getting a 50 in Spesh

[Tatlidil]

Hey guys, this is my first ever post on ATARNotes.
So, two questions...

How can you get a 50 in Specialist, what does it take, if you need to know my ability I get the highest mark if not the second highest in my class and I have that skill of seeing the questions differently and so being able to answer them.

The second question is, what are the rewards for achieving a 50 raw in specialist and/or methods, like do you only get acknowledged or do you actually receive something, or go somewhere?

THANK YOU SO MUCH
ATARNOTES IS AMAZING!

[darkz]

Hey guys, this is my first ever post on ATARNotes.
So, two questions...

How can you get a 50 in Specialist, what does it take, if you need to know my ability I get the highest mark if not the second highest in my class and I have that skill of seeing the questions differently and so being able to answer them.

The second question is, what are the rewards for achieving a 50 raw in specialist and/or methods, like do you only get acknowledged or do you actually receive something, or go somewhere?

THANK YOU SO MUCH
ATARNOTES IS AMAZING!

Hi Tatlidil and welcome to AtarNotes!

Regarding your second question, there aren't really any tangible rewards for achieving a raw 50 in either methods or spesh. However, the acknowledgements that you'd receive would be getting published within the high achievers list in the newspaper i.e for all 40+ SS achievers and if you do exceptionally well and are at the top of the raw 50s, then you'd receive a premiers award!

[Tatlidil]

Hi Tatlidil and welcome to AtarNotes!

Regarding your second question, there aren't really any tangible rewards for achieving a raw 50 in either methods or spesh. However, the acknowledgements that you'd receive would be getting published within the high achievers list in the newspaper i.e for all 40+ SS achievers and if you do exceptionally well and are at the top of the raw 50s, then you'd receive a premiers award!

ooOOo Whats a premiers award
and how do you put that thing on the bottom where it shows that  (for example) [2018]biology: 50?

[Bucket Hat]

Bro.

Congrats on your enthusiasm!



Anywell, specialist maths surprisingly doesn't require a genius skillset! I think 40+ is quite achievable with consistent effort throughout the year, with an enquiring mindset and a knack for spotting patterns in questions. It's important to get good at answering quickly and reducing error (some of the biggest challenges for the best students, imo) and of course that comes with practise!

If you can sort of gamify the whole experience - know the enemy (VCAA), learn the basic theory, and then keep practising in incrementally harder tasks - I think you should improve to the point where it becomes quite doable!

Of course, if you do get this far, two challenges that come to mind are errors (for this I recommend making a list of your errors in practise exams in the month or two before exams) and the occasional really hard-to-spot intuitive connection in a question (maybe that's how specialist separates the 47's and the 50's ...)

One other thing - get really good at using your CAS calculator quickly and for a variety of problems


As for awards - premier's award is likely to come with a 50 in specialist because it's a relatively small subject. Also, my friend got 50 in systems engineering and was offered an engineering internship with a major aeronautical company, so major there's something similar for specialist? idk

Anyway good luck, and like any game - enjoy the experience!!!

[Tatlidil]

Bro.

Congrats on your enthusiasm!



Anywell, specialist maths surprisingly doesn't require a genius skillset! I think 40+ is quite achievable with consistent effort throughout the year, with an enquiring mindset and a knack for spotting patterns in questions. It's important to get good at answering quickly and reducing error (some of the biggest challenges for the best students, imo) and of course that comes with practise!

If you can sort of gamify the whole experience - know the enemy (VCAA), learn the basic theory, and then keep practising in incrementally harder tasks - I think you should improve to the point where it becomes quite doable!

Of course, if you do get this far, two challenges that come to mind are errors (for this I recommend making a list of your errors in practise exams in the month or two before exams) and the occasional really hard-to-spot intuitive connection in a question (maybe that's how specialist separates the 47's and the 50's ...)

One other thing - get really get at using your CAS calculator quickly and for a variety of problems


As for awards - premier's award is likely to come with a 50 in specialist because it's a relatively small subject. Also, my friend got 50 in systems engineering and was offered an engineering internship with a major aeronautical company, so major there's something similar for specialist? idk

Anyway good luck, and like any game - enjoy the experience!!!

Thanks man, I know what ya mean

[PhoenixxFire]

and how do you put that thing on the bottom where it shows that  (for example) [2018]biology: 50?

Hover over the profile button and click forum profile. There's a box called signature, whatever you write in there will appear at the bottom of all your posts

[Tatlidil]

Hover over the profile button and click forum profile. There's a box called signature, whatever you write in there will appear at the bottom of all your posts

DONE! Thanks now it looks cool

[AngelWings]

ooOOo Whats a premiers award

More about Premier's Awards here.

How can you get a 50 in Specialist, what does it take

Check out this article over here interviewing someone who did just that!

P.S. Welcome to AN and you can check out this board here to get an introduction to AN. All the blue words in this post are links, so just click 'em to go to them.

[Sine]

Hey guys, this is my first ever post on ATARNotes.
So, two questions...

How can you get a 50 in Specialist, what does it take, if you need to know my ability I get the highest mark if not the second highest in my class and I have that skill of seeing the questions differently and so being able to answer them.

The second question is, what are the rewards for achieving a 50 raw in specialist and/or methods, like do you only get acknowledged or do you actually receive something, or go somewhere?

THANK YOU SO MUCH
ATARNOTES IS AMAZING!

50 in spec is a lot of luck but that could be said about any subject however I think the luck factor is a lot more in spec since some years only a couple of marks can drop you down to 45-46 and only ~ 8 people get it per year. The great thing is you only need high 30's which can be reasonably secure once you learn all the content) and gets scaled up to 50.

IMO there would be a lot of people who score 40-49 in spec that are capable of 50ing but variable factors on the day of the exam resulted in a lower score. For methods the range of being capable for a 50 would probably be 46-50.

Hope this helps

[Tatlidil]

More about Premier's Awards here.
Check out this article over here interviewing someone who did just that!

P.S. Welcome to AN and you can check out this board here to get an introduction to AN. All the blue words in this post are links, so just click 'em to go to them.

Thanks! I'll have a look

50 in spec is a lot of luck but that could be said about any subject however I think the luck factor is a lot more in spec since some years only a couple of marks can drop you down to 45-46 and only ~ 8 people get it per year. The great thing is you only need high 30's which can be reasonably secure once you learn all the content) and gets scaled up to 50.

IMO there would be a lot of people who score 40-49 in spec that are capable of 50ing but variable factors on the day of the exam resulted in a lower score. For methods the range of being capable for a 50 would probably be 46-50.

Hope this helps

YES! It makes sense, ill try to prevent that

[mzhao]

Very much agree with Sine in that there will always be the luck factor. I just want to add that the difference in scaled score at the top end of Spec is VERY miniscule. In 2018:

Raw 48 -> Scaled 54.59
Raw 50 -> Scaled 55.00

So a 2 mark increase in raw score yields only a 0.41 mark increase towards your aggregate. If you had to juggle other subjects, then it would certainly be more optimal, in terms of maximising your ATAR, to work to increase your study score in another subject by 2 marks .

[Tatlidil]

Very much agree with Sine in that there will always be the luck factor. I just want to add that the difference in scaled score at the top end of Spec is VERY miniscule. In 2018:

Raw 48 -> Scaled 54.59
Raw 50 -> Scaled 55.00

So a 2 mark increase in raw score yields only a 0.41 mark increase towards your aggregate. If you had to juggle other subjects, then it would certainly be more optimal, in terms of maximising your ATAR, to work to increase your study score in another subject by 2 marks .

I actually agree with both of you.
Even though it comes down to luck for all subjects, its more so for spesh.
but you say spesh only increases by a fraction when you get closer to 50, this is the case with the ATAR as well, how much is it going to increase once you get to lets say 98?
I just want to impress, and its more impressive to get 50 raw and 97 than getting 48 raw and 98.
But please, this is my opinion and what I want to do, and I tried to make this an issue to discuss...for fun
If i am wrong or you disagree let me know!
THANKSS!

[Quinapalus]

Very much agree with Sine in that there will always be the luck factor. I just want to add that the difference in scaled score at the top end of Spec is VERY miniscule. In 2018:

Raw 48 -> Scaled 54.59
Raw 50 -> Scaled 55.00

So a 2 mark increase in raw score yields only a 0.41 mark increase towards your aggregate. If you had to juggle other subjects, then it would certainly be more optimal, in terms of maximising your ATAR, to work to increase your study score in another subject by 2 marks .

While maximising your ATAR will frequently be in the back of your mind, I feel it is always healthier to just do your very best in each subject. Personally, I always tried to do more work on my weakest subject, whatever that was at the time.