VCE Exam Advice from Premier’s VCE Award Recipients - Specialist Mathematics - Stephen Zhang

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

Advice for VCE students preparing for Specialist Mathematics, shared by Stephen Zhang, a Premier’s VCE Award recipient. The guidance emphasizes deep conceptual understanding across the year, linking ideas and techniques to new contexts, and using careful derivations and visualisation, not formula memorisation. It also highlights efficient CAS calculator use alongside hand work, exam-day concentration through neatness, highlighting key information, and learning from practice errors, especially careless mistakes. A final reminder is to relax, plan workload, and maintain confidence.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Specialist Mathematics exam advice

Focus on concepts over rote practice

Use CAS while keeping strong hand skills

Exam discipline: neatness, reading, and marking

Practice exams and error reduction

Advice for the final weeks and exam day

VCE EXAM ADVICE FROM PREMIER’S VCE AWARD RECIPIENTS SPECIALIST MATHEMATICS STEPHEN ZHANG RECEIVED AVCE SCORE 50 IN CHEMISTRY AND 47 IN SPECIALIST MATHEMATICS IN 2015. HIS ADVICE BELOW RELATES TO SPECIALIST MATHEMATICS WHICH HE CLAIMS AS HIS“FIRST LOVE”. My name is… Stephen Zhang I went to… Distance Education Centre Victoria In Specialist Mathematics , I received ascore of… 47 The thing I liked best about doing this subject was… I was fascinated by how the same ideas and techniques I learned could be applied to solve problems in a vast range of situations. For instance, vectorsand calculus (my favourite!) were linked closely to physics and chemistry, whilst differential equations can be used to explain a range of diverse phenomena. The best advice I can give VCE students about this exam is… Throughout the year, focus on fully understanding the concepts inside out, rather than purely doing questions. Unlike science subjects, mathematics is one of those subjects for which everything is precise and absolute-there are never exceptions to principles but only deeper meaning. I would strongly thinking through derivations and drawing links rather than memorising formulas. For instance, why does integration by substitution work? And why is dy/dx=1/(dx/dy)? Harder exam questions subtly test conceptual understanding as well as problem solving skills by requiring students to apply known concepts to new situations. Importantly, many concepts have geometrical interpretations, and an ability to visualise concepts in problems is key to exam success. Specialist Maths, like Maths Methods, relies heavily on the CAS calculator. However, as a general rule, I always did what I could by hand. Nevertheless, I was very adept at using the CAS from early on in the year, writing programs to automate speciﬁc calculations. These came in very handy in the exam to check a computation I had done by hand! The exams themselves are quite gruelling and there is a lot of competition. Neatness and meticulousness in working greatly is important to maintain a logical line of thought and not get ‘lost’ in midquestion. Highlight key information when it comes to exam questions-this may sound silly, but an unbelievable number of marks can be lost simply by not carefully reading the question! Finally, practice makes perfect. The more questions you do, the more familiar you become with the methods and concepts being tested. The best advice I got from my teacher about this exam was… Relax and do your best! There comes a point when the best thing to do is simply to relax and have conﬁdence in yourself. In the month before this VCE exam, I… I had ﬁnished the course content in July, and was down to doing practice exams. I marked my practice exams according to the examiner’s reports, and madea compilation of all my mistakes on my computer. A large proportion (say over 90%) of my mistakes were due to careless errors. (If you can manage to only make careless mistakes, then that is a sign that you have at least mastered the concepts!). As time went on, I experimented with techniques to combat these errors, including re-reading the question after working through it, checking that I’ve answered all aspects of the question, put appropriate units in, etc. -a true lifesaver! I regularly contacted my teacher, asking for advice on how to set out working, etc. My teacher was also able to mark some of my practice exams, which was a great help. In the week before this VCE exam I… I rested well, and did some practice questions for the upcoming Methods For more tips like this and for advice about looking after yourself during vce exams, please visit [www.education.vic.gov.au/school/students/pages/vce.aspx](www.education.vic.gov.au/school/students/pages/vce.aspx) and Specialist exams in order to keep my performance on peak. On exam day, I prepared myself by… For the ﬁrst exam, I was rather exhausted from my exertions in the two preceding Metho

FAQs

What should students focus on throughout the year for Specialist Mathematics?

Focus on fully understanding concepts rather than only completing practice questions. Work through ideas deeply and connect techniques to a wide range of situations.

How should students use the CAS calculator?

Rely on the CAS calculator heavily, but also do as much as possible by hand. Use CAS practice to write programs for automating calculations and to check computations during exams.

What exam-day habits help avoid losing marks?

Maintain neatness and a logical line of thought to avoid getting lost mid-question. Highlight key information and read questions carefully, since many marks can be lost by careless mistakes.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine