Doing Two Folio Subjects: Tips and Tricks (40 + Study Score)
In Year 12 last year, I took VCE Media and Visual Communication Design (VCD) – both of which I got a raw 44. I was extraordinarily happy with the results, but it took a lot out of me. To put it in perspective, I was averaging 5-10 hours a week in both VCD and Media separately during my busiest months (June – September: aka folio hell). And even though I worked my ass off for the whole year, I still had to take an all-nighter the day before the VCD folio was due.
Okay I gotta admit, I was (and still am) a huge study nerd, so every day I would record the time I spend working on a free time tracker website call Toggl (which, by the way, is really useful if you want to know how you actually spend your time). Here I have attached the total time I spent on these two subjects compared to my other three:
As you can see, both Media and VCD took up the same time as English, Further and Legal combined. Yep. For those who are considering doing folio subjects because they are “easy”; don’t. Just don’t. You’ll be in for a hell of a surprise.
Yeah, so with that in mind, let’s dive in straight into a few tips, sprinkled with my own personal experience.
1) Be prepared to get a less than stellar result (realistically)
Okay, who am I kidding? Everyone who chooses to do 2 folios will have already prepared to throw academic excellence out the window. Of course, if you worked super, duper hard throughout the whole year, there is definitely a great possibility of achieving a relatively high ATAR with 2 awesome folio results (I’ve seen it happen and it’s so inspiring!).
But keep in mind folio subjects scale down heaps (which is hugely unfair, like has VCAA ever even seen the stuff they have in Top Designs? It’s not easy!!), and are extremely time-consuming. You can’t cram good drawing skills like you can cram math skills, and good, A-A+ folios require blood, sweat and tears, no matter which skill level you’re at.
However, the keyword is prepared. It’s always good to aim high no matter what. If you want to achieve awesome results in both folios and everything else then go for it – I encourage that! Just be aware of the awful scaling and the sheer amount of time you have to spend working on the folios in mind.
If you don’t get the study score you want, don’t be crushed. Your study score does not depict your ability as a creator. I’ve heard of people who scored 100% on their folios and yet got rejected from Top Designs. I’ve had a friend who worked extremely hard all year on her folio yet score below 40.
Remember, if you are proud of your folio and final presentations, that’s all that matters.
2) Don’t waste time on unnecessary things
If you choose to do two or more folios, time is precious. I will say this now, and I will say it again; do not waste time on making your folio ‘extra pretty’ or add in stuff that isn’t required to gain ‘extra marks’.
Your teachers will not mark you down or up based on how nice looking your folio is – they will mark you according to the rubric (which I highly advise that you read through thoroughly).
My rule of thumb when I was working on my folios was to get the essential work done first, then focus on making it look pretty and adding in extra stuff later. Of course, if you want to be an over-achiever like me, there’s no harm in making your folio look aesthetically pleasing – just do it in a time-effective way.
Print and design your headings early on so you don’t have to waste time printing them all out later when you’re busy. Constantly get feedback from your teacher so you know how to maximise marks most efficiently. Read through the marking rubric to see what to include in your annotations – short and sharp annotations that get straight to the point will score higher than long, fluffy annotations that do not meet the requirements.
Time is of the essence. A folio that doesn’t have too much or too little content is what you should be aiming for.
3) Be consistent in your work ethic
This is probably the most important tip. Finishing your folio at a high quality is possible if you work consistently throughout the whole year. You don’t even have to work on your folio every day! I’d advise you to pick 2-3 alternating days in the whole week to be your designated folio days and work for at least 2 hours on each folio (if you’re doing more than one).
Weekends are your best friends in this regard; it’s tough to squeeze out two or more whole hours in the weekdays, but with weekends, it’s quite possible. I usually did my 2 or more hours during the evenings; I’d work from about 7 – 10 pm on my folio and do all the brain-intensive work such as Legal in the mornings.
VCD and Media were actually my ‘relaxing’ subjects; when I felt brain dead from doing English or Legal, I’d switch over to some drawing or annotating for my folios. I’ve heard of so much horror stories of trying to cram folios in the last minute; I wouldn’t recommend it – it’s crazy and frankly not worth it (though I still had to cram on the last day even with a relatively consistent work schedule… this is the folio life guys).
Basically, don’t cram more than you need.
4) Work your ass off during the holidays
This is pretty much self-explanatory. During school days there’s barely enough time to work on your folio if you take into account other commitments and a butt load of other content-heavy subjects. And thus we have the holidays; hours and hours of free time to finally get going on your folio.
Of course, it’s important to relax and take a breather, but remember to work hard on your folios too! This is the time where you can get most of the workload off your back and be slightly more relaxed when the next term rolls around. For me, there were always heaps of SACs at the start of each term, so I made sure to do as much folio as I could during the holidays so I could prioritise those subjects first.
And that’s it, the four most important tips that stuck with me for most of 2019! I hope you guys found this useful and good luck for VCE! Tips for folio subjects sadly don’t get much attention in VCE forums in my experience (I was frantically searching for all the tips I could get at the beginning of VCE, to no avail).
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I also offer private tutoring for VCD, Media and English. You can find more information on the ‘Tutoring’ page on my website.