If your EA is tomorrow — this post is your complete guide for the next 24 hours. Follow it exactly. Today — the day before: 9am — Do a light review only Read through your personal mistakes list one final time. Review the exact values table. Check the confidence interval formula. Nothing new. Nothing heavy. 30 minutes maximum. 10am — Stop studying Seriously. Close the books. You have done the work. More cramming in the final hours does not add marks — it adds anxiety. 11am — Sort your equipment ✅ Calculator — check it works, replace batteries if needed ✅ Two sharpened pencils ✅ Black or blue pen ✅ Ruler and eraser ✅ Student ID ✅ Water bottle ✅ A snack for between papers if you have two Pack your bag now. Do not leave it until the morning. Afternoon — do something you enjoy Go for a walk. Watch something. Spend time with people you like. Your brain needs rest, not more input. 6pm — Eat a proper dinner Protein and complex carbohydrates. Not junk food. Your brain needs fuel for tomorrow. 8pm — Read your mistakes list one final time One last read. Slow and deliberate. Then close it. 9:30pm — Phone down, lights off In bed by 10pm. Non-negotiable. Sleep is the single most underrated exam preparation tool. Your brain consolidates memory during sleep. A rested brain scores more marks than a tired one. Every time. Tomorrow morning: ✅ Wake up with enough time to eat breakfast properly ✅ Eat — no skipping, your brain needs glucose ✅ Arrive 15 minutes early ✅ Do not discuss the exam with friends outside the room ✅ Three deep breaths before the paper lands on your desk In the exam: ✅ Read every question twice ✅ Tick easy questions first ✅ Never leave anything blank ✅ Show all working ✅ Check units ✅ Save 10 minutes to review at the end You are ready. The content is inside your head. Your job tomorrow is to show the marker what you know. Trust your preparation. Go get that 99+. 🌟 Who is sitting their EA this week? Drop a comment below — we are cheering you on 👇

Happy Monday! This week’s problem is EA-style — mixed topics, just like the real thing. Question 1 — Calculus (Paper 1 style) A curve has equation y = x³ - 6x² + 9x + 1. a) Find all stationary points and classify them b) Find the point of inflection c) Find the equation of the tangent at x = 0 Question 2 — Statistics (Paper 2 style) The heights of Year 12 students are normally distributed with mean 168 cm and standard deviation 9 cm. a) Find the probability a randomly selected student is taller than 175 cm b) Find the height that only 10% of students exceed c) A sample of 25 students is taken. Find P(mean height > 170) Rules: ✅ Show your full working ✅ State which calculator functions you used for Question 2 ✅ Post your answer in the comments ✅ React to someone else’s attempt Full worked solution posted Friday. Good luck! 💪

For many of you — the EA is either this week or next week. Which means in a matter of days, two years of ATAR maths will be behind you. I want to talk about what comes after. Immediately after the exam: Do not compare answers with friends outside the exam room. Seriously. It helps nobody and stresses everyone. You have done the work. The paper is submitted. What’s done is done. Go home. Eat something good. Rest. In the days after: You will feel one of two things: Either relief — “that went better than I expected.” Or anxiety — “I think I made mistakes.” Here is the truth about both: Every student who has ever sat the Methods or Specialist EA thinks they made mistakes. Even the ones who score in the 99th percentile. The human brain fixates on what went wrong, not what went right. The mistakes you are worried about are almost certainly smaller than they feel right now. The bigger picture: The EA is one assessment. It is worth 50% of your final result. Your IAs are already done and banked. Whatever happens — you gave it your best shot. That is all anyone can ask. And whatever your result — university is not the only path forward. Trades, business, gap years, alternative entry — there are more doors open to you than you might think right now. To everyone who has been part of this community: Thank you for showing up week after week. For attempting the problems. For reading the tips. For asking questions. This community was built for you. And watching you prepare — week by week, problem by problem — has been genuinely rewarding. Go into your EA knowing you prepared properly. Now go get that 99+. 💪 Drop a comment below — when is your EA? Let’s wish each other luck one last time 👇

What a week! Here’s everything we covered: ✅ Problem of the Week #9 — integration techniques ✅ How to handle a question you have never seen before ✅ The last revision checklist before your EA ✅ Curve sketching using calculus — 6 step process ✅ Worked solution with 4 different integration techniques If you missed any of these — scroll back through the feed and catch up. Everything is there for you. We are now 9 weeks into this community. 9 weeks of Problems of the Week. 9 weeks of exam tips. 9 weeks of worked solutions. 9 weeks of showing up. For the students who have been here since the beginning — you have been exposed to: - Complete QCAA-aligned course notes for Methods and Specialist in the Classroom tab - 9 fully worked exam problems - 30+ exam tips and concept breakdowns - IA guides, EA strategy, common mistakes breakdowns and revision checklists That is a serious amount of preparation. If your EA is coming up in the next few weeks — here is your only job this weekend: One past paper. Timed. Marked honestly. Not notes. Not re-reading. A past paper. Then come back here and tell me which questions gave you trouble. I will help you work through them. And if you have already sat your EA this week — drop a comment below and tell us how it went. This community wants to hear from you. 🎉 How are you feeling heading into the final stretch? Drop it below 👇

Here’s the full worked solution to this week’s problem! Part a) ∫ x × e to the power of (x squared) dx Technique: reverse chain rule / substitution Let u = x squared → du = 2x dx → x dx = du/2 = ∫ e to the power of u × du/2 = (1/2) e to the power of u + c = (1/2) e to the power of (x squared) + c ✅ Part b) ∫ (3x + 1) / (x squared + 2x - 3) dx Technique: partial fractions First factorise the denominator: x squared + 2x - 3 = (x + 3)(x - 1) Set up partial fractions: (3x + 1) / [(x + 3)(x - 1)] = A/(x + 3) + B/(x - 1) Multiply both sides by (x + 3)(x - 1): 3x + 1 = A(x - 1) + B(x + 3) Set x = 1: 4 = 4B → B = 1 Set x = -3: -8 = -4A → A = 2 Therefore: ∫ (3x + 1) / (x squared + 2x - 3) dx = ∫ 2/(x + 3) + 1/(x - 1) dx = 2 ln|x + 3| + ln|x - 1| + c ✅ Part c) ∫ x × ln(x) dx Technique: integration by parts LIATE: u = ln(x) (Logarithm), dv = x dx (Algebraic) u = ln(x) → du = 1/x dx dv = x dx → v = x squared / 2 ∫ x ln(x) dx = (x squared / 2) × ln(x) - ∫ (x squared / 2) × (1/x) dx = (x squared / 2) ln(x) - ∫ x/2 dx = (x squared / 2) ln(x) - x squared / 4 + c = (x squared / 4)(2 ln(x) - 1) + c ✅ Part d) ∫ from 0 to 1 of x × e to the power of x dx Technique: integration by parts then definite integral u = x → du = dx dv = e to the power of x dx → v = e to the power of x ∫ x e to the power of x dx = x e to the power of x - ∫ e to the power of x dx = x e to the power of x - e to the power of x + c = e to the power of x (x - 1) + c Now evaluate from 0 to 1: [e to the power of x (x - 1)] from 0 to 1 = e to the power of 1 (1 - 1) - e to the power of 0 (0 - 1) = e × 0 - 1 × (-1) = 0 + 1 = 1 ✅ Common mistakes to avoid: Mistake 1 — Part a: recognise that x dx appears in the integral after substitution. If you can’t cancel the x terms cleanly — your substitution choice is wrong. Mistake 2 — Part b: always factorise the denominator first before setting up partial fractions. Never try to guess the decomposition without factorising.