Paul’s Guide to Year 12!So, I’ve been noticing that a lot of people have been asking about Year 12, the workload, how hard other people work…etc. Well, I’m here to make a Survival Guide to Year 12 which I worked by and was able to attain the scores shown below in my signature! Hope it helps everyone! (This is also atonement for my last misdemeanour
)
Firstly, some myths! – Paul’s Top 5 Myths!Myth 1: The amount of work you do is directly proportional to your marks.False! It’s not about how much time and effort you put in, but also how well you use your time, how you prioritise and structure, how you efficiently study and also whether you’re productive during the time which you have reserved for studying. I can assure you, I did a lot better than other people who worked far harder.
Myth 2: Some people are geniuses, I can never be as good as them. False! The first step to succeeding in VCE is to have a goal and to be able to imagine your goal. Imagine yourself opening up the website and seeing your ATAR goal on the screen. Not everyone does well, but then and again, a lot of people who do well aren’t geniuses. They just work effectively, have a set goal and know what they want to do. On the flip side, a lot of smart people falter in year 12 due to over confidence and naivety.
Myth 3: Year 12 is important, my life is over if I do badly. False! First of all, think about what you want to study and consider other universities. Although engineering at Swinburne is not as great as at Monash, I have a friend who went to Swinburne and did Engineering, he has a job, he gets paid the same as his friend. His friend went to Monash. Secondly, there’s always a graduate entry pathway. Do a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts if you don’t get into your course. After three years, it’s all GPA, no-one even knows/cares about your ATAR. Transfers are also an option (but difficult). Interstate is also another option.
Myth 4: I should do high scaling subjects. False! Even though as of 2011, it is no longer possible to get 99.95 without doing Specialist Maths or a Language, it makes no sense to do only subjects that scale up. Think about it this way. If you were no good at maths and had to choose between doing Methods or doing, for example, IT Applications, you might get something like a 35 in Methods and a 43 in ITA, which essentially will scale to around the same score. So do subjects you think you will do well in, don’t do it for the scaling. Plus, languages are hard, don’t do them for the scaling unless you know what you’re in for.
Myth 5: My school is shit, my teachers are shit…(complaining)False! It doesn’t matter! Year 12 is about you! It’s not about your teacher, not about your school. You’re blessed to have such a great online community here at AN and you’ll have plenty of access to other resources outside of school. These include books, tutors, practice exams and most of all, your own effort!
Now let’s talk about time managementPaul’s block methodologyThis is the method I use to study. It’s known as the Block methodology. Instead of organising your time loosely, organise your time strictly, and follow this! If you decide to study from 6.00PM till 8.00PM, being strict about it has two benefits. Firstly, you’ll be more efficient, no more waiting around till 6.30PM and secondly, you’re more likely to persevere till 8.00PM. You’re more likely to push yourself a little harder if you get tired at 7.30PM.
Paul’s topic methodologyThis is the method I use to organise subjects. Instead of fitting subjects to allocated times, fit time to subjects. For example, you want to finish Trigonometric Functions by the end of this week. This is an example of the topic methodology. It is a lot freer, and you have the opportunity to change subjects when you get sick of it. This keeps you concentrated and doing what you most want to do. But be disciplined enough to finish it within the week though!
Paul’s rule of rests and FacebookWhat time do you get home from school? Add 30 mins. What time do you hit the bed? Subtract 30 mins. Now count the number of hours in between. This is known as your Active at Home hours! The rule of rests states that at least 30% of this time should be devoted to resting, eating and other endeavours. You don’t want to wear yourself out. The rule of Facebook states “Do Not Deactivate Facebook”. Why? Paul’s expert research shows that you’ll spend more time wondering about what’s going on than actually going on Facebook every day, which is what I did. It’s also not good to lose contact with your friends.
Now let’s talk about studyingPaul’s rule of holidaysHolidays are holidays. Spend a maximum of 50% of your holidays working. You don’t want to wear yourself out.
Paul’s rule of going ahead of your classGo ahead, but don’t aim to “finish the course” in 2 months or something crazy like that. It doesn’t help when people ask you a difficult question and you can’t answer it despite “finishing the course”. It's so much better to do one section in detail than to skip ahead because the section you've done well will give you confidence and act as a foundation for your other areas of studies. If you know that area and are exam grade, then move on, don't skip over things and rush!!
Paul’s rule of effortIn the end, it’s about you and how well you want to do with the amount you’re willing to exert. No-one can tell you how much you effort you need to put in to get a certain ATAR, that varies, but always give it your best shot and remember to not put in more effort than you are physically and mentally capable of. The ATAR gain will be minimal, if not reversed due to your frustration, health issues and f***ed up sleeping patterns.
The issue of practice exams (From the debate involving Rohitpi, Special at Specialist, b^3 and others)
Myth 1 - Doing 100 practice exams for a subject will get me good marks.False! It doesn't work that way. Remember that the most important part of doing a VCE subject is not doing practice exams, but it is knowing and understanding the material in the course. Hence, the bulk of your time throughout the year should be devoted to learning and perfecting the components of the course rather than on doing practice exams. Why do people do 100 practice exams and still underperform on exam day? They don't know the course. I only did around 15 practice exams for Methods, Spesh...etc. Even less for Physics and Chem. But I spent a lot of time learning theory, revising, doing Checkpoints...etc.
Myth 2 - I should start doing practice exams in January while I'm still on holidaysFalse! Why would you do that? Think about it. You have pretty much zero experience in the subject. I can almost assure you that you've probably rushed the course and don't even know the material properly and I can also assure you that you're probably sub-par on some other subject (this is usually English for some reason). So what should you do? If you're keen to work on the holidays and feel guilty like I did, read on.
What can I do on Holidays?First of all, make sure you read your first text for English. You won't have enough time to do this once you've started the year. After you've done that you're a little bit more free. I suggest downloading the study designs of each subject and having a read through what is required. This is important. After this, pick out what the first blob in each subject is. For Methods, it's usually the different types of functions, Trig, Exp, Polynomials...etc. For Spesh, it might be Vectors or Complex Numbers. For Chem, it's stoichiometry, gravimetric, volumetric analysis. Do these topics and these topics only in the holidays. After you've done them, get out your favourite question book (Checkpoints, Lisachem, WERMS...etc.) and do the questions relating to the area you have done. Try to perfect and improve your knowledge. This should put you in good stead for the year. Look at what you have gained:
- A good foundation for further topics
- A solid head start over what you're doing in class
- You've saved yourself about a month come September
- You know that you're perfectly good at one topic, you have confidence
When is the best time to start practice exams?The September holidays, when you have finished the course
properly. Those who are fast might like to start practice exams in August, but in reality, no sooner. Think about it this way, the course was designed for you to finish in essentially 7-8 months. If you finish it in 1-2 months, no matter how many practice exams you do, you're not going to do a good job.
Final Wishes!Good luck to all Year 12s. If I can do it, you can do it! (:
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