CLASS OF 2018!

[Calebark]

How can I study "smarter" and not "harder" so that the time i spend studying is useful and effective?

There was a discussion on that here. I'll post the most pertinent response:

I haven't thought about what I'm going to type yet, so you might come across a bunch of somewhat connected thoughts, but here are some ideas:

1. Limiting distractions. Don't take your phone into your study area. If you're trying to right an essay but are checking Facebook every three minutes, or if you're midway through a conversation with a friend, of course your work will suffer. You will lose your train of thought easily, and it's often quite difficult to get back into the 'study mindset'. Speaking of your study area:

2. Differentiate where you work and where you study. So for me, I never, ever studied in my room during VCE (I do now, but only due to necessity haha). Otherwise, I feel it's rather easy to get confused. For example, if you're trying to study on your bed (as I know a lot of people do), it would be easy to be tempted to just doze off for ten minutes (three hours).

3. Don't try to push yourself unnecessarily. If it's 10.30pm and you're absolutely knackered, go to bed. Sleep. If you have something that you really need to do, consider waking up early and doing it in the morning.

4. Prioritise. Do what you need to do - not what you want to do. I sometimes found myself doing countless hours of, say, VisCom in order to avoid Further, which I found relatively uninteresting. In one sense, that's a good form of procrastination. But in another sense, I would have benefitted much more from studying what I actually needed to study at the time.

5. Use to-do lists. I live by to-do lists and absolutely love them. Be organised. Have a diary. Do whatever it takes for you to feel on top of things. Sometimes, the hardest bit about studying is actually starting. I found that strategies like these help in that process, limiting time where you know that you should be studying, but you're not.

All of these strategies, really, are about efficiency. Why spend three hours on something when you can do it in an hour? Why struggle half-doing an essay for four hours when you can smash it out in two? It's all about being smart with your study strategies, and I guess that's what gives birth to the 'study smart, not hard' phrase. Of course, that's not to say that you shouldn't work hard; it just means that you shouldn't work hard fruitlessly (this evoked a mental image for me of studying next to a basket of fruit haha).

[snowisawesome]

Thanks calebark 

[sweetiepi]

I know I'm a few hours late, but all the best for the year fam, and we're all here for you!

[S200]

I know I'm a few hours late, but all the best for the year fam, and we're all here for you!

Thanks Insani...

[Joseph41]

How have you all enjoyed your first (for some subjects, at least) Year 12 classes?

[Bri MT]

Did you have first assembly for the year?
Do you have a common room?
Any study periods?

[sarangiya]

How have you all enjoyed your first (for some subjects, at least) Year 12 classes?

They've all been great bar psych.
Especially chemistry!

Did you have first assembly for the year?
Do you have a common room?
Any study periods?

We did. I didn't find it as entertaining/interesting as other years, but it was good nonetheless.
We don't have a common room but we have a shared kitchen. Common room would have been cool but I think our school is surprisingly short on space.
18 a fortnight. Pretty good so far

[Yertle the Turtle]

How have you all enjoyed your first (for some subjects, at least) Year 12 classes?

I've really enjoyed Physics and Chemistry, they have always been my favourite subjects, and we've now spent so long on Projectile Motion in Physics, and find that in last years exam there was one Projectile Motion question worth 11% of the total!! Yay! Methods has been OK, pretty easy still, and English and Texts downright boring, but maybe they'll pick up...

Did you have first assembly for the year?
Do you have a common room?
Any study periods?

First assembly was basically outlining the rules of the school to the Year 7s and telling the students how the building work is going, pretty useless and boring, but hey, it got us off an English period! We did have a common room, but because of building works it has become a maths classroom
I do have "study periods" in the library, but that is my time for doing my distance Specialist Maths, so it doesn't really count. Otherwise none, since I've got a 6 subject load this year.

[Bri MT]

That sounds tough. I used to use my Eng Lang [distance ed] periods for other subjects anyway just because I found it easier to work on distance ed from home but I'm guessing that you did the same thing last year and have an established routine? 

I'm suprised to hear that you're studying projectile motion.  Are you starting circular motion or fields soon?

[Yertle the Turtle]

That sounds tough. I used to use my Eng Lang [distance ed] periods for other subjects anyway just because I found it easier to work on distance ed from home but I'm guessing that you did the same thing last year and have an established routine? 

I'm suprised to hear that you're studying projectile motion.  Are you starting circular motion or fields soon?

Yeah, I actually do a lot of the distance ed stuff at home, but last year I found Spesh really easy. I don't expect to find the same this year, but fingers crossed

We started projectile motion last year right after exams, since the last topic we had studied in Unit 2 was Sport, and before that the Motion section, so these both supported the projectile motion part. We are about to move on to circular motion, and then on to fields.

[chooby]

How have you all enjoyed your first (for some subjects, at least) Year 12 classes?

They've all been pretty good so far. Physics, especially since the teachers are so active and adamant about us learning the subject. It's really engaging!!

Did you have first assembly for the year?
Do you have a common room?
Any study periods?

Yep had an assembly first thing in the morning. Think the thing that stood out to me was all the new teachers that were being introduced for all the subjects. It's just a lot of teachers that are completely new to the school so I guess it kinda weird.

School's pretty open plan so no real common room but there's a bunch of rooms that we can hang in and just chill so they're awesome.

I'm thankful to have a lot of study preiods this year because I do MUEP Chem and I did Biology last year so I have a free period every day and it's a good time to relax and look forward.

[Yertle the Turtle]

A couple of weeks in! How's everyone feeling? Any SACs coming up? Everyone enjoying their subjects?

I'm certainly loving all of my subjects except English Physics and Chemistry are awesome, Methods is pretty cool too, and Spesh hasn't really started yet... Pretty good start to the year for me!

[Poet]

Oh, sup y'all. Neat thread we got going here.
To answer the question, Biology is a killer. Does anyone truly understand more than 25% of the content? I'm strugglin' y'all.

[Sine]

Oh, sup y'all. Neat thread we got going here.
To answer the question, Biology is a killer. Does anyone truly understand more than 25% of the content? I'm strugglin' y'all.

Biology is defintiely one of the tougher subjects VCE can offer. What specific aspects are you finding tough? Remember ATAR Notes free help and advice if you ever require it.

If you haven't seen already here is the VCE Biology Question Thread for any subject questions you (or anyone else) wants to ask?

Also if you are interested here is a thread cookiedream posted last night where she went into detail on what she did to put her in a position to achieve a 50 in bio there is an abundance of more resources just like this on the biology board.

[Poet]

Biology is defintiely one of the tougher subjects VCE can offer. What specific aspects are you finding tough? Remember ATAR Notes free help and advice if you ever require it.

If you haven't seen already here is the VCE Biology Question Thread for any subject questions you (or anyone else) wants to ask?

Also if you are interested here is a thread cookiedream posted last night where she went into detail on what she did to put her in a position to achieve a 50 in bio there is an abundance of more resources just like this on the biology board.

Thanks, Sine, I'll take the advice and the links! It's nothing specific, just the general difficulty grasping the idea of tiny things in their billions, every one of them riddled with strange names and theories, the sheer volume of the subject. Also a sense of inferiority, my older sister got a 42 in Bio, and I'm just not that 'smart'. I do try, though.  (And TBH, this is probably the best place to complain about my misgivings, because people are darn helpful!)