of time now and hopefully it can help you guys out if you're trying to figure out how to study well for the upcoming psych exam, or if you're doing 1/2 now and looking for advice for next year. Whatever, it is, these tips and FAQ should be of use (I hope), so enjoy!

1.   Research Methods
Research methods in psychology is probably one of the most (if not the most) important section that you need to properly apply yourself within the exams and SACs. I admit, it can be pretty tedious at times and boring, however, don’t underestimate how useful it is. Try to consistently practise identifying and operationalising your independent and dependent variables, as well as the hypothesis in a clear structure (I personally used the If-then structure as recommended by teachers). I would also recommend trying to think of potential extraneous variables (and confounding, but difficult to prove) that can be applied to many scenarios. Having said all this, do not make things non-specific to the question! (I’ll touch on this more later). As a last point, if you’re thinking of undertaking psychology at university (or extension subject), these research methods will make your life so much easier :)

2.   Scenario Questions
You may have or may not have noticed it, but the majority of questions on the psychology exams are scenario based and involve specific people and their experiments. Sure, this makes the question more ‘intesting’ and easy to remember, but it also gives examiners another reason to take marks off you. It is really simple to avoid this. You simply have to refer to the name of the person or just be specific towards what they are testing. For example, if a question asks “Identify and explain the type of reinforcement James is using to teach his dog to sit on command.”, you may answer it by saying: “James is using positive reinforcement as he provides his dog a treat every time he sits on command. Thereby increasing the likelihood that his dog will sit on command in the future as a desirable stimulus (food) has been provided.”.

3. Practice Questions
Personally, the best way to study for a content heavy subject such as psych is to do practice questions and not to spend your time trying to remember every single detail of your notes. This will not work because some examiners can be quite picky on the wording you use. Therefore, practice writing answers and marking them (harshly) to see how you can better improve your answers. Writing in dot points is also allowed in the exam (and most likely SACs too),  so this can help you to structure your answers clearly. However, it is not necessary and could disadvantage you if you aren’t used to it. I didn’t use dot-points in the exam, but I did try it out in my SACs and it was helpful at times.

Also, checkpoints are useful, however are not necessary. Last year, I didn’t purchase checkpoints for psychology and still got a 50. However, I did go through past VCAA exams myself and do the relevant questions. You might ask, “what about practice exams at the end of the year? Won’t seeing the questions ruin it?”, however, I honestly doubt that you’ll remember the questions you do throughout the year, unless they are particularly memorable or difficult. So I wouldn’t worry too much. If anything, it’s preparing you for what the real exam should be like (hopefully) because VCAA will ask questions in the similar way each year.

4. Revise consistently
Having said to ‘not memorise your notes’, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t revise at all. What I mean is that you should be revising every week (or preferably every class) to review what you do and don’t know. This is a lot easier if you’re doing psych early and don’t have other 3/4 subjects to balance. Saying that though, I wasn’t able to stick to this all year round and definitely took time off. However, please make the effort to not cram and to either revise notes, or do practice questions throughout the year.

Another tip is to try to link different concepts together throughout the year. For example, stress from Unit 3 AOS1 can relate to Unit 4 AOS2 mental health section. Drawing links together will help you at the end of the year when revising and also when answering that 10 marker at the end of the paper.
I also would have another piece of advice regarding this, and it’s a bit of an annoyance of mine, but here it goes. Please, please, please, please, please, pleasseeeee do NOT re-write your notes as a method of studying for something. Not only does it take up your time, but it also doesn’t work since you’re simply copying out your notes. Instead, you might want to make your notes more concise or more neatly organised (easier on the computer obviously), that’s fine, but please don’t re-write your notes to study for the exam.

5. Ask Questions
Another useful piece of advice would be to ask your teacher or your friends (if you trust them haha) any confusing topics or questions that you come across. Or, you can always post them here on AN and someone should be able to give you a good answer ;). I also found it useful to answer questions that other friends may ask me. If I was able to change the way I thought about the concept to match the way they needed it, it shows a deeper understanding of the topic and will help you understand it. Alternatively, you can teach your bedroom wall (or walls of your house). It might sound crazy (and look), but I would sometimes walk around with my notes and talk to an imaginary person and try to explain the concept I’m trying to remember.

Frequently Asked Questions
1.   How many practice exams did you do?

I did 26 exams all together. However, in no way are these full length exams where every question is relevant. In fact, all of my exams except for about 3-4 were not from the current study design. Obviously, doing more exams in Year 11 is easier than if you’re doing psych in year 12. However, it is the quality of your exams and your marking/learning that is most important. What I mean by this is that you have to mark these exams as if you were a grumpy VCAA examiner who still has 200 papers left to mark by the end of this week. If you miss a keyword, take the mark. Don’t think to yourself “Oh, that’s what I meant to say”, because examiners can’t read your mind (luckily lol). All in all, you’ll probably end up marking more critically than how they mark, but this will teach you proper question technique and refine your answers to the necessary bits. After marking your exams, take note of what areas your knowledge/skill is lacking in and try to revise your notes in that area or practice more questions around that area.

2.   Did you type or handwrite your notes?
 Throughout the year, I handwrote my notes and they were basically straight copies of the powerpoint (bad idea too). However, I found that handwriting was a bit of a pain and couldn’t be easily edited and reorganised. So, I actually started to re-write my notes (gasp), however, I was summarising them and re-wording them as I went – I choose to give myself an OK for this. Having said this, I would recommend that you stick to one method throughout the year and don’t change (unless you really have to or really want to). I personally endorse the typed notes method, but hand writing exam answers (sorry trees) since that’s what the exam requires.

3. How do you tackle the 10 marker?
Well, there’s no doubt that it’s a hard question to answer and very few people score 10/10 (or even 9/10) - really, I don't even know what I got either. However, I would recommend trying to plan it out like an essay of sorts. I would underline the text given to me (beware of this because they will sometimes slip in another command term within the ‘junk’ text) and find out what they want me to answer. I would then plan it out as best as possible and think of all the inter-relations that the topic may have (as I said before, link your concepts together). I would then use this plan to write out the response as clearly as possible. Remember, this isn’t meant to be a giant slab of text. You are definitely allowed to (and I would encourage it) to use headings, subheadings and possibly tables. This will make the information easier for you to scan through and for the examiner to read (you want them in a good mood). I personally think that there are really only two main topics they can ask due to their size. Those being related to sleep, or mental health. I personally predict that mental health will be the topic of the 2018 exam. However, knowing VCAA, they may throw a curveball and give you something different, so be prepared.

4. Did you do tutoring?
No. I didn’t to tutoring for any of my subjects in Year 11 (accounting and psychology) or Year 12 except for English language. Tuition isn’t really necessary, however, if you feel that you need someone to mark your questions, explain it in a different way to your teacher or just to simply go ahead, by all means, get a tutor. (I’m considering tutoring in 2019 depending on uni btw :o).

5. Did you go to revision lectures/purchase extra resources?
I did purchase notes at the start of the year and used them at the start (plus the research methods section), however, I used them less and less towards term 2 when I found that they were too in depth and difficult to follow for myself. So I just used my own notes. I did also go to a revision lecture at school (run by Connect), however, I didn’t find it useful since it was a very brief overview of the subject. I also bought the NEAP SmartStudy exam and question booklet the start of the year. It was basically just extra questions to do before SACs, however, sometimes the solutions wanted a lot more from your answer than what VCAA typically wants. Otherwise, it provided some good resources for the 10 mark question at the end.

Can’t speak for the other lecturing companies as I’ve never tried them, but you can’t really go wrong with anything free

6.   What SAC scores did you get throughout the year?
Honestly, I never like answering this question since it can make it seem impossible/give false hope in your results. This is because each schools’ SAC difficulty is different from each other and therefore cannot be compared. I also have no clue how hard my school’s SACs are, but I assume they’re on the tougher side (no clue) since we’ve had six raw 50 scores in the past two years (three in 2017 and three in 2016), plus a premier’s in each year. You can also probably find my school now, but oh well haha. So all in all, please don’t be disheartened/too ego-boosted when you see my scores here:
-   Unit 3: 93%, 95%, 92%, 83%
-   Unit 4:  100%, 96%, 94%

With the exam, I have no clue what I got since I didn’t order a statement of marks (a 50 is a 50!), but I assume a high A+. All my GA’s on the scores page were A+ obviously.

Please do take these results with a grain of salt though. In the end, the exam is what counts (a whopping 60%, plus it scales your SACs). In addition, one lower score will not ruin your dreams of a 50. When I got that 83%, I was honestly pretty cut about it and I thought a 50 was out of the question, but obviously, I was very wrong. So if you get a score that drops from your usual range, please don’t be disheartened and treat it as a learning opportunity. In the end, individual SACs by themselves play an insignificant role and don’t truly matter that much (still try your best though). Also, keep in mind that I was a Year 11, so I had a lot more time compared to Year 12s undertaking the subject to revise/do questions/exams. However, just because you are in Year 12 doesn’t change anything. The other two 50s at my school were Year 12s ;)

7.   Day before and of the exam
The day before, I didn’t do a practice exam or any psych questions. Instead, I chose to do some light reading of my notes and stay off social media (I was scared of friends asking my stuff and getting stressed – turns out every one shut off social media though). I got an early night of sleep and took it easy.
Day of the exam, I woke up really early for some reason (I think 6 something), which is unusual since I normally only wake up at 8 on most days. I did some light reading of notes again (not necessary) and had a good breakfast and mostly tried to stay calm (this was my first ever VCAA exam). I got school like 30 minutes early (as recommended) and talked with friends – obviously no one was stressing each other out and we were encouraging each other.

During the exam, you start off and you might be a bit nervous, but you’ll get right into it and the nerves should disappear. I also did the exam from front to back cover, no jumping around. During reading time, I focused on the large slabs of text in the paper (2017) and thought about the 10 marker.

_________________________________________________________________________________________
Anyway, that's it! Hopefully all of this covered everything that most people want to know, otherwise, feel free to PM me some questions. I’ll probably be pretty busy coming up to exams now, but I’ll do my best to answer them :)

Good luck!
- Peter
thx peter for your encouraging post. u must have put an enormous amount of hard work in psych to get that phenomenal study score of 50!!wow, geezzz... even im in year 11 doing year 12 psych, and im llikee stressing so much coz the exam is coming up (ahhhh) and im still struggling with short answer questions and extended response. i did pretty well in all the sacs tho this year, like my average for unit 3 was 91.3%, and my average for unit 4 was 98%, but thats bcoz my schools sacs are vvvv easy, but i know my sacs score are nothing compared to the exam. like i dont know its just very hard to word ur responses in the way vcaa wants it and thats why i get them wrong ya know. for example, if a question is like worth 3 marks or something about the gas or something, it is hard to determine if you have to write about cortisol and its effects on body or about the three stages of gas in relation to the scenario

peter.g15

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2018, 10:39:19 pm »
+3
thx peter for your encouraging post. u must have put an enormous amount of hard work in psych to get that phenomenal study score of 50!!wow, geezzz... even im in year 11 doing year 12 psych, and im llikee stressing so much coz the exam is coming up (ahhhh) and im still struggling with short answer questions and extended response. i did pretty well in all the sacs tho this year, like my average for unit 3 was 91.3%, and my average for unit 4 was 98%, but thats bcoz my schools sacs are vvvv easy, but i know my sacs score are nothing compared to the exam. like i dont know its just very hard to word ur responses in the way vcaa wants it and thats why i get them wrong ya know. for example, if a question is like worth 3 marks or something about the gas or something, it is hard to determine if you have to write about cortisol and its effects on body or about the three stages of gas in relation to the scenario

Those are great scores! Don't worry too much about how easy/hard your school's scores are since there is nothing you can do about it. The best you can do is try your best for the exam. As with finding it hard to figure out what VCAA wants, the only real way to get better with it is to practice answering questions and mark it. That way, you learn from your mistakes and apply the newly learned response to the next question :) Good luck!
2019 - 23: Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine @ Monash University

Joseph41

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2018, 09:44:53 am »
+1
Peter, this is fantastic! Awesome work, and congrats on your 50. :)

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SameManSame123

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2018, 06:28:31 pm »
0
Hi! I am currently looking for advice for the Psychology exam! (its 15 days away :'( ). At this point in time, what would be the best method of practice in order to achieve high on the exam? I have already made notes that i believe are sufficient and am running out of practice exams to do! Any advice? :D Much appreciated. :3

peter.g15

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2018, 10:42:49 pm »
+2
Hi! I am currently looking for advice for the Psychology exam! (its 15 days away :'( ). At this point in time, what would be the best method of practice in order to achieve high on the exam? I have already made notes that i believe are sufficient and am running out of practice exams to do! Any advice? :D Much appreciated. :3

If you're running out of practice exams to do, I take it that you have done all the VCAA ones + company exams for both current and past study designs? How have they been going, are there tough questions that you have noted down? If so, I'd suggest re-doing those questions. Otherwise, I would try to practice for the 10 mark question by writing a good page of information (exam lines) on a particular topic that could be posed by VCAA this year.

Otherwise, you can always sift through the psych question thread and try to answer the questions/teach the questions to people :)

Hope that helped
- Peter
2019 - 23: Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine @ Monash University

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2018, 08:00:02 pm »
0
Hi Peter, slightly off topic here, however, I noticed that you undertook UMEP Psychology and achieved a 4.5. May I ask where you did it and how you enjoyed it (plus time commitments??)?? Thanks! P.S. I think I actually bought your Psych notes for this year - very helpful for reference to make sure I was on track!
2017 - Present: Admin @ VCE DiscussionSpace on Facebook
2018: Psychology [50]
2019: English Language [50], Legal Studies [50], Mathematical Methods [49], Economics [48], French [48]
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peter.g15

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2018, 12:00:21 pm »
+3
Hi Peter, slightly off topic here, however, I noticed that you undertook UMEP Psychology and achieved a 4.5. May I ask where you did it and how you enjoyed it (plus time commitments??)?? Thanks! P.S. I think I actually bought your Psych notes for this year - very helpful for reference to make sure I was on track!

Hey Balfe!

I'm glad the notes were of help! I hope the exam went well for you :)

For UMEP, I did it at the University of Melbourne. You basically do first year Psychology as if you were in BSc or BA. You'll be doing PSYC10003/PSYC10004 and be studying with nornal uni students. I personally found first semester (yep got cut off here) more enjoyable than second semester since the specific lectures were simply more interesting to me, but it's still write enjoyable. As far as time commitment, there are 3 x 1hr lectures per week and 1 x 2hr compulsory tutorial class - 5 hours a week total. I honestly didn't do much study outside of the lectures and spent about a week revising before the exams. The assignments weren't too difficult and your tutors are really helpful with how to approach it (however, they are REALLY picky with APA formatting in semester 2)
« Last Edit: December 06, 2018, 09:05:32 pm by peter.g15 »
2019 - 23: Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine @ Monash University

Balfe

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2018, 02:44:20 pm »
0
Hey Balfe!

I'm glad the notes were of help! I hope the exam went well for you :)

For UMEP, I did it at the University of Melbourne. You basically do first year Psychology as if you were in BSc or BA. You'll be doing PSYC10003/PSYC10004 and be studying with nornal uni students. I personally found first semester

Hi Peter, sorry, did your text get cut off here - just cause 'I personally found first semester...'
2017 - Present: Admin @ VCE DiscussionSpace on Facebook
2018: Psychology [50]
2019: English Language [50], Legal Studies [50], Mathematical Methods [49], Economics [48], French [48]
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2020 - 2023: Bachelor of Law (Jurisprudence) @ The University of Oxford

peter.g15

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #10 on: December 06, 2018, 09:06:46 pm »
+3
Hi Peter, sorry, did your text get cut off here - just cause 'I personally found first semester...'


Haha yep, I thought it didn't go through, but apparently it did... I've finished it off now :)
2019 - 23: Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine @ Monash University

litlit05

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2018, 10:49:29 am »
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So today i woke up to find out that i got 40 n psychology 3 and.4.being a yr 11 student. i didnt realise i would get so high like i honestly didnt work hard at all until like the very end of the term or smtn. like i thought i would get at least like 20 or 25 given that i procrastinated a lot n still struggled with writing topnotch answers like a few weeks n months prior to the exam. this study score honestly exceeded my expectations
my score is not as immensely amazing as peters 50, but im gonna share a few tips n tricks that i think were responsible for my reasonablly high study score (that i still cant believe i got lol)
-have a really good grasp of research methods from unit 1 and 2. research methods is one of the components that forms the foundation of psych 3 and 4. in unit 1 and 2 i jus hated research methods bc it was so dry n boring n i didnt understand anything. but the sooner u get a headstart on research methods, the better u r off in psych. for unit3 n 4, i pretty much did all of research methods before school started. i knew it was one of my weakest areas, so i spent more time in it. mostly for research methods, i like wrote notes about everything examinable from the cross study specifications (i.e. sampling procedures, types of extraneous/confounding variables, etc, looked up videos of research methods, wrote their pros n cons in a table like format. i actually rote learned n memorised it back to front throughout the year as i knew i needed to nail it. i guarantee u if ur rrsearch methods is really good n u have like 0% knowledge of content.or.smtn, ur marks will go up for sure. research methods pops up on every exam, so get readdyyy for thatttt. n i know that it can be boring n dry, but sometimes u gotta force urself to study it(i think after sometime, i strarted to.enjoy research methods. u can find many questions on.research methods in ur textbook, online, etc
-AVOID ROTE LEARNING N MEMORISATION-one of the things that i learnt throughout the year is to never rote learn or memorise every single definition or word in the textbook as jus memorising everything wont lend u a high score. for real success, u need to be able to understand the content very well n apply that to scenarios or even to the world around u bc psych is very relevant to how we n others personally act n behave. i think i realised the importance of not rote learning after i did my first 2 sacs, where for study, i jus memorised and repeated information in my head for many days without really engaging with it or adding meaning to it, which is called maintrnance rehearsal in psych terms. i didnt really know how to apply the content to scenarios n answer questions clearly in the sac, i jus simply wrote the plethora of knowledge i had, instead of actually answering the question. n believe me i didnt do well on the sacs, i got like 87-8% on them as i lacked the ability to apply and express my knowledge in clear concise terms. at this point, i knew i was screwed n knew i wouldnt do well or even worser on the exam as i jus didnt know how to apply my knowledge. vce is all about knowing how to understand, apply and express ur understanding of content in sweet, sharp simple terms (like u would explain it to a child or a person with no.knowledge of psych). in order to imorove, i tried to engage with the info in a more fun n meaningful way i.e. by making flashcards, making my notes short, simple n colourful (highlighting is really useful)but spending the majority of my study time on prsctise questions (i.e. ffom vcaa websitr, atar notes prac questions, aplus notes qs, etc). n guess what, in my subsequent sacs my scores dramatically skyrocketed, from a 88 to a 98% in my next sac. i was happy as ever n from that point,.i realised the sheer importance of practice questions n being able to apply ur understanding n add meaning to the info u r learning, known.as elaborative rehearsal in psych terms.
 being a shy student, i was also kinda reluctant to ask questions to my teacher, ask for feedback on my written responses. i think if i asked more qs and asked her for more feedback, then i would have gotten a more higher score maybe. while rote learning may be essential when learning key definitions n stuff (i.e. dare thing in counsciousness), i stress dont waste ur time learning definitions coz vcaa rarely asks them n it even puts unecessary pressure on ur memory lol. therefore i cannot emphasize how important being able to apply is in psych as simply rote learning is not going to give u a 40 or 50 study score. ur goal here is to understand the info as well as u can, not just blindly memorise n reurgitate it like some mindless robot.
-BE SMART IN.UR LEARNING (WORK SMART, NOT HARD)-studying 24/7 is not good for ur phys and mental wellbeing. i think initially i started to study a lot for psych as it was my only unit 3 n 4 subject n i would usually stay up until very late to write all my notes n stuff. but u have to.be smart in.ur learning. this means u should only learn n commit to ur memory the things from the study design as that is the only thing vcaa can examine.nothing else outside of that. so dont waste ur time learning info that is not specifically outlined in the SD n try to devote ur time to ur hobbies n family n stuff, one of my.hobbies was to listen to music, dance in front of the tv, spend time with my mum, it really helped me distress n just get a break from that suicidal study environment. personally, i used to do psych every day, but whenever i felt low or jus not motivated, i wouldnt study n jus did other things. days before a sac, i.would usually jus briefly n lightly revise my notes as my main study usually involved doing prac questions. DONT be too harsh n strict on urself, dont think catastrophically if u get a bad sac grade or smtn, u can still improve ur grades in many ways. even sometimes i became lethargic n jus exhausted mentally n physically, which led to me procrastinating but that is okay as long as u get back.in track. its not the end of the world. I thought of vce as any other year n that was the mindset that helped me get thru it.
LISTEN N TRY TO FOLLOW OTHER STUDENTS/SIBLINGS ADVICE WHO HAVE DONE WELL IN VCE OR THAT SUBJECT
-even my sister got a raw 40 for psych. but honestly, i should have used her more and asked for more help from her as she clearly had done very well as well. i never really took on her advice n always ignored it n that was one of my.biggest mistakes. but i started getting more help at the end of the year when i was freaking out as hell, n she corrected all my prac.exams, tests for me, which was really really useful for me n im so lucky n grateful to her today. therefore, if YOU HAVE ANY OLDER SIBLINGS or anyone else (i.e. teacher, past student)who has done pretty well, use them as much as u can they can be a pretty valuable resource, help u test n clarify ur knowledge, correct ur practice exams for ya n stuff.
GET UR HAND ON MANY PRACTICE QUESTIONS AS.U POSSIBLY CAN
As i.said before,.i actually realised the importance of prac questions in like late term 2 or smtn which is not too late. in.order to succeed, u need to have exposure to a variety of questions as u can. after i did my first sac, i noticed.that the teachers.were.kinda copying and pasting.questions from vcaa past papers n other companies or that the questions were.very same but phrased in a different way. so start doing more of these vcaa exams so u r well prepared to tackle those questions in the sac as teachers often copy them from past exams as they r very lazy sometimes lol. in order to get the most of practice questions, u must check vcaas answers in examiners report after u do a question or smtn. the examiners report should be a bible bc it basically gives away what a good answer is according to vcaa n tells u what key points to include in ur answers . jus checking the answers n not even attempting the question is not good as ur jus cheating urself. doing practice questions and writing ur own responses to questions is soo so important as.it gives u an indication of where ur understanding is at. whenever my answer to a q was incorrect or incomplete, i went to the examiners report and wrote down the q n the answer they had and were expecting in this special “questions n answers” book i created for myself. i would constantly read this book n after a while, my answers started to replicate those of vcaa as i kinda had a good idea of what and how much info they were expecting. i also wrote down other details about the question in my book, such as amount of students that got that q right in previous exams and put an astrixis or smtn next to a question if i needed to concentrate on it or study it more. i kinda also noticed that vcaa tended to ask more questions that majority of students got wrong in previous exams more (i.e. leading questions)n they often repeated those questions in the next exams so i focused my study towards those areas where students generally do poor in, so i was able to tackle them.well in.sacs or the exam.
in addition, in scenario type questions. u should aim to be as clear as possible by linking ur answer to the scenario and including the persons name in the scenario throughout ur answer as much as possible. i.e. if a question.asks like “why would elaborative rehearsal be a more effective way of learning the words for Amy”, u should say “Elaborative rehearsal would be a more effective technique for Amy to learn the words as it would help add more meaning to the words, allowing deeper level processing, encoding and storage of that info or smtn.in her memory. this shows the examiner that u can both understand the content and apply it or link to the scenario well. SO Start practicising using those names in ur answer..for those interested in knowing what exam companies i used, i basically did exams from vcaa(as they are.the most close to the real thing), n i also got access to some papers from insight, neap, tssm. i didnt really like neap or tssm as they were too easy n.jus not representative of the real exam,.which was way more harder and application driven. but i would.recommend insight as there 10 markers n short n mcqs r really good. i didnt count how many i did, but i.know.that i.did  like 20.or.25 at best in.the lead up to the exam. if ur not comfortable with the most recent exams,.start doing the ones.from.2002( thats what i did at first) as they r pretty easy to start off with n will help u build ur confidence even tho.some qs may be irrelevant .
furthermore, i urge u to do these practice.questions in.timed.conditons. personally i did not do.them.in.time.conditions and that was one of my biggest mistakes as i ran out of time in the exam n didnt finish my 10 marker due to lack of practice doing questions in time.conditions. practising questions.in timed conditions will help u build speed n stamina while wriiting. it is also important to ensure ur handwriting.is as neat and clear as possible as i.understand, handwriting.can become.pretty shit n illegible in.timed conditons (thats what happened.to.my writing.in. the exam,.so.im.still shocked why i got so high lol). but u need to train.urself to.write neatly, legibly, within the marked boundaries.and quickly simultaneously, which can be pretty hard.
10 MARKER
10 marker.in psych is where most marks go. at the start of the year, i was so overwhelmed and.scared.coz i jus didnt.know how.to.write or approach 10 markers. i jus.didnt.know what.to.write coz it was so broad n after i saw.the.question., i realised u needed detailed knowleege of the concepts n needed.to dwelve in.it.very deeply. at that point, i was very.scared coz.i jus had surface level understanding.of the info n didnt know.it very deeply. therefore, it is very important to think and understand all the info very deeply and make connections bw different.areas.of study i.e.links between GABA dysfunction in specifoc phobia and nervous system. i think i.started to do.this in like late term.3 or.smtn.coz.i was.very lazy.and.being a procrastinator,.i tended.to.avoid.these.questions..often due to lack.of.knowledge or confidence.to tackle.them (WHICH I SUGGEST U DO NOT DO). to prepare, i.suggest u make a clear.plan before u start writing so u have a good.idea.of.what u gonna write so u dont become redundant.or repetitive. i seriously dunno how.i. got a plus.on.the exam.as.i..didnt.get.time to finish.the.10.marker, only answered 1 OR 2 parts of the question out of 3 and i didnt really dwelve into it deeply as i was.really stressed n jus couldnt think that deeply so.i jus wrote whatever. but i SUGGEST U PRACTICE 10 MARKERS AS EARLIER AND MUCH AS YOU CAN(IN TIMED CONDITIONS.IF U CAN) N ALSO GET FEEDBACK ON EM SO U BECOME MORE.COMFORTABLE WITH THEM N AVOID SITUATIONS LIKE.MINE. SO THE POINT HERE IS THAT IN 10 MARKERS, YOU SHOULD WRITE BASICALLY EVERYTHING U KNOW AND.EXPLAIN.THE INFO LIKE U WOULD.EXPLAIN TO A CHILD, SIMPLE, CLEAR YET DETAILED MANNER IN PARAGRAPHS LIKE IN AN ENGLISH ESSAY. I totally understand,.it is normal.to be freaked.out by 10.markers, but the more u practice, the less stressful it becomes
UNDERESTIMATE.YOURSELF IN THE SUBJECT-
psych is a really interesting subject, thus many students choose it. this means it is very popular and if people.r.more.interested in it n enjoy it, the more.likely they are.to do well in it and.try hard.for.it. as there were lots of students.in the psych cohort and it was the most popular subject, i knew.i.was.up to.some.big..competition.as most people in my cohort.aced their.sacs n were.equally as or even better.than me.in the subject. Thus if u want that 40 or above study score u gotta work pretty damn.hard as u r not only in competiiton with ur school mates, but with the students in the rest of the state doing psych. not only that, psych examiners tend to.be the most harsh and pickiest out of all so ur answers gotta be topnotch and include all necessary info. while psych is easy to learn its the ability to apply that info effectively that seperates the best students from the others. u.need.to appreciate the true difficulty in achieving a high score and underestimate ur ability in the subject..this will make u work more harder and better ur game in the exam.
LAST.but not the least, stay calm.and collected throughout the year. even tho a bad.sac grade can affect.ur ranking in.ur cohort, it is ur performance in the exam that counts.the.most. dont let a bad sac grade lower ur self esteen, believe in urself.and learn to recover from.setbacks. i seriously am.in.astonishment right now but i realised that hard work.does pay off. good luck.to all those doing psych next year. it really is a very great n enjoyable subject n i can.assure u that implementing the right study techniques,.doing.prac qs n having.the right mindset is the key to success not only in psych but other subjects as well. ON the exam day, i was obviously stressed and overwhelmed which aggravated when i saw other students who i thought were way better than me. but i didnt let their presence and apprehensions hinder my performance. if u know the content well, u will be fine. its not the end of.the.world.if.u.dont get the study score u desired :) These are some of the tips i think r vv important and.owe my success to n i hope that they may be of good use to all those doing psych next year

Fluffyvan_222

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #12 on: August 01, 2019, 05:53:44 pm »
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Hey all!
I've been writing this psych guide for a bit of time now and hopefully it can help you guys out if you're trying to figure out how to study well for the upcoming psych exam, or if you're doing 1/2 now and looking for advice for next year. Whatever, it is, these tips and FAQ should be of use (I hope), so enjoy!

1.   Research Methods
Research methods in psychology is probably one of the most (if not the most) important section that you need to properly apply yourself within the exams and SACs. I admit, it can be pretty tedious at times and boring, however, don’t underestimate how useful it is. Try to consistently practise identifying and operationalising your independent and dependent variables, as well as the hypothesis in a clear structure (I personally used the If-then structure as recommended by teachers). I would also recommend trying to think of potential extraneous variables (and confounding, but difficult to prove) that can be applied to many scenarios. Having said all this, do not make things non-specific to the question! (I’ll touch on this more later). As a last point, if you’re thinking of undertaking psychology at university (or extension subject), these research methods will make your life so much easier :)

2.   Scenario Questions
You may have or may not have noticed it, but the majority of questions on the psychology exams are scenario based and involve specific people and their experiments. Sure, this makes the question more ‘intesting’ and easy to remember, but it also gives examiners another reason to take marks off you. It is really simple to avoid this. You simply have to refer to the name of the person or just be specific towards what they are testing. For example, if a question asks “Identify and explain the type of reinforcement James is using to teach his dog to sit on command.”, you may answer it by saying: “James is using positive reinforcement as he provides his dog a treat every time he sits on command. Thereby increasing the likelihood that his dog will sit on command in the future as a desirable stimulus (food) has been provided.”.

3. Practice Questions
Personally, the best way to study for a content heavy subject such as psych is to do practice questions and not to spend your time trying to remember every single detail of your notes. This will not work because some examiners can be quite picky on the wording you use. Therefore, practice writing answers and marking them (harshly) to see how you can better improve your answers. Writing in dot points is also allowed in the exam (and most likely SACs too),  so this can help you to structure your answers clearly. However, it is not necessary and could disadvantage you if you aren’t used to it. I didn’t use dot-points in the exam, but I did try it out in my SACs and it was helpful at times.

Also, checkpoints are useful, however are not necessary. Last year, I didn’t purchase checkpoints for psychology and still got a 50. However, I did go through past VCAA exams myself and do the relevant questions. You might ask, “what about practice exams at the end of the year? Won’t seeing the questions ruin it?”, however, I honestly doubt that you’ll remember the questions you do throughout the year, unless they are particularly memorable or difficult. So I wouldn’t worry too much. If anything, it’s preparing you for what the real exam should be like (hopefully) because VCAA will ask questions in the similar way each year.

4. Revise consistently
Having said to ‘not memorise your notes’, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t revise at all. What I mean is that you should be revising every week (or preferably every class) to review what you do and don’t know. This is a lot easier if you’re doing psych early and don’t have other 3/4 subjects to balance. Saying that though, I wasn’t able to stick to this all year round and definitely took time off. However, please make the effort to not cram and to either revise notes, or do practice questions throughout the year.

Another tip is to try to link different concepts together throughout the year. For example, stress from Unit 3 AOS1 can relate to Unit 4 AOS2 mental health section. Drawing links together will help you at the end of the year when revising and also when answering that 10 marker at the end of the paper.
I also would have another piece of advice regarding this, and it’s a bit of an annoyance of mine, but here it goes. Please, please, please, please, please, pleasseeeee do NOT re-write your notes as a method of studying for something. Not only does it take up your time, but it also doesn’t work since you’re simply copying out your notes. Instead, you might want to make your notes more concise or more neatly organised (easier on the computer obviously), that’s fine, but please don’t re-write your notes to study for the exam.

5. Ask Questions
Another useful piece of advice would be to ask your teacher or your friends (if you trust them haha) any confusing topics or questions that you come across. Or, you can always post them here on AN and someone should be able to give you a good answer ;). I also found it useful to answer questions that other friends may ask me. If I was able to change the way I thought about the concept to match the way they needed it, it shows a deeper understanding of the topic and will help you understand it. Alternatively, you can teach your bedroom wall (or walls of your house). It might sound crazy (and look), but I would sometimes walk around with my notes and talk to an imaginary person and try to explain the concept I’m trying to remember.

Frequently Asked Questions
1.   How many practice exams did you do?

I did 26 exams all together. However, in no way are these full length exams where every question is relevant. In fact, all of my exams except for about 3-4 were not from the current study design. Obviously, doing more exams in Year 11 is easier than if you’re doing psych in year 12. However, it is the quality of your exams and your marking/learning that is most important. What I mean by this is that you have to mark these exams as if you were a grumpy VCAA examiner who still has 200 papers left to mark by the end of this week. If you miss a keyword, take the mark. Don’t think to yourself “Oh, that’s what I meant to say”, because examiners can’t read your mind (luckily lol). All in all, you’ll probably end up marking more critically than how they mark, but this will teach you proper question technique and refine your answers to the necessary bits. After marking your exams, take note of what areas your knowledge/skill is lacking in and try to revise your notes in that area or practice more questions around that area.

2.   Did you type or handwrite your notes?
 Throughout the year, I handwrote my notes and they were basically straight copies of the powerpoint (bad idea too). However, I found that handwriting was a bit of a pain and couldn’t be easily edited and reorganised. So, I actually started to re-write my notes (gasp), however, I was summarising them and re-wording them as I went – I choose to give myself an OK for this. Having said this, I would recommend that you stick to one method throughout the year and don’t change (unless you really have to or really want to). I personally endorse the typed notes method, but hand writing exam answers (sorry trees) since that’s what the exam requires.

3. How do you tackle the 10 marker?
Well, there’s no doubt that it’s a hard question to answer and very few people score 10/10 (or even 9/10) - really, I don't even know what I got either. However, I would recommend trying to plan it out like an essay of sorts. I would underline the text given to me (beware of this because they will sometimes slip in another command term within the ‘junk’ text) and find out what they want me to answer. I would then plan it out as best as possible and think of all the inter-relations that the topic may have (as I said before, link your concepts together). I would then use this plan to write out the response as clearly as possible. Remember, this isn’t meant to be a giant slab of text. You are definitely allowed to (and I would encourage it) to use headings, subheadings and possibly tables. This will make the information easier for you to scan through and for the examiner to read (you want them in a good mood). I personally think that there are really only two main topics they can ask due to their size. Those being related to sleep, or mental health. I personally predict that mental health will be the topic of the 2018 exam. However, knowing VCAA, they may throw a curveball and give you something different, so be prepared.

4. Did you do tutoring?
No. I didn’t to tutoring for any of my subjects in Year 11 (accounting and psychology) or Year 12 except for English language. Tuition isn’t really necessary, however, if you feel that you need someone to mark your questions, explain it in a different way to your teacher or just to simply go ahead, by all means, get a tutor. (I’m considering tutoring in 2019 depending on uni btw :o).

5. Did you go to revision lectures/purchase extra resources?
I did purchase notes at the start of the year and used them at the start (plus the research methods section), however, I used them less and less towards term 2 when I found that they were too in depth and difficult to follow for myself. So I just used my own notes. I did also go to a revision lecture at school (run by Connect), however, I didn’t find it useful since it was a very brief overview of the subject. I also bought the NEAP SmartStudy exam and question booklet the start of the year. It was basically just extra questions to do before SACs, however, sometimes the solutions wanted a lot more from your answer than what VCAA typically wants. Otherwise, it provided some good resources for the 10 mark question at the end.

Can’t speak for the other lecturing companies as I’ve never tried them, but you can’t really go wrong with anything free

6.   What SAC scores did you get throughout the year?
Honestly, I never like answering this question since it can make it seem impossible/give false hope in your results. This is because each schools’ SAC difficulty is different from each other and therefore cannot be compared. I also have no clue how hard my school’s SACs are, but I assume they’re on the tougher side (no clue) since we’ve had six raw 50 scores in the past two years (three in 2017 and three in 2016), plus a premier’s in each year. You can also probably find my school now, but oh well haha. So all in all, please don’t be disheartened/too ego-boosted when you see my scores here:
-   Unit 3: 93%, 95%, 92%, 83%
-   Unit 4:  100%, 96%, 94%

With the exam, I have no clue what I got since I didn’t order a statement of marks (a 50 is a 50!), but I assume a high A+. All my GA’s on the scores page were A+ obviously.

Please do take these results with a grain of salt though. In the end, the exam is what counts (a whopping 60%, plus it scales your SACs). In addition, one lower score will not ruin your dreams of a 50. When I got that 83%, I was honestly pretty cut about it and I thought a 50 was out of the question, but obviously, I was very wrong. So if you get a score that drops from your usual range, please don’t be disheartened and treat it as a learning opportunity. In the end, individual SACs by themselves play an insignificant role and don’t truly matter that much (still try your best though). Also, keep in mind that I was a Year 11, so I had a lot more time compared to Year 12s undertaking the subject to revise/do questions/exams. However, just because you are in Year 12 doesn’t change anything. The other two 50s at my school were Year 12s ;)

7.   Day before and of the exam
The day before, I didn’t do a practice exam or any psych questions. Instead, I chose to do some light reading of my notes and stay off social media (I was scared of friends asking my stuff and getting stressed – turns out every one shut off social media though). I got an early night of sleep and took it easy.
Day of the exam, I woke up really early for some reason (I think 6 something), which is unusual since I normally only wake up at 8 on most days. I did some light reading of notes again (not necessary) and had a good breakfast and mostly tried to stay calm (this was my first ever VCAA exam). I got school like 30 minutes early (as recommended) and talked with friends – obviously no one was stressing each other out and we were encouraging each other.

During the exam, you start off and you might be a bit nervous, but you’ll get right into it and the nerves should disappear. I also did the exam from front to back cover, no jumping around. During reading time, I focused on the large slabs of text in the paper (2017) and thought about the 10 marker.

_________________________________________________________________________________________
Anyway, that's it! Hopefully all of this covered everything that most people want to know, otherwise, feel free to PM me some questions. I’ll probably be pretty busy coming up to exams now, but I’ll do my best to answer them :)

Good luck!
- Peter


Hi! thank you for the tips this is a great achievement well done! I'm doing Psych 3/4 and skipping 1/2 next year in year 11. Will i need to catch up on a lot? I am also doing another VCE subject so i am worried that I will struggle to catch up.
What are the topics i should be learning before the start of next year? thank you :)

Bri MT

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Re: How I got a Raw 50 in Psych
« Reply #13 on: August 01, 2019, 07:36:30 pm »
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Hi! thank you for the tips this is a great achievement well done! I'm doing Psych 3/4 and skipping 1/2 next year in year 11. Will i need to catch up on a lot? I am also doing another VCE subject so i am worried that I will struggle to catch up.
What are the topics i should be learning before the start of next year? thank you :)

Hi! Welcome to ATARnotes :)

I'm not peter.g15 but I've made a guide on what to study if you're doing psych 3/4 without 1/2
Psych is one of the subjects where units 3&4 don't rely on units 1&2 and it's pretty common to study it without 1&2.

Good luck :)