Why VCE practice really does make perfect

The great American inventor and businessmen Thomas Edison famously said that “genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration”. In other words, Edison believed that the primary quality of most successful people is hard-work and determination and not natural talent. Edison himself invented the electric lightbulb and the motion picture camera. But he came up with these innovations not through a sudden stroke of inspiration, but through tireless experimentation. It is ultimately his sheer tenacity that created the conditions for success. 

Then there’s Hollywood actor Will Smith, who freely admits that he’s a workaholic. In fact Smith has stated that he does not consider himself as possessing exceptional talent; in his view he’s just an average guy with a “ridiculous, sickening work ethic”. 

Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Outliers: The Story of Success agrees with these anecdotal cases. In his book Gladwell argues that practice is essential for improving any skill set, and he recommends 10,000 hours over a period of years to achieve mastery of a particular ability. Gladwell suggests that natural born talent is overrated, since there are literally thousands of talented people who in spite of their abilities never managed to reach the heights of a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. 

So how does all this apply to the VCE® Exam? First, it’s important not to get discouraged by your past results because your lack of innate ability in a particular area doesn’t mean you will always be bad at that subject. So if you’ve always done poorly at math, remember Edison and resolve to practice to improve your likelihood of forming the neural pathways in your brain that allow for future success. We know that the brain is like a muscle, and eliminating your weaknesses is the best work-out you can give it.

Second, do ensure that your practice is constructive and that you seek help from friends, parents, teachers or tutors where required. As Gladwell writes, "No one—not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses—ever makes it alone". 

Third, it’s not going to help if a student practices blindly without making sure any effort they put in is backed up by the correct study strategies and ideas. Importantly, you should aim to learn from your mistakes. It does little good to spend countless hours studying the wrong or irrelevant material, or to keep making the same mistakes over and over. And always challenge yourself wherever possible: to grow your brain’s connections it’s not enough to just keep reviewing material that’s easy for you – go for the hard stuff that will really make you smarter overall by shaping your brain’s neuroplasticity.

These are just some of the lessons we can learn from the likes of Thomas Edison, Will Smith, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Focused hard work that takes into account one’s mistakes and feedback from others is the best way to improve. Of course, nobody can guarantee results, but training as much as you can certainly seems unlikely to hurt your chances at scoring well on the VCE® Exam!