ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => Victorian Technical Score Discussion => Topic started by: aipeng on February 05, 2012, 01:04:59 am

Title: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: aipeng on February 05, 2012, 01:04:59 am
How much time would I need to study each day?
Even if I do study for 5 hours straight, I feel like I learnt nothing and I got bad memory.
Is that going to be a problem?  :-\

I'm doing
- Methods
- General Maths Advance
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Business Management
- English
- Religion ( Don't know if that counts )
Do I drop a subject next year?
What study score am I looking at to get an ATAR of above 90?
Is it hard to get above 35 on each subject?

Oh wow I'm scared I will fail myself.
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: MJRomeo81 on February 05, 2012, 03:33:26 am
Welcome to ATAR Notes!

From the sound of it you're in year 11. For subject selection I don't think GMA is a 3/4 subject, so that's automatically dropped. You have 6 subjects left. Typically you will complete one Y12 subject in year 11 and then tackle 5 subjects in Y12. Religion and Society is a VCE subect AFAIK.  The average study score (SS) is 30. Visit http://www.atarcalc.com and plug in estimated study scores to get a feel of what is required for a ATAR >=90. The site isn't dead accurate but it's a good indication.

For next year, I'd first check out the VCAA website and grab yourself a copy of each subject's study design (a document that outlines the areas of knowledge) and past exams. If you stick to study designs and focus on what's important you can ignore all of the irrelevant material in text books.

With that being said, everyone has a different method to study that works for them. 5 hours straight isn't effective at all. Taking breaks is beneficial. Studying smart is better than 5 hours of rote learning (where most people don't remember a thing). It's all about understanding the concepts and testing yourself regularly with exam-style questions.

Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you put in the hard work you will see results. That goes for anything really. Don't stress out over SACs but depending on how strong your cohort is, try and aim for the top scores internally. The exams need to be taken seriously so I strongly recommend you prepare for them.

Check out the individual subject forums here on ATARNotes if you are stuck with something in your subjects. Feel free to ask questions to the community :) Good luck!
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: Phy124 on February 05, 2012, 03:39:22 am
Welcome, aipeng

The amount of study one needs to be in is rather subjective, some students can do very little all year and do very well whilst others can study in copious amounts and not perform as well. I believe most teachers advise to do 3 hours of self-study per day in year 12, so maybe try and stick to that and see how you go.

Are all of the subjects you listed units 1&2? If so, yes you will probably have to drop at least one subject.

To achieve a 90, given you were doing the first 6 subjects on that list (GMA -> Specialist) you would need to have study scores around 33-34, but this is mainly because of spesh's large scaling.

Once again the difficulty of scoring 35 in a subject is subjective to the person undertaking the class, some find it easy, some find it hard. I can tell you, though, that a 35 corresponds to the top ~25% in a subject. Also, subjects such as spesh seem to be considerably harder to attain a high raw score.

Don't be worried if you don't do as well as you want, just work hard and try your best and remember, there are always alternative pathways for getting to your desired career.

Good luck ;)
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: monkeywantsabanana on February 05, 2012, 08:30:13 am
go here and play with scores http://atarcalc.com/
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: Starlight on February 05, 2012, 11:39:28 am
Don't even care about religion, just another useless subject they make you do, concentrate on your potential year 12 subjects.

I think you don't know what type of 'learner' you are yet, do you learn auditory? or are you a visual or kinesthetic learner?

http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm

By the sounds of it you sound like you're either a kinesthetic or visual learner. Anyway, what i'd do is as opposed to memorising definitions, instead attempt to do a bunch of problem solving questions they offer in checkpoints, and draw diagrams etc. to assist in your learning- this especially helps for biology, highlighting things can be helpful to because things tend to be easier to remember when they are in different colours.
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: Starlight on February 05, 2012, 11:40:23 am
Yeah just play on atarcalc to know which scores you need for each subject, it's about 95% accurate.
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: totaled on February 05, 2012, 11:48:32 am
Don't think so much about how many hours you need to study, but instead think about how far you want to get in say one week, two weeks, or say about two weeks before exam time. there were times in the holidays where i'd study like crazy, and many, many nights during the term where i'd do not even one bit of study. if you aim for say 5 hours a day, you may get demotivated after a while and you'll be unable to consistently do those 5 hours, and may even burn out. While having a certain goal as to how much you should study is a handy tool, it should only give you a guide on how much you really do want to study.
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: s... on February 05, 2012, 12:04:51 pm
Over 35, hey?
Okay... for chinese which I did last year and got over 35, I did about 30 mins a day for the first half of the year, during the holidays was intensive chinese for about 5-6 hours, and then about 10-15 hours per week for Term 3. When it was about 5 weeks away from the exam, it was at least 3.5 hours.
The day before the exam?: NOTHING.

so, not much to worry about.
 :)
are you doing and 3&4's this year??


p.s. just a warning: From experience, business management !&2 takes up a lot of your time. :(

prioritise your subjects!!
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: paulsterio on February 05, 2012, 01:00:50 pm
Don't think so much about how many hours you need to study, but instead think about how far you want to get in say one week, two weeks, or say about two weeks before exam time. there were times in the holidays where i'd study like crazy, and many, many nights during the term where i'd do not even one bit of study. if you aim for say 5 hours a day, you may get demotivated after a while and you'll be unable to consistently do those 5 hours, and may even burn out. While having a certain goal as to how much you should study is a handy tool, it should only give you a guide on how much you really do want to study.

That's good advice, like totaled said, you basically should aim to organise your study into large blocks. For example, if I was doing methods, I would say to myself, I want to give myself one week to finish Trigonometric Functions. So I wouldn't work on it consistently, but I would change around. If I got sick of Chem, I'd do Methods...etc. If I don't end up finishing it all in one week, does it really matter? No! Don't stress out and be flexible with your times, as long as you don't get consistently behind.

Also, use your time efficiently. I know a lot of friends who spent FAR more hours studying than I did! They basically did things they didn't need to know, things they already could do and being distracted. Whereas with myself, I'd say OK, I'll go on Skype, Facebook and read the newspaper till 6.00PM, then I'll study from 6.00PM till 8.00PM, then I'll eat. But during that 6.00PM to 8.00PM, I've already planned what I want to do, I have a glass of water there, a few chocolate bars and all my materials ready on my desk. So those 2 hours are really spent productively.

But anyway, good luck! :)
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: LOLs99 on February 05, 2012, 03:08:31 pm
Firstly, Welcome aipeng.
You don't have to study that much hour in order to achieve a good ATAR. A balance and consistent study will give you an ATAR of 90+ easily. You have to use the effective method of study and not staring at the book thinking how it works,just make sure at least you get something you haven't learn before out of the textbook everyday even though you might plan to read the whole chapter. If you have bad memories for studying, maybe just try to make the stuff makes sense to you so it wont be that easier to forget. You can always make cue cards for some of the memorizing subjects(bio,chem). Religion does count towards for 5th and 6th??...but people barely can focus on RE.
If you get high 30s for every subject or 35+ for each subject and english 40+, you will definately get more than 90+ ATAR.
And Yes you have to drop one subject if you're doing six3/4 subjects this year. Btw you in yr12 or 11?
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: gs on February 07, 2012, 02:22:42 am
Realistically, to get a really high ATAR (90+) you need to:
a) Heavily restrict hobbies (1 or 2 MAX)
b) Heavily restrict social time

With all the overseas students and like minded people here in Australia, all many do is study, eat, shit and sleep. Rinse and repeat.

So you need to do the same, which by the sounds of things you are prepared to and have been doing. All the best, you're certainly on the right path. :)
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: appianway on February 07, 2012, 05:38:08 am
Realistically, to get a really high ATAR (90+) you need to:
a) Heavily restrict hobbies (1 or 2 MAX)
b) Heavily restrict social time

Um, no. Definitely not. You just need to be really organized.

I know that everyone manages their time differently, but this is how my own year 12 worked out. I'm not trying to do this to be like ooh look at me or whatever, but seriously, please don't be under the impression that you need to give up everything for year 12! That's not at all healthy!

-I missed 6 weeks of school due to various competitions and music things
-I was exceptionally jetlagged for some time too...
-I played in a youth orchestra which had a lot of rehearsals
-I was leader of music groups at school and was music captain
-I entered writing competitions
-I took the SATs
-I took a diploma of French
-I completed the American college applications
-Did a number of media related things

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend doing as many things (especially if they take up a LOT of time - I was overseas a lot and whenever I came home I was pretty overwhelmed), but make sure that you have time to spend with friends. Don't go overboard - if you're of the legal drinking age, don't get drunk every weekend as it'll knock you around a lot - but make sure that you can relax. I did do well in year 12 - I surprisingly got a 99.95 - but the things that matter to me from that year were the competitions that I did, the music that I played, and the friends that I had (one of my friends recently came and visited me for a day at Yale!).

One thing that may highly increase your efficiency is being aware of how you best work. How many hours of sleep do you need? When do you best sleep? When can you best concentrate? Do you do better if you study the day before an exam, or do you need the mental space? What study techniques are the most useful for you? Also schedule in your study time, so that you KNOW that in this time space you HAVE to be studying... you'll be efficient (close FB and the internet... try going to a library where everyone else is studying too).
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: totaled on February 07, 2012, 11:33:27 am
Realistically, to get a really high ATAR (90+) you need to:
a) Heavily restrict hobbies (1 or 2 MAX)
b) Heavily restrict social time

With all the overseas students and like minded people here in Australia, all many do is study, eat, shit and sleep. Rinse and repeat.

So you need to do the same, which by the sounds of things you are prepared to and have been doing. All the best, you're certainly on the right path. :)

while i understand that might have been from your own personal experiences, i would have to also strongly disagree with what you said.
you SHOULD, try to continue with as many co-curricular activities as you can manage, to ensure that you get a nice break, or something to look forward to when you're not studying. no one is going to study 9 hours a day from the moment they get home till they sleep every single day of year 11-12.
Title: Re: I want a high ATAR score?!
Post by: greenbeans on February 25, 2012, 11:37:52 am
I realise this is a wee bit of an old forum now, but seriously beneficial advice here!
How you study and how you achieve high scores varies from individual to individual.

+ 1 for El2012, you need to identify the type of learner you are to make absorbing information easier for you. If you are a visual learner, colour should work wonders for you. Also, start experimenting with mind-mapping. Could make a world of difference to your end results!

+ 1 for paulsterio, too. Don't worry about if your best friend does 5 hours of study a night and you don't. Quantity doesn't always equate to quality, so you're better off doing 2 hours of spaced out study a night of concentrated, uninterrupted work than locking yourself up for the night and forcing yourself to rote learn things. Ideally the best combination would be quality study in bigger quantities, but you'll get there.

In year 12 I was playing music 3 school nights a week, worked part-time on a Sunday, played sport on a Saturday, had a social life and didn't deprive myself of sleep, nor my favourite TV shows. I still set myself limits and realised that if I wanted to perform well I wouldn't sacrifice study for other lesser priorities. So, moral of my rant, be organised, set goals, focus on quality not just quantity, make lists for work and extra study to be completed, make the most of your time in year 12 and don't deprive yourself of the things that you love, or you will be unhappier in the long run!