Why Students Should Practise Questions from Different Topics Together

One thing I've noticed when tutoring Year 11 and 12 Maths and Chemistry is that students can often do really well on questions when they already know what topic they're practising. However, when those same types of questions appear in a mixed exam paper, they sometimes struggle to work out where to even start.

For example, if a student is completing a worksheet on differentiation, they already know that every question will involve differentiation. But in an HSC exam, they need to recognise for themselves whether a question requires differentiation, integration, algebra or a combination of different methods.

The same applies to Chemistry. A student might be confident answering equilibrium questions during a lesson, but in an exam they need to recognise which concepts apply, what information is relevant and how to use it.

This is why I encourage students to practise questions from different topics together, especially leading up to exams. It gets them used to identifying the right approach without being told what topic the question comes from.

Of course, practising one topic at a time is still important, especially when first learning content or working on weaker areas. However, once students are comfortable with the basics, mixing questions from different topics is a good next step.

One simple way to do this is to choose a few questions from different past papers or textbook chapters and complete them without looking at the topic headings.

This helps students practise not only applying what they've learnt, but also recognising when and how to use it, which is an important part of doing well in HSC exams.