How I Went From a 39 to a 49 in VCE General Maths

By Lina, HBE General Maths Webinar Speaker and Tutor | 49 study score in General Maths, 97.5 ATAR

In Year 11, I got a 39 in General Maths. In Year 12, I sat the exam again and got a 49.

I didn't suddenly get smarter over the summer, and I didn't find some magic textbook. I just stopped studying the wrong way.

If you've had a rough SAC, you're behind on revision, or you just don't know what to do in the weeks before the exam, this is everything I changed.

The Fundamentals

First: what went wrong in Year 11?

I started Year 11 strong. I scored 97 on Data Analysis and 95 on Finance. Then I got around 80 on Matrices, followed by a 60 on my fourth SAC.

I decided my ATAR was ruined, basically stopped studying, and left a huge portion of the 2022 exam blank.

I was also a perfectionist about how I studied. If I didn't have the right pens, the right desk setup, or the right mood, I wouldn't study at all. I would spend ages trying to psych myself up to sit at my desk instead of actually doing the work.

It wasn't sustainable, and I burnt out quickly.

In Year 12, I made two major mindset shifts:

1. All studying is good studying, wherever and however it happens.
2. A bad result is information about what needs fixing, not proof that you're done.

And for the record, I do not recommend repeating the subject. Pushing through the exam period the first time would have saved me an entire year.

Beyond that, I completely changed the way I studied.

1. Make VCAA past papers your main study tool

In Year 12, I stopped relying heavily on textbook questions and company trial papers and focused primarily on VCAA past papers.

I worked from 2016 onwards, including both the Victorian and NHT papers.

At the end of the year, you are not being assessed according to the style of a textbook company or a trial exam provider. You are being assessed according to VCAA's style, wording and marking criteria.

Your goal should be to complete every available VCAA paper.

NHT exams are also written and assessed within the VCAA system, so treat them exactly the same way as the November exams.

Between Exam 1 and Exam 2 across multiple years, this gives you a huge bank of high-quality questions.

If you cannot complete every paper, still aim high. If your target is 40 papers, you may end up completing 20 to 30. If your target is 10, you will probably do fewer.

2. Complete the exams in order

I recommend working through them chronologically:

2016 Victoria → 2016 NHT → 2017 Victoria → 2017 NHT, and so on.

Doing this lets you see how VCAA's style has evolved over time.

If you are short on time, start with the most recent papers, because they are generally the most representative of what you are likely to see in your own exam.

3. Develop a routine

Completing a large number of papers is almost impossible without a routine.

Work with your own habits rather than constantly fighting them.

I knew I was a procrastinator, so my rule was simple: one full paper every morning before breakfast and before coffee.

The less you have to decide, the less room there is for excuses.

My first paper took me about three hours. I genuinely thought it was over for me.

By around my fourth paper, I was finishing much faster because I started recognising how often VCAA repeats the same structures with slightly different numbers or wording.

Eventually, I was completing papers in around 45 minutes.

In the real exam, I finished the entire paper in about 30 minutes and spent the rest of the time checking my answers.

That speed did not come from rushing. It came from familiarity.

My first past paper took three hours. In the real exam, I finished in 30 minutes.

4. Hard-copy exams are always better

Print them.

A hard-copy paper is much closer to actual exam conditions than annotating a PDF with an Apple Pencil in five colours.

In the exam, you cannot erase mistakes perfectly, zoom in, move working around, or annotate a network in six different colours.

Practise the way you are actually going to perform.

5. A practice exam unmarked is a practice exam undone

Marking is where most of the learning happens.

In many cases, marking the paper properly is more valuable than sitting the paper itself.

I recommend waiting around two hours before marking.

If you mark immediately, everything still feels obvious because you remember exactly what you were thinking. If you wait several days, you may forget your reasoning completely.

Then mark brutally.

VCAA cannot see what is in your head. They can only mark what is on the page.

Use the examiner's reports, because they often show exactly what VCAA expects in a full-mark response.

For example, if a question asks whether the data support an association, your answer may need:

• a clear yes or no
• the relevant percentages
• explicit comparative language such as "greater than"

If the marking guide requires a comparison, writing something vague like "whereas" without actually making that comparison may not be enough.

Learn the wording VCAA rewards.

6. Keep a mistakes log

Every mistake I made went into a log.

At first, mine was literally just a sticky note.

And I wrote down everything, including the stupid mistakes:

• adding an extra zero
• missing a negative sign
• forgetting V₀ in a recurrence relation
• using the wrong units
• rounding too early

Writing a mistake down forces you to acknowledge it.

Every time I repeated the same mistake, I added a tally next to it. Once something had two tallies, I was usually so annoyed with myself that I stopped making it.

I also drew a little skull in my bound reference next to topics where I repeatedly lost marks.

Split your mistakes into two categories:

Content mistakes: you genuinely did not know how to answer the question. → Go back and revise the theory.

Silly mistakes: you understood the content but lost marks through execution. → Build a checking habit around them.

Two tallies and you're done making that mistake.

Keep your mistake log at the back of your bound reference and use it as a checklist until the corrections become automatic.

One more checking technique: when reviewing an answer during a trial exam, cover your original working and redo the question from scratch.

If you simply reread your own working, your brain is very likely to agree with itself.

7. Build a bound reference that is actually yours

A bound reference someone else made will almost never be as useful as one you built yourself.

Mine followed four rules.

Organise it by module

I organised mine into:

• Data Analysis
• Finance
• Matrices
• Networks

Keep it in roughly the same order you will encounter content in the exam.

Keep it short

Mine was around 50 pages.

If it takes you two minutes to find something, your bound reference is not helping you.

More information does not automatically mean a better reference.

Include copy-ready templates

Include answers or sentence structures you can adapt quickly, such as:

• interpreting the b-value
• interpolation vs extrapolation statements
• association wording
• recurrence relation setup
• standard network explanations

The goal is to reduce unnecessary thinking under exam pressure.

Keep updating it

Your bound reference should evolve as you complete past papers.

If an old exam question teaches you something useful, add it.

If something becomes so easy that you no longer need the example, remove it.

Do not keep pages simply because they look nice.

And bind it properly. Loose pages may not be accepted.

You can also bring your textbook as a backup if permitted. I brought mine because the Nelson summary boxes were useful, although I never actually opened it in Year 12.

8. Learn VCAA's patterns and use the gap between exams

General Maths has two exams:

• Exam 1: 40 multiple-choice marks
• Exam 2: 60 short-answer marks

Both exams contribute equally, meaning an individual mark on Exam 1 is proportionally more valuable.

VCAA also repeats structures constantly.

By the time I sat my 2023 exam, I had seen versions of almost every question before.

Certain question types appear repeatedly, for example network flow questions involving increasing pipe capacity, Eulerian trails, Leslie matrices and standard Finance structures.

This is why past papers are so valuable.

Also use the gap between Exam 1 and Exam 2 strategically.

After Exam 1, write down which topics appeared heavily and which appeared less.

Then prioritise the underrepresented areas before Exam 2.

A note on UDFs

Learn how to use them.

They can save a huge amount of time, particularly in Finance and Networks.

I would also recommend putting an annotated UDF guide in your bound reference.

But do not become dependent on them.

VCAA has expressed concern about over-reliance on calculator functionality, so you should still be able to solve every major question type manually and show appropriate working.

Assume that exam writers may try to make questions less UDF-friendly.

What to actually do this week

If you are overwhelmed and do not know where to start, do this:

1. Print the next VCAA past paper you have not completed.
2. Sit it tomorrow morning.
3. Wait around two hours.
4. Mark it strictly using the marking guide and examiner's report.
5. Start a mistake log and record every lost mark.
6. Go through your bound reference and organise it by module.
7. Cut anything unnecessary.
8. Add useful template answers.
9. Close every ATAR calculator tab you have open.
10. Pack a highlighter so you can mark units, rounding instructions and key wording during the exam.

Final point

General Maths is one of those VCE subjects where repetition, pattern recognition and exam technique can take you incredibly far.

Do the papers.

Mark them properly.

Log your mistakes.

Keep your bound reference sharp.

If your last SAC went badly, that is a reason to change how you study, not a reason to stop studying.

I went from leaving a huge portion of my exam blank to losing only one mark on each paper.

It is not over until you walk out of the exam.

I'M ROOTING FOR YOU!!!