How Many VCAA Math Methods Past Exams Should I Do?
I think the most important thing you need to focus on in the lead up to your exams is “how well do you know your stuff?”
Because if you don’t know it then doing practice exams and not doing well in them won’t give you any confidence about doing the real exams.
But if you know your stuff and you’re confident that you know it then do as many practice exams as you can. Keep learning from the questions you don’t know how to do or make mistakes in.
Do them under exam conditions and work out what you need to improve on so you finish all the questions you know how to do and still have some time left to have a go at the harder questions.
Make Sure You Understand How To Do The Maths
This is the most critical thing to do before exams. You must know how to do the Maths.
You’re better off doing exam type questions at a pace that you understand how to solve them rather than doing them at “exam pace”.
As your understanding improves you’ll find that you can solve the questions in less time.
If you understand the content and you’ve put the time in doing as many questions as you can then as long as you don’t panic in Maths exams you’ll be able to do some of the questions.
The reality is that there will be some hard questions in the exam and you might not be able to answer them. So need to use your time effectively in the exam and only spend time on the questions that you know you can do.
And you’ll know which ones you can do because you will have put the time into studying harder textbook questions and past exam questions.
Final Comments
How well you do in your final exams will depend on how well you know your stuff, and on how well you do in exams. Practice exams will give you a chance to refine your exam technique and see what topics you need to improve at.
Always focus on understanding the questions you do and getting help for the ones you don’t.
When the time comes for the practice exam go into the exam with a “How do I do this question?” attitude. Because that is what you have to do anyway. Answer the questions.
And then learn from the exam result. Find out how to do the questions you couldn’t do. Use your result to help prepare for the real exam.
And don’t even think about the real exam until you are actually in the room doing it. Worrying about your exam will not help you to do well in it.