Methods/Specialist 2008

[chid]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering whether someone could tell me roughly how many marks you could lose (over both exam 1 and exam 2) to get 48+ raw in Specialist/Methods.
Just interested to see if they are as cut-throat as some of the sciences are.

Thanks.

[Collin Li]

You should be aiming to lose less than 2 marks overall. SACs should be definitely above 95% (after externalising your mark).

[cara.mel]

It's generally more cut throat then the sciences
(well, more than physics chem and bio, not sure about psych)
48, maybe 2 or 3 but you'll have to wait for people to start getting statements of marks for a better idea of how this year went

Eg I reckon I lost the same amount of marks in methods and physics

[chid]

Thanks for that 

[AppleXY]

You should be aiming to lose less than 2 marks overall. SACs should be definitely above 95% (after externalising your mark).

2 marks overall!? Comon, spec has to be more lenient than that! Oh well. (for 45)

[bebobebo]

depending on the year, even methods is more lenient. this year i dont think u needed a perfect score to get 50 and could lose 2 marks so 48 must be slightly lower

[humph]

it really does depend on the year. spec you can nearly always drop one mark and get 50, whereas most of the time you need to get perfect scores for a 50 in methods. i'd say 3-5 marks lost would get you a 48 in spec, but only 1-3 for methods. some years (2006 being one) it gets so close that SACs are crucial to separating people.

[AppleXY]

Yeah. Math subjects are cut throat. Damn, If I could just get 45 for both 'em I could easily get into the 99 club.

Gotta start working like hell. This time I will do 50+ exams, I CANNOT fail not with this determination.

[Collin Li]

Yeah. Math subjects are cut throat. Damn, If I could just get 45 for both 'em I could easily get into the 99 club.

Gotta start working like hell. This time I will do 50+ exams, I CANNOT fail not with this determination.

Dammit, how many times do I need to tell you? Efficient work is better than hard work. 50 exams isn't going to help much more than say, 10 exams. If you plotted the graph of "number of exam papers completed" vs. "study score" it would asymptotically approach 50. Your biggest gains would be your first few papers.

I'm saying this now because I don't want you to ever look back and say, "shit, I didn't make my goal: now I can't be confident about doing the actual exam!" That is wrong, you can be confident having only done as little as 5 exam papers. Just keep up consistent study habits: this is so much more valuable than high-volume cramming.

[AppleXY]

Yeah. Math subjects are cut throat. Damn, If I could just get 45 for both 'em I could easily get into the 99 club.

Gotta start working like hell. This time I will do 50+ exams, I CANNOT fail not with this determination.

Dammit, how many times do I need to tell you? Efficient work is better than hard work. 50 exams isn't going to help much more than say, 10 exams. If you plotted the graph of "number of exam papers completed" vs. "study score" it would asymptotically approach 50. Your biggest gains would be your first few papers.

I'm saying this now because I don't want you to ever look back and say, "shit, I didn't make my goal: now I can't be confident about doing the actual exam!" That is wrong, you can be confident having only done as little as 5 exam papers. Just keep up consistent study habits: this is so much more valuable than high-volume cramming.

oh ok. I just don't want to get screwed over again like accounting. It would my worst nightmare, my life will be meaningless (lol jks). I should do alot of those revision books to revise my skills in methods and spesh. Yeah, that would work. (do one rev book for SACs and the rest at exam time (not cramming style though)).

[lishan515]

Someone I know (yr 11) who got 50, she literally did every exam paper available. (Methods)

So saying that studying hard is not valid, is not entirely true. Probably in the end it she only gained a few points to her study score - she ended up higher ss than the 2 who got the internal prize(they must have had higher sac marks), but I am pretty sure that by doing all of those exam papers she would know what to expect and how to apply the skills required for all the questions. She was also naturally able... which would also be a factor.

[bebobebo]

this year's exam was so hard that all the exam practice i did was useless. there was a lot to do and little time to do it in so everyone was forced to just use their logic and analytical skills that they had gained throughout the year and apply it to different scenarios.

[Collin Li]

Someone I know (yr 11) who got 50, she literally did every exam paper available. (Methods)

So saying that studying hard is not valid, is not entirely true. Probably in the end it she only gained a few points to her study score - she ended up higher ss than the 2 who got the internal prize(they must have had higher sac marks), but I am pretty sure that by doing all of those exam papers she would know what to expect and how to apply the skills required for all the questions. She was also naturally able... which would also be a factor.

The point is (and AppleXY, the economics geek would understand):

Does the marginal benefits outweigh the marginal costs? Doing an extra exam paper: is it worth the benefits it will add to your study score? You have to consider your other option: you do nothing (or something relaxing), de-stress, and possibly get a better benefit to your score.

It depends who you are I guess, but I am warning him from making goals that he may not complete: this can psychologically hurt his confidence. Psychology is a major factor in exams.

[Eriny]

this year's exam was so hard that all the exam practice i did was useless. there was a lot to do and little time to do it in so everyone was forced to just use their logic and analytical skills that they had gained throughout the year and apply it to different scenarios.

I found that too. Practise helped me in exam 1 and helped me in a few questions in exam 2 (mostly multiple choice) but they weren't as useful as what I was hoping. Practise exams help build confidence, but I agree that you shouldn't go nuts with it. After about 15-20 or so, you probably aren't going to get much better unless you spread it out over a very long period of time.

[excal]

I tend to think of practice exams as a way to ensure I don't have any holes in my knowledge...I often find that once I do know something, I'm quite confident with it without the need of past papers; but, sometimes I forget a small area in the course ('big picture syndrome' if you will).