difficulty of prac exams

[MoonChild1234]

hi guys!

I was just wondering which companies have practice exams that are most reflective of the difficulty of vcaa papers, and how would you rank them on difficulty?
Also, what would you say are the hardest vcaa exams to date?

thank you!

[colline]

Hey!
I can't think of any company which 100% accurately reflects the difficulty of VCAA exams, but the ones which do a decent job are (imo) MAV, Heffernan, Kilbahah, and iTute. I feel that MAV's are slightly harder than VCAA's. Insight papers are pretty good too, and occasionally Neap, TSSM, QATS. I've heard that TSFX papers are really bad, but I don't have enough experience with them to have my own opinion.
With VCAA exams, I feel that the difficulty rises each year. I honestly thought 2019's was kind of difficult though I'm not sure whether that's just because I sat it under the pressure of exam conditions so it *felt* harder. I think the general consensus was that 2018's was quite difficult.

[MoonChild1234]

hi colline!

thanks for your reply! I've heard itute is way harder than vcaa, and some people have said that it's a waste of time attempting them. which itute exams would you say are good ones to do?

also, im currently working through some 2006 papers from various companies, the difficulty has definitely increased from then right?

[colline]

No worries

I've heard iTute is way harder than VCAA too; I've only done ~2 iTute exams, maybe they were on the easier side because I thought they were about the same level as MAV papers. iTute also formats their exams differently to VCAA's, unlike other companies which try to get theirs as close to VCAA's as possible. I wouldn't say you're wasting your time by attempting them, but maybe only have a crack at iTute after you've exhausted other company exams.

I haven't done any company exams from 2006, so I wouldn't know; but if I had to take a guess I would say the difficulty has definitely went up since then.

[Sine]

hi guys!

I was just wondering which companies have practice exams that are most reflective of the difficulty of vcaa papers, and how would you rank them on difficulty?
Also, what would you say are the hardest vcaa exams to date?

thank you!

No commercial company is at the standard of VCAA. It gets quite difficult especially in terms of the "separator questions" as VCAA have a knack in producing quite unique questions which are only replicated by the commercial companies much worse in the following year.

My personal opinion would be something like the following:

Kilbaha/itute (difficult)
Neap
MAV
VCAA (Gold standard)
Heffernan
Insight
TSSM
TSFX (easy)

VCAA being the gold standard. TSFX being easiest and Kilbaha/itute being most difficult.
The exams most similar to VCAA are MAV/Heffernan. Heffernan is great for drilling down basics and MAV extends into more difficult questions.

The year of the exam also matters. I believe iTute has gotten much easier over the past few years which is understandable when some people say it is simialar to VCAA. But the early mid 2010's are definitely not worth doing unless you are already full marking VCAA exams. Also I think tsfx has been difficult in the past but much easier now.

[S_R_K]

The commercial papers that I'd most strongly recommend are those from TWM (written by a poster here, AlphaZero).

Reasons:

Style of questions is similar to VCAA (like Heffernan)
Fair to challenging difficulty (like MAV)
No suspicious questions (like most other companies)

[MoonChild1234]

thanks guys! also for the separator questions, do you have any tips on how to tackle those? and do you think understanding those comes with practice, or just natural ability or both?

[S_R_K]

thanks guys! also for the separator questions, do you have any tips on how to tackle those? and do you think understanding those comes with practice, or just natural ability or both?

You'll only get better at them by exposing yourself to a broad range of questions and doing lots of practice. No point worrying about how much is due to "natural ability", you can't do anything about that.

[Sine]

thanks guys! also for the separator questions, do you have any tips on how to tackle those? and do you think understanding those comes with practice, or just natural ability or both?

"Natural ability' does definitely play a role since you can't exactly study for those questions directly. However, whether someone gets those quesions is also down to luck on whether it clicks for them on the day given the time constraints.

To tackle them you need to be able to think outisde of just what is taught to you throughout the year so critical thinking becomes quite important and is realtively difficult to develop over 1 year. It is moreso something that is generated over a students lifetime.

[BiggestVCESweat]

"Natural ability' does definitely play a role since you can't exactly study for those questions directly. However, whether someone gets those quesions is also down to luck on whether it clicks for them on the day given the time constraints.

To tackle them you need to be able to think outisde of just what is taught to you throughout the year so critical thinking becomes quite important and is realtively difficult to develop over 1 year. It is moreso something that is generated over a students lifetime.

I'm sure if you do enough of the "separator questions" you'll be able to do any of them.

[Sine]

I'm sure if you do enough of the "separator questions" you'll be able to do any of them.

The type of questions will be different every year so you can't really study directly for them. The best thing you can do is just try to learn as many types of tricks by going through as many exams and hope something similar comes up.

They are termed "separator" since doing all the past exams including the separator questions from previous years would not prepare you for those types of questions.

[BiggestVCESweat]

The type of questions will be different every year so you can't really study directly for them. The best thing you can do is just try to learn as many types of tricks by going through as many exams and hope something similar comes up.

They are termed "separator" since doing all the past exams including the separator questions from previous years would not prepare you for those types of questions.

No, they are termed "separator" because they separate the highest scorers from the slightly lower scorers.

[MoonChild1234]

why makes them so hard? is it hard because it's difficult to figure out what the question is asking?

[Sine]

No, they are termed "separator" because they separate the highest scorers from the slightly lower scorers.

Yeh that is the literal reason

why makes them so hard? is it hard because it's difficult to figure out what the question is asking?

Need to differentiate everyone at the top end. Coming from those who write the exams they generally want 118/120 to be a 50 so around 98%. Doing really well but still allowed to make a few mistakes.

Difficulty arises since students generally need to solve the question by doing something that they havent really done before or even thought of. I think those who learn from first principals do better due to the deeper understanding of the content over someone who just knows enough to answer generic questions. At the end however on the day the best student may just blank on these types of questions.