If you’re planning to rock up to your Maths Methods exam 2 with a 10,000 page thick bound reference, duct tape together
Then let me break it to you – and I say this the nicest possible way.
Your bound reference is going to be useless for you.
This is coming from my own personal experience as well as the experience of past Methods students.
Here’s what some past students have said about their bound reference:
“I didn’t even use mine. “
“I did not touch my bound reference book ONCE”.
“I think it sat on the floor for the whole duration of the exam”.
“Never used it in any trial exams nor in the real exam”
“I didn’t even get the chance to open it up”
“I looked at it once in the methods exam”
“didn’t even touch it”
Maths Methods bound references are generally made by students as an assurance. It makes you feel safe.
But the reality is that during the exam there’s just not enough time to be flipping through your 10,000 pages of notes – frantically searching for an answer.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not totally against bound references – it’s good to have one in case you have a mental blank and forget something basic in the midst of all the exam stress.
But what you shouldn’t be doing is completely relying on your bound reference, as a result wasting hours and hours trying to compile a “perfect” bound reference.
If you don’t know how to answer a question during the exam, your bound reference isn’t going to help you out.
Instead you should use this time to actually learn the topics you’re weakest at or spend this time going through exam questions.
Look at it this way, let’s say you spent 5 hours (300 mins) making your bound reference.
Now in 5 hours you could’ve watched video solutions to about 300 different multiple choice questions.
I repeat, about 300 different multiple choice questions.
Which do you think is going to help you score better in your exam?
Being exposed to 300 different questions or having a 10,000 page bound reference with formulas and equations written inside?
You being a good maths student are probably asking how did you come up with 300 questions?
Well, if you login to the Maths Methods Club you can group every Maths Methods exam questions (with video solutions) by Tech Free, Multiple Choice or Extended Response questions.
On average the video solutions to the multiple choice questions are about 1 minute long.
Hence, 300 minutes = 300 questions.
You see, if you get enough practice and you know the course well enough you won’t need to use your bound reference.
You can only properly prepare for exams by doing exam style questions, and nothing prepares you better than the previous exam questions.
So, don’t rely or place too much importance on your bound reference. Your time is better spent learning exam style questions.