Specialist maths tutor’s QCE exam masterclass for Year 12 students
A former student and now specialist tutor who aced his Year 12 maths exam has provided a masterclass on how students can achieve the perfect score.
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A mathematics whiz turned tutor has delivered a masterclass on how Year 12 students can achieve the perfect score on their QCE external exams.
Former Townsville Grammar School student Felix Pountney achieved 100 in specialist maths and graduated with an ATAR of 99.85.
He is now a specialist maths tutor with online company 100coach.com.au.
Here are Mr Pountney’s seven tips to maths exam success.
Data is your friend
The data sheet is the biggest assistance you’ll have in the exam. With time now limited, it’s important to make the most of what you have so I suggest focusing on a few principals for before the exam and a few for during the exam itself.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE TIPS FROM A TUITION COMPANY
Practice papers
Do as many as you can in the time you have left. ATAR may be new in Queensland but similar exams have been done in other states for sometime. The Victorian are closest to Queensland in content and the ones I’d recommend.
Prepare for the cooker
Only practice under exam conditions. Set an alarm and do the papers, exactly as you would on the day. Get used to working for 95 minutes straight, it is the only way to truly prepare for the time pressure you will face.
Eat, sleep, repeat
Review the practice papers after you complete them. Mark every question, make a short list of the questions you struggled with and try to understand the correct response quickly. Then do another paper – Eat, sleep, repeat. Now moving on to some tips that you can use on the exam day itself, for each of the different types of questions.
Multiple choice
Work backwards looking at the four answers and ruling out as many as possible as quickly as possible. If you have time to check your multiple choice then redo it with your answers covered. Don’t make the same mistake twice.
Simple familiar and complex familiar
Focus on presenting your answer clearly and concisely. Underline answers or draw a box around them. Make it easy for the marker to know what you have got right. If you are struggling with these questions then move on quickly. They can take up far too much time for limited marks.
Complex unfamiliar
Key to answering these is break up the question into the subtopics and attack each of these individually. For example, if the question is asking about a plane intersecting a sphere, then think about a line intersecting a circle and work your way up.
Tuition company’s 16 exam tips
Queensland-based tuition company Extended Learning Centres also provided a maths masterclass with 16 tips for the external exams.
Company principal Leo Blore said ELC students were taught to cope with the pressure of exams and provide them with positive strategies for success.
Mr Blore said the advice was transferable for general, mathematical methods and specialist maths.
1. Revise often in small bursts.
2. Revise previous years’ exam questions and worked answers.
3. Eat and exercise well and often so you can sleep well to lessen brain activity at night through anxiety.
4. Learn to ‘burn to memory’ the important concepts and store in brain space. Look at worked problems and close your eyes so you can still ‘see it’.
5. Identify and concentrate more on the concept areas that you feel are your weakness.
6. Utilise colour … markers, pens when setting out the rules. We remember easier in colour. It is emotionally warming. Love it and you’ll remember it.
7. Learn the language of the maths in the concept areas of study.
8. Explore the different ways questions can be asked so you’ll be ready when you see it.
9. Utilise and explore content presented by others through YouTube, TikTok, Khan Academy etc.
10. Concentrate on solving complex questions … Similar to high altitude training. It makes the other questions easy.
11. Keep your answers and working out as neat as possible. Projects intelligence and lessens the examiners anxiety while marking your paper.
12. Demonstrate as much working out as possible … not just an answer. The more you show in working out to solve the question the more marks you can be awarded. KAPS …. Knowledge and Procedure. MAPS … Modelling and Problem Solving and CAJ …. Communication and Justification.
13. Chill … keep relaxed. The more mentally relaxed you are the more you will remember and achieve.
14. If you get to a question you are not sure of … mentally channel your favourite maths teacher. Ask yourself, “What would they do?”
15. Eat a Freddo Frog 15 minutes before the exam. The sweet taste of success.
16. And remember … the sun will still rise tomorrow … and Paris, Rome, London, New York and anywhere in between … awaits you.
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