Meet the authors:

Asel Kumarasinghe

Asel is the head of resources at Complete VCE Education and is currently pursing a Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Melbourne under the Chancellor’s Scholarship. He graduated in 2022, achieving a raw 50 in VCE Maths Methods, along with a 99.95 ATAR.

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Christopher Tran

Christopher achieved not only Raw 50s in five VCE subjects including Maths Methods and Specialist Maths, but also a Silver medal representing Australia in the International Maths Olympiad. He additionally was the rank#1 VCE graduate of 2023 based on total aggregate score.

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John Feng

John graduated with an ATAR of 99.80 in 2025. Having progressed from averaging 70% in Year 10 Maths to achieving an outstanding Raw 48 study score in Methods, he understands what it takes to improve. John is currently studying Doctor of Medicine at Monash University.

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With the final VCAA maths methods exams approaching, it is essential that you make the most out of these last few weeks of preparation. Our top-scoring VCE maths methods tutors, Christopher Tran, Asel Kumarasinghe and John Feng, have joined forces to compile crucial insights on how to effectively prepare in the lead up to the final exam, as well as high-yield exam techniques to optimise your performance on the big day.

Methods Exam preparation strategies

The last few weeks before the exam are the most crucial, with optimal preparation being key for success. The primary focus during this time is completing multiple practice exams under timed conditions, preferably past VCAA exam papers, reviewing your mistakes and targeting your weaknesses. Here are some tips on how to maximise the utility of your exam preparation:

Chris:

Don’t just blindly do practice questions/exams. Spend a comparable amount of time reviewing practice exams you’ve done to understand what your thought process was that led to the correct answer this time/getting the question wrong/etc. Before checking solutions, reflect on how you did on a practice exam to see if your impression lines up with how well you are actually doing as well.

Asel:

Ensure that you create your bound reference early and practice completing exams with it in order to develop fluency, so that you know where to efficiently find information. Personally, I would include summary notes from each topic, difficult questions that I have encountered in my practice exams, and how to perform certain functions on the CAS.

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John:

Make sure to keep track and actually beat yourself up for silly/ “stupid” errors. It is useful to create an “error log” to track the mistakes you are making in each practice exam, and to regularly review this list. Understanding the types of mistakes you are making and why you are making them is vital in preventing yourself from making similar mistakes in the future.

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Maths Methods Exam techniques

Even more important than exam preparation is your performance on the day itself. Many students, regardless of how much they’ve prepared, still make careless mistakes due to the pressure of exam day. Here is some advice on how to maximise your performance on exam day.

Chris:

Exam 2 is a CAS-based exam and is also time-pressured, so you should make sure you are across the fastest way to do questions in CAS (especially multiple choice), as the exam is designed with this in mind. Sometimes you know how to do it by hand/etc., but the CAS will be faster, helping you save crucial minutes. Make sure that you double-check what you are typing into the CAS as well to ensure you haven’t mistyped anything.

Asel:

During the exam, the importance of reading questions carefully cannot be emphasised enough. Make sure you check the number of decimal places required (check your rounding as well), restrictions/domains (e.g. ‘a is a positive number’), and that you are answering exactly what the question is asking (e.g. if a question is asking you to define a function, you need to give both the rule and domain). Highlighting or underlining important points in the question may help to avoid misreading the question, as well as reading the question again after obtaining your answer. 

John:

If you are making arithmetic mistakes you need to reflect and ask yourself whether you are going too fast. It is better to not make the mistake in the first place than to come back and try to find it under lines and lines of maths. Make sure to write your working out clearly and to double-check each line of work as you write it, in order to catch mistakes early. Overall, pacing matters, you can’t go too slow that you fail to complete the exam, and you can’t go too quickly that you make a mistake every second question, balancing accuracy with speed is crucial. Also, make sure that your sleep schedule is appropriate.

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Last but most important, make sure that you are taking care of your wellbeing in the lead up to the exam. Ensure that you get enough sleep, eat healthy and exercise, as your mental state on the day can make or break your exam performance. By implementing the above strategies, you will be able to target your weaknesses, get the most out of doing practice exams and avoid careless errors on exam day, thus maximising your performance when it counts. Best of luck for your final exams!

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Wanting additional help with VCE Maths Methods? If you're looking for practice questions with fully worked solutions, mock SACs, exams and top-quality notes, access our current library of free Maths Methods resources a the link below:

• ‍VCE Maths Methods Resources Library

Additionally, contact us today for an obligation-free trial lesson with the very authors of this insightful article amongst a plethora of Raw 50 scoring doctors, dentists and state ranking-topping graduates.

VCE Maths Methods Tutoring with Mr. Chris Tran (Melbourne CBD or Online)