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Author Topic: My Further Maths experience  (Read 3133 times)  Share 

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zainaboothahir

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My Further Maths experience
« on: November 06, 2019, 07:12:12 pm »
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Hey everyone! I'm Zainab... and i just winded up Further Maths with exam 2 on Monday!
I'm in Year 11 moving to Year 12 next year (yikes) and that makes one subject done for me.
I personally thought it would be a good idea to share my few tips, advise and self-reflection with you guys, maybe it might help future students.

SACs:
So, basically when it came to SACs, my school's were of medium difficulty, so we had to study and keep up to date if we wanted to do well obviously. The SACs we did were application tasks btw.
After my Data Analysis SAC, I was 7th rank (92 %), which, I'm not gonna lie, made me upset, considering I am a Methods student and to me FM was my easy subject (personally speaking). So i decided to try harder for the next 3 SACs.
Recursion SAC came and i scored a 95% on that, was still 7th rank, was like okay i still have 2 chances left.
Then Matrices came along and i went up to 6th rank with my 97.5 % . I was being ungrateful but I was still upset. I really knew and hoped that I could get a higher position but I didn't. So I slowly started to give up. One SAC was not going to make a difference, said one side of me, the other side telling me that maybe the best was saved for last
Oh and it certainly was.
All of a sudden i jump from 6th to 2nd with a mark of 99% for Graphs and Relations. I was shook for one and was not expecting it.

The purpose of me telling you this is, JUST NEVER GIVE UP.
After one subject, I finally understand that VCE is a journey, there are definitely ups and downs, but what matters is how you are able to pick yourself up and move forward. Your time is coming, everyone will have a shot at getting their high marks and high ranks, but your turn will definitely come, and maybe, will be the highest achievement yet. Just be patient and always keep moving forward. I promise, if it worked out for a desperate gal like me, it will definitely work out for you smart people out there  ;)

Exam Preparation:
Alright, so for this part, I'm just going to give you some advise as to what worked for me:

1. Begin
The biggest mistake the people in my class made was not starting early enough. They didn't GIVE themselves enough time, hence why they ran out of time to get all their revision done before the exams. My student instincts told me that i must, must, must have enough time to process exam conditions, get enough time to sit with the content, finish my set amount of revision tasks and also give myself time to breakdown from emotional stress. I was not about to do all this last minute, hence why i started one month and 3 weeks early on.

2. Plan
Set yourself due dates. Make sure you get a paper out and write down a rough idea as to what you want to get done every day/ every week/ every two days etc.
Sometimes, things may not go as planned, but that's fine, just make sure you adjust your plan a little bit to meet your requirements and get that work done. Some people may find timetables for their day more beneficial and that's helped my friends, so go for it if it helps you. It's really up to you. Just don't be too lenient with yourself!

3. Just a little sacrifice
Okay so you'll probably finish content (hopefully) by Term 3 or maybe even 95 % of content. Those upcoming holidays, USE THEM.
People tend to party it up on the holidays, so they'll be in no mood to do work. Tell yourself: FM is gonna come once and once only. Do the work now, I can always have fun later.
Best believe i sat my butt down every single day of the term holidays and did FM. Went to a TSFX Unit 3 revision lecture for 7 hours, since Unit 3 was my lacking area, and to an Access education revision lecture in Monash uni. Both were really good, i recommend them.
It definitely paid off looking back. Once term 4 started, I was 10x times ahead, it was unbelievable how using your time wisely can put you soooo much ahead. So please please please, use your holidays wisely. I still went on a few day trips but majority, id say 90% of my time i was doing FM. I cant stress how much it helped me.

4. Ask questions
Doing trial after trial isn't going to help unless you are actually gaining something out of it. After you finish a set of exams, make sure you go and ask your teacher for help in areas you got wrong. Also add those questions you didn't get right in your bound reference, which ill talk about soon.

5. Help a friend
I found that discussing exam questions and teaching exam questions was really helpful, kind of a win-win because my friend got the help she needed and I re-consolidated content in my head. Also, teaching is a great way to help remember things and in my opinion, boost confidence. Forming little study groups or study sessions once in a while, especially with people who want the extra help or are willing to discuss certain topics is an amazing way to learn.

6. The Bound Reference
I've attached my bound reference below, and have uploaded it in the notes section.
I want you guys to understand that your Bound reference is personalized to you. So what your friend's adding, is not what you need to add. Because their needs are different to your needs.
So I started my bound reference like back in August, and handed it in for binding on October as planned.
I typed up my whole reference, which again, is totally dependent from person to person. My friends used exercise books and pasted in notes and sample questions time to time and took that into the exam. Up to you again.
The good thing about having my BR early was that i had enough time to get used to it and become more efficient with it, which was practice for the exams itself. You can't be learning in the exam itself how to use your BR or flip through pages wondering where you put that one thing. You need to get comfortable with it beforehand. So do have it ready early on, It is only going to help you. And not too much content, just summarize and put in what you need, simple as that.

7. Past exams
So i did 50 exams (25 of exam 1 and 25 of exam 2). I did VCAA questions until 2010, NHT 2017-19, TSSM trial exam package, Neap, Insight, ATAR notes (obv) and LegaC.
Also, since i had time in the beginning, I did the A+ further maths notes book, just to refresh my memory.
You will start off with low marks but don't sweat, practice will only make you more wiser, and with every exam you do, after you learn from it, you only get better and better. Again, to do all this takes time so you need to GIVE yourself time.
Also, don't get too stressed if they throw at you some random concept in the commercial exams, they're usually random, sometimes the answers are wrong, just focus more on VCAA questions and preferably, just add VCAA questions to your BR.

So that basically sums up all I had to share.
The most important thing is to believe in yourself, because that's always where it begins. Do your best, give it your absolute 100%, and whatever comes your way, just accept it as fate, there's nothing more you can do. Stand strong and keep hoping for the best and if things don't go as planned, it only means that better things await you and you are only worth bigger achievements. :)
If you guys have any questions, please feel free to ask me!!
I wish the future FM students all the very best, with all their subjects.
Good luck!

BOUND REFERENCE ATTACHED BELOW
« Last Edit: January 17, 2020, 04:02:04 pm by zainaboothahir »

Joseph41

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Re: VCE Subject Reflections - Further Maths 3&4 2019
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2019, 01:34:59 pm »
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Thanks for posting this thread. :) For anybody wondering, you will have to be logged into your ATAR Notes account to see and download the attachment.

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.