VCE will be a challenge whether you’re just entering year 11 or in the latter half of year 12. From seeing my peers as a year 12 student to now tutoring VCE for several years, even running my own tutoring business, I’ve found that so many students don’t actually know how to study for VCE properly.
It’s not as simple as ‘sit at your table for 7 hours and hope for the best’.
There’s so much clutter on the internet regarding how to actually study, some generated by ChatGPT, some made by tutoring companies to goad you to take their lessons. Here, I’m going to be clear, concise and entertaining, using my own tutoring experience and scientific research to explain the best way to study for VCE.
It’ll be a fun read that’ll take you through my experiences and struggles that I had through VCE, to finally being able to achieve my ATAR of 98.
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How hard is VCE?
How hard is it to get a good score in VCE? How hard is it to get an 80+ ATAR? How hard is it to get a 40+ study score?
These are all common questions and the simple answer is… it’s pretty damn easy.
I can already hear you saying ‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S EASY?’. You probably think I’m insensitive or just plain cocky, but the truth is that it is easy. Getting a high score in VCE is much easier than people say, or what your previous grades might imply.
However, when I say it’s easy, I mean it’s conceptually easy. This isn’t starting a multi-million-dollar business nor is it curing cancer. The solution is already there, right in front of you.
Practice Exams.
This isn’t a secret. There isn’t something out there to be discovered.
- Do practice exams.
- Correct them and work on your mistakes.
- Do more practice exams.
- Take your time. Analyse your mistakes.
- Do more practice exams.
There. A 90+ ATAR formula right in front of you.
But you might be saying…
When Should I Start Doing VCE Practice Exams?
Great question.
Right now.
Well, not right at the start of the year. But you need to get used to doing practice questions, whether that’s in your textbook or Edrolo or from your tutor. Any good tutor worth his crap will force you to do practice questions very early.
We all did them, however, some of us did more than the rest. You need to learn to not be a perfectionist, you don’t need to read the textbook 12 times before starting. You should attempt them right as you finish a topic, making sure that you actually understand what you’re learning.
A good rule of thumb is—start full practice exams around early-mid term 3 if you want to get a good mark. This is usually earlier than schools generally start assigning them.
But Haobo… I haven’t finished reading the tex—
Should I Read the School Textbooks?
Yes. And no.
It’s the same advice I give relating to class. Use your textbooks to get ahead of the class, and make sure you attempt the questions in the textbook. But ultimately, textbooks are only 10% of your studying journey. The rest is practice exams.
If you actually want to get a good ATAR that’s high (to your standard), you need to be getting ahead of the class. If there’s one thing that all the 98+ ATAR students I’ve met have in common, they were all well ahead of the class in terms of learning the content.
School purposely teaches at a relatively slow pace in order to allow everyone to keep up. But that means that you should be getting ahead if you want to get a good score in VCE.
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The Author
Lead VCE Tutor
Haobo Zhang
High-demand, leading tutor from the University of Melbourne specialising in VCE Maths and Biology. Founder of HZ Tutoring.
Scholarships
100% scholarship for Academic Ability at The Geelong College and Kardinia International College. Geelong College VCE High-Achiever. Top percentile in the Melbourne High selective test.
Awards
High-ranked Superprof VCE ‘Super Tutor‘ in 2023. Highly-reviewed tutor with countless 5-star ratings. Top private VCE company tutor in 2023. Top 10% in booking requests for VCE and Scholarships in 2024.
Qualifications
Founder of HZ Tutoring. Scaled 44 in Methods and 49 in Specialist. Hundreds of hours of tutoring. Written VCE trial exams. Prize in the Australian Maths Competition. WWCC approved. Results. Always
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