Elvera’s Hacks: How I Achieved 100% In My Chemistry And Physics Prelims

In this article, Matrix Scholarship student Elvera shares her secrets for scoring 100% in her Chemistry and Physics prelims. She shares with you her 5 step planning process for prelim study and exam success!

Me, Myself and I

Hello!

My name is Elvera Abdel-messih, here’s a little bit about me!

School: Mount Saint Joseph Milperra

Grade: Year 12 (class of 2022: Elvera ended up achieving an ATAR of 99.65)

University Goal: Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine at UNSW

A little about me

My absolute favourite thing to do is relax while eating a delicious meal – probably one that I cooked myself. I’ll cook anything from some scrambled eggs on toast, to a lovely beef roast to share at family gatherings.

I also love to take care of my Dog. Taking her out for a short walk, or just sitting on the couch with her in my lap is super calming, especially after a long day of learning and studying.

Senior school has taught me how to get the balance just right, so I can still focus on schoolwork while still enjoying my hobbies either on the weekends or during the school holidays.

My Yr 11 subjects:

I am a pro at all things Science

As you can tell, I LOVE sciences and I’m pretty good at them too.

I love to question things around me and get into the finer details of how things work.

All my science’s have some of my highest marks for the entire year and that comes with a combination of genuinely enjoying the content, as well as studying them continuously.

I find that if you don’t understand something in any science course, then it’ll be difficult to move on and learn more content, since everything is based on the knowledge beforehand. So, I learnt to be really good at keeping myself ahead and updated, making sure I knew everything inside and out. That includes doing extra homework or trying harder-style exam questions, outside of my regular study, that is weeks before I even have an exam. I love the extra challenge without the pressure of having an exam the next day.

Want to get ahead like Elvera for Chemistry?

I struggle with maintaining my English marks

Don’t let the marks above fool you, English was easily one of the most challenging subjects to get through, mainly because it has so many important components that come into play simultaneously.

Because of this, I’ve learnt to constantly summarise what I’m learning into a summary table or just in dot points – highlighting key information and using that for my essay.

Ready, Player One

I understand that Chemistry and Physics are considered to be some of the toughest subjects, mainly because of how Mathematics based they are, but this is how to stay on top of them!

I definitely recommend using this 5 step summary as a guide while also adapting to your own schedule.

5 Step Summary

1. Organise, Organise, Organise!

You probably hear this one a lot, and that’s because of how important it is!

Organising gives you a sense of direction and makes everything black and white.

But, where do you start?

The first thing I like to do is make a list of all my study resources for each subject. In a google doc, I would have each subject as a heading, and colour coded to match the cover on my work books.

For example, I would have the word “Biology” written in purple since my Matrix Workbook had a purple cover on it. This comes in handy later on.

I would then list everything that I could use to study, such as textbook review sets, a list of school past papers, some online past papers and I would also include my Matrix quizzes, workbook and end of term exams.

By listing everything like this, it gives you a good estimate of how much time you’ll need to finish it all. So now, you can work on the next step of organising which is making a visual planner. I used an online calendar and would colour code which subject I would study for, rather than just writing them down. I told you colour coding them would come in handy!

You could also absolutely use a printed calendar and hang it up somewhere in your study space.

2. Theory

Since it’s the final exams, you’ve probably forgotten a lot of the content from earlier on in the year, so it’s best to revise all of this valuable content. The first thing I would do is have a quick flip through of my work books and/or scroll through my google drive folder with all my documents. Just by looking at the titles gave me a good idea of how much or how little there was to revise.

Don’t let this daunt you! I promise it’s not as much as it seems!

Especially for Chemistry and Physics, a lot of the work overlaps and is repeated in later modules (for example the Mol concept in Chemistry), so it is often just a similar concept but on a different page.

Secondly and most importantly, I would make a “one page summary’. Basically, I would split an A4 page into 2 and have the first 2 modules on one side and the other 2 on the other. So, all of the year’s content fits on one page. These can get pretty messy, but are a good thing to look at right before the exam.

Finally, for Physics and Chemistry, I would annotate the formula sheets.

Adding any key notes, or extra formulas. You can’t take these into an exam room but, like the one-page summary, are a good thing to look at before you have to put it away.

3. Practice makes perfect

Remember that list of resources from earlier?

Now’s the time to use it!

This is the core of “studying” where you utilise all of these materials to your advantage.

Highlight any good or application style questions so you can revisit them the night before an exam!

Now, just practising isn’t going to be enough, and as you get closer to the exam day, you should be practising under exam conditions.

4. “Teaching Method”

Also known as the “Self Explanation” technique, is a really effective form of study, especially when practising longer responses. Essentially, you pretend you are a “teacher” and you have to explain a hard concept to a younger student. So, to “teach” them, you have to go into a lot of detail, explain any key or new words and constantly question “why?” or “how?” as if this imaginary student is asking.

This really helps you stop, step away from the textbook and actually understand the information, forcing you to think about what you’ve been learning and really consider what it all means. This then helps prepare you for Application style questions.

5. Stop Silly Mistakes!

This is by far the most aggravating thing that could occur. Even if you know the content well and you know the correct answer, you make a small mistake somewhere along the way which wrecks everything!

This can be very annoying (and hard to spot) in Chemistry and Physics calculations which is why you need to learn to prevent them in the first place.

When practising (see step 3) I would aim to get faster and faster. Start by completing the exam with a given time condition, then reduce this time constraint by 10 min each time, until you can finish the exam in about half of the time given (not counting double-checking – use the other half of the time for this). This allows you to have plenty of time to re-check ALL your answers as this is almost always the way to find a silly mistake.

Also, with any Algebra-based question, simply plugging the solution you found back into the equation is the easiest and fastest way to check an answer, and spot any silly mistake in your working.

My Advice to future Year 11 students

Don’t study based on time – study based on resources. That is, knowing the information and practice you need to do, then figure out how much time you need, not vice versa.

Too often, I find people setting a time limit for themselves, such as 2 weeks (ie they start studying when they receive the notification), then rushing towards the end to finish practising everything. This is why it’s best to always start at least one month (i.e. 4 weeks) in advance. Not only are you not rushing, but you feel more confident and relaxed, perfect when you’re about to sit an exam the next day.

Your time is valuable so make the most of every second.