TikTok, Quizlet, ChatGPT: The latest study tools for Queensland Year 12 QCAA exams
Queensland Year 12 students are turning to TikTok and other online services to get a handle on this year’s QCAA exams.
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Queensland tutors are selling cheatsheets and crash courses for Year 12 external exams on TikTok, while others free miniature tutoring sessions and explainers using past test papers.
Brisbane based tutoring service DrTutor offers notes for the QCAA science exams.
“Buy these notes! $30/unit or $50 for two. Objective specific and got me a 99/100.”
Queensland-based tutoring company RF Tutoring advertises themselves as having
“Australia’s most affordable ATAR crash courses” with a price tag of $20 per hour.
They specialise in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematical Methods exams.
Queensland tutoring service KIS Academics has short TikTok videos dissecting last year’s QCAA English – specialising in Macbeth and Hamlet – as well as Science test papers.
Several Queensland senior students have also taken to TikTok with videos of their study and the different methods they are using to prepare – like 16-year-old Justine.
Study tool Quizlet is also popular among Queensland senior students. It was founded in America but has grown in a major global learning platform.
It offers study sets, textbooks, flash cards, subject notes and key terms, as well as practice tests based on the included content.
Upon searching “QCAA 2023”, it had resources available on Economics, Physics, Psychology, English, Legal Studies, Study of Religion, Biology, Chemistry, Japanese, and Business.
The Gap State High School 2021 graduate Grace Biddle, who achieved an ATAR of 88.7 and is now studying Social Work at QUT, said her Biology class set up a group for themselves on Quizlet and shared notes with each other.
“That exam covers a year of content, it’s hard to remember it all,” she said.
“My class set up a Quizlet – which gives you little quizzes to refresh your memory, so I worked my way through those.
“But it also offers different ways to study depending on the student – it can do flashcards or you can write the answers out.
“I found that definitely helped, I found looking through notes isn’t really helpful, but Quizlet really tests you on your knowledge through the practice exams.”
Of course, there is always AI software, such as ChatGPT. But Australian Christian College Moreton teacher Glenn Sinclair warned students to be cautious as to how they use it for study.
“There are some ways you can use, for studying for exams only. If you’re stuck for an example in biology, it would be a good easy way to find mutualism, or parasitism. But the problem is it can make errors, or word things wrong,” Mr Sinclair said.
“Getting examples can be good. But be mindful of it and use it as a template. It can give incorrect information and steer in the wrong direction.”
Star student of 2020 Katelyn Smith, who achieved an ATAR of 98.50, also urged caution.
“It could be used as a good way to get a summary of a text, a summary say of a piece of text that could back up a theme,” Ms Smith said.
“But I wouldn’t trust its essay writing ability.”
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