spec 1/2 sac difficulty

[tara_kittycat]

Hi,

I just finished a SAC yesterday for my Unit 1 Spec class, under Trig. The teacher made the SAC so difficult that no one in the class finished it...

I know many people (including me) in the class studied for hours for this SAC and many of us left half the test blank or guessed the questions.

Is this normal in Spec? because I really do not know what to do if every SAC will be like this.

[mabajas76]

Teachers sometimes make the first few sacs really hard to scare students in order to get them to try harder.
Anyway the sac difficulty doesn't matter, its the ranking in them and it's better to have hard sacs than easy ones.

[Synthesis62]

By trig, do you mean vectors and all that in Unit 1

Cos yeah that stuff is hard to do under strict time constraints. I had my sac on vectors last week and the questions weren’t necessarily difficult, only the time allocated was the real killer. The highest mark was like 81 and the average was 59. (a massive drop from the first sac abt combinatorics and proofs which was piss- average was around 80 😂).

Studying by doing practice papers under time constraints is always a good method of getting ready for a sac (hasn’t failed me yet - but I don’t do that so often for math sacs 😂)

[tara_kittycat]

Thanks guys,

By trig I meant the cosine, sine rules, trig identities, inverse trig functions and reciprocal trig functions. Including proofs and stuff.

I do complete practice tests under time constraints for Methods, because the teacher provides an overabundance or practice tests and resources. But for Spec we only get one or two practice resources (not tests, just worksheets) and the teacher only gives us the answers for them the night before, so we don't have time to improve on our mistakes.

I have asked the Yr 12 Spec teacher for extra resources, but this teacher isn't really helpful and just says "oh its spec, its different". *insert cringey face here*

[Synthesis62]

Ah I see the study design is much different for VCE (I’m from WA btw so I do WACE and in unit 1 I learn combinatorics, vectors in the plane and geometry).


Lmao what u said abt earlier abt not getting enough practice tests for spec, for me it’s the complete opposite.

My methods teacher is complete dogshite and although she claims she loves teaching the subject, she only likes the ‘pure maths aspects’ of it, and when pressured by students to give out practice tests, she scans OT LEE (which is a terrible study guide) and hands them out as booklets. Whereas for my spec teacher he came from teaching at a government school so has low expectations for his class (and that’s why he gave a piss easy combinatorics test to start off with lmao) but then he realised the school (around top 50ish ranking in the state) and the kids in the class are much more advanced. He makes an effort to work with us and does his absolute best to give individual help (he focuses on a lot on the quiet kids lmao). I think he’s the best teacher you could possibly get for a subject like spec, since he’s not at all conceited, to the point where you’re so far up your own ass you can’t see your mistakes (like my methods teacher).

Sorry for this not being constructive at all. I just needed to rant about methods for a bit

[beep boop]

Since its 1/2 spec, its just making sure you pass the outcomes. All vcaa needs is that you passed, thats it. Does your school have edrolo? Myabe try getting prac tests off there and see how you. Since you're in yr 11 and not in yr 12 I'd worry if I'd pass for now. Has your teacher marked and released the results yet?

[RaspberryTau]

My year 11 Spesh class was awesome... (probably best class i've ever had). We just had 3 people, and were all doing similar subjects. The teacher was great as well!

Our sacs were generally OK (a lot of them were just questions from checkpoints books/revision assignments) and of varying difficulty. All of us accelerated  y12 subjects, so didn't really put that much effort in......

Just make sure you really put in effort next year. Try and finish early, and do lots and lots of VCAA questions throughout.

Hope this helps!