Changes to study designs!! Thoughts?

[TheEagle]

Hey Guys!

As some of you may know, the study designs for further, methods, spesh, English language and biology have changed recently for 2020. What are everyone's thoughts?

MOD EDIT: removed all caps title

[Geoo]

I just had a look at the methods one and at first look i'm happy yet scared.
Unit three is now worth 22% of the study score. My unit three SAC to which there is only one is worth 22%. That is so much pressure my god. That is the equivalent of one exam!!!!
And it's next week and I haven't prepared. So i'm terrified.

What's made me happy is they removed like half of unit four. I hate probability, so i'm content with that. The SACs are going to be worth less too which is great, only 12%.

When was this released?

[TigerMum]

For those confused, here are the edited study designs for 2020.

New Mathematics Study Design
New Biology Study Design
New English Language Study Design

[TheEagle]

I just had a look at the methods one and at first look i'm happy yet scared.
Unit three is now worth 22% of the study score. My unit three SAC to which there is only one is worth 22%. That is so much pressure my god. That is the equivalent of one exam!!!!
And it's next week and I haven't prepared. So i'm terrified.

What's made me happy is they removed like half of unit four. I hate probability, so i'm content with that. The SACs are going to be worth less too which is great, only 12%.

When was this released?

Same Haha! You'll be fine.
I wonder how doing practice exams will be, being careful to content that isn't going to be assessed this year.

[Geoo]

Same Haha! You'll be fine.
I wonder how doing practice exams will be, being careful to content that isn't going to be assessed this year.

Thank you for the encouragement, I hope so!

Yeah the practice exams will be interesting!

Do you guys think other subjects will me modified as well? Like chem or psych are really large, so you'd think they would be adjusted.

[TheEagle]

Thank you for the encouragement, I hope so!

Yeah the practice exams will be interesting!

Do you guys think other subjects will me modified as well? Like chem or psych are really large, so you'd think they would be adjusted.

I hope so... I believe they will, probably by tomorrow morning most will be updated. I don't know if I am going to sleep tonight, it feels like I'm getting my Atar in the morning haha! So many mixed feelings about this...

Imagine scoring a 50 in a subject this year and offering tutoring the following year, only to teach a portion of the course as you didn't cover the whole study design

[whys]

Personally, I really didn't wish they changed the study designs to such a large extent. I felt my heart drop as I saw more than half of unit 4 bio removed from the course. I'm also worried about the changes to how much each SAC is worth - I hope they don't drastically increase it for subjects like English.

There's nothing we can do but keep pushing on. I guess the positives are that we have so much time to study for the exams - and so little content to cover for it, since practically half of unit 4 has been removed for each subject. I fear that these drastic changes would have more of an adverse impact, but we will see as the year progresses and once exams are over.

[J_Rho]

I guess the positives are that we have so much time to study for the exams - and so little content to cover for it, since practically half of unit 4 has been removed for each subject.

I think the changes won't be bad, like obvs finding out is always going to be bad but I feel like we will grow to accept and even like the fact the course is smaller. The only issue would be people that would have worked ahead, but I don't see too much of an impact as they know more than required and not less but it would be hella frustrating. With regard to biology, i looooove how they've taken out the dot points that arent particularly difficult and kept the harder ones so that they can still differentiate students in the exam.


Bruhhhh, they too out the dot point about the BMP4 gene in cichlids and finches! 
They really do not need to take so much out of the Bio course!!!
Whos interested in me making a breakdown of the study design and what we now need to know and some notes???

also, what? we only need to study one module for further?

[ashmi]

Personally, I really didn't wish they changed the study designs to such a large extent. I felt my heart drop as I saw more than half of unit 4 bio removed from the course. I'm also worried about the changes to how much each SAC is worth - I hope they don't drastically increase it for subjects like English.

There's nothing we can do but keep pushing on. I guess the positives are that we have so much time to study for the exams - and so little content to cover for it, since practically half of unit 4 has been removed for each subject. I fear that these drastic changes would have more of an adverse impact, but we will see as the year progresses and once exams are over.

They did release one for English too...
Unit 3 is now worth 30% while Unit 4 they got rid of the Oral presentation and is only worth 20% now. Each SAC is worth a lot more than it should be now so this is going to be interesting to see how the 2020 cohort does.
I'm wondering what is going to happen to the other science subjects now (Will Chem, Physics and Psych follow in the same direction?)

Edit: Here is the link https://vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/adjustedSD2020/2020EnglishEALSD.pdf

[J_Rho]

They did release one for English too...
Unit 3 is now worth 30% while Unit 4 they got rid of the Oral presentation and is only worth 20% now. Each SAC is worth a lot more than it should be now so this is going to be interesting to see how the 2020 cohort does.
I'm wondering what is going to happen to the other science subjects now (Will Chem, Physics and Psych follow in the same direction?)

WAIT WHAT. NO ORAL PRESENTATION! that's like one of the only things i can score well in and like you mean my gross C+ is worth more?

[ashmi]

WAIT WHAT. NO ORAL PRESENTATION! that's like one of the only things i can score well in and like you mean my gross C+ is worth more?

Yep (Stuck in the same boat with you)
I'm so sad Oral Presentation is out as that was probably my best shot of redeeming some 'flop' scores. Literally the best thing in English is gone
I guess we are all in the same boat though but it's going to be super hard to moderate scores for any of these subjects too. I wonder how they are going to do it? The only thing I'm looking forward to seeing is how the grade distribution goes this year.

[ArtyDreams]

Yep (Stuck in the same boat with you)
I'm so sad Oral Presentation is out as that was probably my best shot of redeeming some 'flop' scores. Literally the best thing in English is gone
I guess we are all in the same boat though but it's going to be super hard to moderate scores for any of these subjects too. I wonder how they are going to do it? The only thing I'm looking forward to seeing is how the grade distribution goes this year.

OMG no ORAL??? Mine is due today and I'd put so much effort 

[eloisegrace]

I'm kind of annoyed about the SACs, especially for methods as they contribute to way more of the study score than I thought they would individually. However, I am excited about the exams due to slightly reduced content which I think everyone will appreciate towards the end of the year.

I wonder how they will structure the further exam when there is only one module selected by students?

[J_Rho]

So reading the english study design.....has oral presentation basically been changed to presenting argument?

[angrybiscuit]

Don't know how to feel about shortened study designs. On one hand, you need to cover less in a longer period of time, on the other hand, they can go very in-depth into the accessible topics. I don't know if it's just me but I tend to do better in exams rather than tests that cover one topic.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like we're not having the extended investigation for biology? I guess that's a plus.

EDIT: Wow okay they took out heaps of the probability and statistics stuff for methods and spec so I'm very happy about that