Finishing the 3u paper. (1 Viewer)

[rsingh]

Finishing the 3u HSC exam paper.

I was just wondering, how many people actually people finish the 3u HSC exam? I mean, 2 hrs to do 7 3u questions doesn't seem that long.

I tried doing some of the questions from past papers, and it takes me almost 5 minutes to complete just one part of a question. I know I should practice more and should eventually become quicker, however, I was just wondering if there was any method or approach for doing the 3u paper within the 2hr time limit

For example, I have found that for the 2u, it is recommended you finish the Q1-8 within 1-1.5 hrs, and leave the remaining time to complete Q9 and Q10.

So should we be aiming to do a certain number of questions within a particular time limit for 3u, or is there some other way of approaching it?

 

[acmilan]

Do you mean how many people actually produce an answer to each question or how many people produce almost all correct answers for each question? If the latter, not many would be able to complete the test with almost completely correct answer. However I suspect there would be many who complete the exam in the sense that they produce an answer for every question, whether correct or not.

As for techniques, everyones different. I preferred to try and get the first 5 questions done within the first hour and give myself at least 30 mins on the last question.

 

[rsingh]

I was actually referring to both, but thanks for clearing that up.
So not many people actually provide the correct answer for all questions, if all questions are attempted?

Do you have any ideas as to how many questions we should aim to complete, correctly?
To attain a mark of 40/50, what raw mark should you be aiming for?

 

[Slidey]

I'm noticing similar things in 4unit. I'm too slow.

For 4u, I'm aiming to do the first 4 questions in one hour, leaving 2 hours for the next 4.

For 3u, I'm aiming to do the same thing: questions 1 to 4 in one hour, leaving the other hour for questions 5,6,7.

I'll end up tweaking that, but it's something to work towards. Lots of past papers. *sigh*

 

[acmilan]

A very very rough guess here as there isnt much data on it: Id say about 55ish/84 could be enough for 40/50. In general, if you can get most of the first 4-5 questions right and get bits and pieces of the last 2 questions, you'd have a decent shot at a band E4.

 

[..:''ooo]

hmm,, i finish 3u in 1 hr with average of 5 marks lost. its cssa papers as well
that means i can spend the next hr getting the 5 marks back

 

[KFunk]

I've been able to finish most of the trial papers that i've attemped in a little over an hour (averaging at just under 10 mins per question). I think that this is a little too fast so I'm going to try and slow down to cut down on careless errors/silly mistakes. Run through past papers and find the pace that suits you best. I reckon the plan of attack that slide's taking is a pretty solid one: Q1-4 in the first hour then Q5-7 in the next --> that way you have more time to work on what are generally the harder questions on the paper.

 

[FinalFantasy]

i can usually get up to and finish question 6 on the one hour mark, den i leave an hr to do question 7 and fix up the 50 mistakes i make :\
captain's approach of 1hr for first 4 questions den the next hour for q5,6,7 sounds good except, what happens if question 7 is a topic which ur weakest at? den u mite need more time..

 

[Slidey]

I haven't fully done ANY past papers for either 3 or 4 unit, yet. It's just a template for me to follow at first and tweak as I go along.

I do not, however, want to rush the easy questions and make silly mistakes.

 

[Trebla]

I'm cosidering doing the harder questions/sections (i.e. questions 6/7) first, since they'll probably be long and then do the easier questions later as my new exam technique. The reason I considered this is because when I do easy questions, I have a habit of having no sense of time and I sometimes work on polishing my answers unnecessarily resulting in me rushing a lot in the harder questions.
I might give it a try on my yearlies. Do you think this technique is a good idea?

 

[FinalFantasy]

I'm cosidering doing the harder questions/sections (i.e. questions 6/7) first, since they'll probably be long and then do the easier questions later as my new exam technique. The reason I considered this is because when I do easy questions, I have a habit of having no sense of time and I sometimes work on polishing my answers unnecessarily resulting in me rushing a lot in the harder questions.
I might give it a try on my yearlies. Do you think this technique is a good idea?

i reckon ya should just get the easy marks first
nothing worse den running out of time and not managing to get the easiest marks u could get

 

[Slidey]

Worth testing in year 11, I guess, so long as it won't impact on your chances of doing 4unit in year 12.

 

[Will Hunting]

I was just wondering, how many people actually people finish the 3u HSC exam?

Ya, comfortably. Obviously, though, this is a case where everyone is different, in both calibre/intelligence etc. and preference (for speed with which questions should be done), so I, by no means, expect for my strategies to transfer, without at least minor incompatibilities, to others.

With me, it's confidence that takes highest priority, and, furthermore, it's my, I'm sure, highly debatable, opinion that the more confident you are, the faster you deserve to move through a Maths test (because time need not be wasted agonising over what to do or how to do it, and need only be spent on actually doing it and hoping you don't forget to write a +C at the end of some integral or something). No-one will deny that the motivations for moving slower than necessary through a test include fear of faulting, uncertainty of oneself and one's abilities and/or inexperience or unpreparedness. Furthermore, I can also assert that a higher level of confidence will overcome each of these frailties (in the case of the third, practicing hard and being well prepared leads to confidence, which should lead to less hesitation under exam conditions, or greater speed).

Then again, though, there may be some who work slowly because that's the best they can do, and I certainly do not want to be insensitive to that.

 

[who_loves_maths]

Originally Posted by Trebla
I'm cosidering doing the harder questions/sections (i.e. questions 6/7) first, since they'll probably be long and then do the easier questions later as my new exam technique. The reason I considered this is because when I do easy questions, I have a habit of having no sense of time and I sometimes work on polishing my answers unnecessarily resulting in me rushing a lot in the harder questions.
I might give it a try on my yearlies. Do you think this technique is a good idea?

relevant example: a fellow classmate of mine tried that approach in every one of his maths exams (2u & 3u) in year 11. what happened was that he found most of the time all this did was "stuff him up", but i remember there were two occasions on which this technique delivered him 2nd in the grade (in those two tests).
right now, in year 12, i think he's stopped that aprroach to an exam. he says that the key is to use the 5 minute reading time wisely - read the last few questions, if you don't get what they're about, then it's NOT a good idea to start there; but if you sort of think that you can handle them, then it might turn out to be a good idea to start on the latter questions.

the thing is, if you find in an exam you can attempt the latter questions early on successfully, then that will only give you more confidence to do well in all other sections later on.
however, if you blindly jump in and attempt the harder questions and find yourself lost for thought, then that'll upset your calm and negatively affect you for the rest of the 3 hours. (and don't forget that you might also be conscious of all the ppl around you who are flying through the first few sections... the noise of scribbling pens around you can also harm your mental focus.)

 

[velox]

Are you guys talking about HSC exams? Or trial papers? Because the time limits you set yourself up to achieve are dependant on the difficulty of the paper.....

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

I'm noticing similar things in 4unit. I'm too slow.

For 4u, I'm aiming to do the first 4 questions in one hour, leaving 2 hours for the next 4.

For 3u, I'm aiming to do the same thing: questions 1 to 4 in one hour, leaving the other hour for questions 5,6,7.

I'll end up tweaking that, but it's something to work towards. Lots of past papers. *sigh*

After a lot of practise you can cut Q1-5 of MX1 down to about 45-50mins...I'm sure you'd be able to finish it in about 35-40 given that I took about 50 last year when I was only doing MX1.

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

A very very rough guess here as there isnt much data on it: Id say about 55ish/84 could be enough for 40/50. In general, if you can get most of the first 4-5 questions right and get bits and pieces of the last 2 questions, you'd have a decent shot at a band E4.

I reckon ~62/84 will get you 45/50. Had the cutoff been any higher I highly doubt that I would have got 48/50.

 

[velox]

After a lot of practise you can cut Q1-5 of MX1 down to about 45-50mins...I'm sure you'd be able to finish it in about 35-40 given that I took about 50 last year when I was only doing MX1.

Rench how many practice papers would you estimate you did last yr for 2u and 3u?

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

Rench how many practice papers would you estimate you did last yr for 2u and 3u?

Well, to be honest I kind of rejected 2U a little bit so I only did about 5 or 6 papers under the given time limit. I did a few more, but not under exam conditions.
As for MX1, I probably would've done about 10-15 trial papers during these holidays alone, maybe about 1-2 per week throughout Term 3. Then I virtually went through HSC papers from 1986-2003 during the holidays prior to the HSC exam.

 

[ishq]

At the moment, I finish past HSC papers with approx 10 minutes to revise each time. Q1-4, I get done pretty quick, but the last one (usually a projectiles or extended inverse question) takes a bit of time - esp with proving involved.
In terms of what I get correct - ~5 marks of silly mistakes(which I am trying to reduce - its down from 8 )...and the odd question (usually an inequality one) which I give up on.

Can anyone give me tips on inequalities? I detest them.