Teaching and Learning
Expectations For Trial Exams
As our current Unit 3/4 students are aware, Trial Exams take place in the coming September/October school holidays. These Trials are an important part of the VCE program in that they give students and teachers an idea of areas of knowledge that are strong and those that require additional focus. The need for students to attend, therefore, is of the utmost importance. In support of this, key points are outlined below.
Student Attendance
Every effort should be made to attend and complete the Trial Exam. If somewhat unprepared, stressed, inconvenienced or otherwise, to fail to attend will more than likely place that individual student at a disadvantage.
Student Absentee Procedure
In the case of absence due to illness, please contact the College prior to the Trial Exam on
9582 5983 (leave a voicemail) or absentee.student.mentone@stbedes.catholic.edu.au
Trial Exam Papers For Absent Students
Students who miss an exam due to illness will have the opportunity to collect their Trial Exam paper from Reception after the holidays. It is suggested that the student then complete the exam in their own time and seek feedback from their teacher.
Marking and Feedback
Many of the Trial Exams are externally marked to provide quality feedback with an external reference point. This allows students to gain an insight into their performance in comparison to a broader range of students from other schools.
Return to School and Exam Preparation
Upon return in Term 4, students have access to the paper which has been marked and identifies areas for improvement. This is a crucial time; improving exam performance correlates directly with an improvement in student study scores. The possibility of making improvement is a reality when a student takes on board what can be learned from undertaking a Trial Exam.
Exam Techniques & Study Skills
Recently, a number of our staff have presented to different groups of students in relation to developing their study skills. In these sessions, evidence-backed ways of studying have been highlighted and proven to be more effective than, for example, highlighting or reading over notes.
Our endeavour is to equip students with skills that ensure that time spent studying is effective and yields a high performance in the Exam. These techniques shown to the students are provided as a resource to the school known as ‘WalkThrus’. Created by English educational researcher Tom Sherrington, these WalkThrus break down science-backed strategies into simple steps. These can be used at any time in preparation for an exam.
It is suggested that they are revisited every couple of weeks or so in order to practice retrieving the necessary information from an earlier period of time. With Years 9 to 12 entering into exams in the coming months, now is a great time to employ some of these strategies in preparation.
Use Flashcards to Enhance Learning
Make flashcards that have subject specific definitions on them, details of events or concepts, or exam or assessment style questions on them. Work through each pile of flashcards as they grow over the semester and place the ones you get wrong in an ‘error pile’.
In the days that follow, continue to work through the ‘error pile’ until you get them all correct. Once done, gather all of the flashcards together again. Place them in a random order or shuffle them up and set them aside. After giving yourself a break of a couple of weeks, work through the shuffled pile again and follow the ‘error pile’ process right up until the exam.
Acting On Feedback
Look at assessments in a particular area you have studied previously and note down the feedback from the teacher. Identify your strengths and be sure to consolidate these in an activity. This might be from a textbook, answering an AI generated question or from an assessment task itself.
Following that, identify actions to improve in an area that you found difficult. This may be in knowledge, understanding or a skill in a particular element of the topic that you lost marks in and might involve completing an activity again similar to one that consolidates your strengths. Act on the feedback you have generated by repeatedly consolidating and closing the knowledge or skill gaps.
Open Recall (Brain Dump)
Think about the topics you have covered over the course of the semester. Choosing one topic, then give yourself a prompt that will allow you to retrieve all of the information that you have on that topic. An example might be ‘Australia’s involvement in the war in the Pacific in WWII’ for History.
Set aside some time and on a blank sheet of paper, write down all of the key concepts, ideas and events related to that topic that you can recall. Once you run out of material to write down, organise and connect ideas with what you have written down. This can be as simple as drawing lines between things that are written or even drawing pictures. Now go back to a source that has the key material set out in a manner that is easy to follow. This might be a text or your module where you have taken class notes. Check the accuracy of what you have written and identify where the gaps are, filling them in on your page.
We wish all our students well as they prepare for their Trial Exams.
Brenden Mair
Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning