What's the best way to... (1 Viewer)

[itskratika_07]

What is the best way to make personal, self-study notes in Ext maths? There are a lot of methods out there for stuff like bio, but is making good notes for maths just writing formulas and worked examples? How can I use the syllabus to my advantage here?

 

[jimmysmith560]

One could suggest that formulas and worked examples are important elements that should be included in your notes before considering other potentially useful elements. With that being said, while having formulas and worked examples in your notes will familiarise you with particular concepts and instances/questions where knowledge relevant to such concepts is applied, these are perhaps insufficient to consider potential obstacles that can be faced when attempting to solve problems involving particular concepts and ways through which those obstacles can be overcome. This is where practice becomes relevant. As you complete more practice material (such as textbook questions and past exam papers), there is a chance that at some point, you will make some kind of error and/or face difficulty in answering specific questions. This creates a learning opportunity for you, because not only should you treat such problems as areas of improvement that you must address, but you are also able to record such instances in your notes and include information such as the reason(s) for which errors were made and/or issues were encountered, as well as mistakes to avoid in solving such questions and correct ways to do so.

An approach that some students adopt is to record mistakes separately from their notes (for example, in their own book). However, you can definitely customise this approach to your own needs. For instance, if you would prefer organising your notes in a way that includes all relevant information in one document (i.e. if this aligns with your study method more closely), you can definitely do so.

I hope this helps!

 

[carrotsss]

imo notes are kinda a waste of time for maths, I find it much more helpful to just do questions instead. after all you can always just look back in the textbook (or at your formula sheet) to find a formula or a worked example

 

[howcanibesmarter]

imo notes are kinda a waste of time for maths, I find it much more helpful to just do questions instead. after all you can always just look back in the textbook (or at your formula sheet) to find a formula or a worked example

Yeah following up to this I totally agree. I would recommend instead doing a spreadsheet and recording every question you get wrong for trial/hsc preparation - sort of like a mistakes handbook in a sense, just digitalised and neat. Start on trials and past papers early (tHSC.com), you won't have enough time to do the more niche schools if you start later, save the actual hsc papers last, usually the are actually easier than the top nsw schools trials. The order you would typically go is Cambridge textbook exercises to build a foundation, then enrichment if you are competent enough, and I would go straight into real exam questions. Unlike english, in order to get better at maths is to just surround yourself with various types of questions with ranging difficulties. If you can get all the generic questions down and dusted, you can answer the majority of mc+q11-12 (that is already like 60% of the paper, note a 65% in 3U raw is already equivalent to a band 6). Question 13-14 is where you start applying a more extensive knowledge of the syllabus, but then again, with the correct preparation, it should be a breeze. Since 3U incorporates a lot of different topics, I would recommend to know a decent amount of each topic, filling up any misconceptions and weaker parts.

edit: also if familiarise yourself enough with different topics, you wouldn't even need the formula sheet since they should come naturally to u. (of course with the exception of sums to products/products to sums - those don't even bother).

 

[carrotsss]

Yeah following up to this I totally agree. I would recommend instead doing a spreadsheet and recording every question you get wrong for trial/hsc preparation - sort of like a mistakes handbook in a sense, just digitalised and neat. Start on trials and past papers early (tHSC.com), you won't have enough time to do the more niche schools if you start later, save the actual hsc papers last, usually the are actually easier than the top nsw schools trials. The order you would typically go is Cambridge textbook exercises to build a foundation, then enrichment if you are competent enough, and I would go straight into real exam questions. Unlike english, in order to get better at maths is to just surround yourself with various types of questions with ranging difficulties. If you can get all the generic questions down and dusted, you can answer the majority of mc+q11-12 (that is already like 60% of the paper, note a 65% in 3U raw is already equivalent to a band 6). Question 13-14 is where you start applying a more extensive knowledge of the syllabus, but then again, with the correct preparation, it should be a breeze. Since 3U incorporates a lot of different topics, I would recommend to know a decent amount of each topic, filling up any misconceptions and weaker parts.

Completely agree with this, especially the mistakes list (mine is handwritten) but basically the earlier you start doing trial papers and recording mistakes the better, if you do it effectively you can make massive mark gains through just a few trial papers

edit: also if familiarise yourself enough with different topics, you wouldn't even need the formula sheet since they should come naturally to u. (of course with the exception of sums to products/products to sums - those don't even bother).

imo it’s still worth using the formula sheet even if you know the formula, just to prevent mistakes

 

[itskratika_07]

Yeah following up to this I totally agree. I would recommend instead doing a spreadsheet and recording every question you get wrong for trial/hsc preparation - sort of like a mistakes handbook in a sense, just digitalised and neat. Start on trials and past papers early (tHSC.com), you won't have enough time to do the more niche schools if you start later, save the actual hsc papers last, usually the are actually easier than the top nsw schools trials. The order you would typically go is Cambridge textbook exercises to build a foundation, then enrichment if you are competent enough, and I would go straight into real exam questions. Unlike english, in order to get better at maths is to just surround yourself with various types of questions with ranging difficulties. If you can get all the generic questions down and dusted, you can answer the majority of mc+q11-12 (that is already like 60% of the paper, note a 65% in 3U raw is already equivalent to a band 6). Question 13-14 is where you start applying a more extensive knowledge of the syllabus, but then again, with the correct preparation, it should be a breeze. Since 3U incorporates a lot of different topics, I would recommend to know a decent amount of each topic, filling up any misconceptions and weaker parts.

edit: also if familiarise yourself enough with different topics, you wouldn't even need the formula sheet since they should come naturally to u. (of course with the exception of sums to products/products to sums - those don't even bother).

Nice plan for the spreadsheet! How would you structure it? Like the headings and stuff?

 

[howcanibesmarter]

Nice plan for the spreadsheet! How would you structure it? Like the headings and stuff?

Yep so I have a google sheets for my phys, 3u, 4u. Every trial I do I record it down. I do under exam conditions, mark it then note down the questions i get wrong. For example my 3u spreadsheet looks something like this, its split up into questions.

I skip mc cus its just applied knowledge from q11-q14...just depends on the person. But otherwise the purple areas are parts I got right the first time, and the orange bits are where I made a mistake. You would go through all these questions before your actual test.

edit: usually youd want a different colour to differentiate silly mistakes from geniune questions you dont understand, i just havent got up to that, acutally im doing that tmrw lol