A Collection of HSC Advice

Hey 2016ers,
A year ago you were me, a young and ambitious student on your
HSC journey, embarking on the path to *discover* your ATAR. I
started of with a goal of 92, which ended up being 94, then 96 and
now I am on track to getting 98+. Update: got 99.65, all-rounders
and two state ranks
This wasn't through copious amounts of work, but rather working in
the right way.
When the 2014ers finished, I reached out for advice and got
heeapppps (over 70 people pitched in), so I decided to collate it for
my benefit as well as to help the rest of the 2015ers.
Now that you guys are starting, I thought I would put it up here
because many people have found it very useful (and it's probably
my way of procrastinating with 2 HSC exams left to dominate...)
If I was to give my own biggest advice, take one day at a time
(often you will get overwhelmed, break things down and keep
moving forward) and manage your mindset - if you can plant a
positive seed in your mind, it will significantly help in carrying you
through this year
. And most importantly, consistency >
intensity
All the best guys, you'll smash it!!!

Notes
use one main resource, but also refer to another resource which has
other important stuff
for parts you dont understand, use internet, others notes, Khan
academy etc.
after each topic, skim through other textbooks/study guide/other
peoples notes to check you have covered similar things
could use base notes then compile own notes from resources and
integrate into base notes'
write notes in your own words, it helps facilitate understanding
Getting ahead

try to keep ahead of your class that way in class you are improving
your knowledge of it and having discussions at a higher level
Past Papers
if you are unsure of a question, check your notes and try to work
out an answer before looking at the actual answer
dont save' them till right before the HSC cause you wont get time
to do them - do them on stuff you are learning throughout the year
time yourself
make sure you have neat handwriting
take advantage of your teachers, get them to mark your PP's and
give you feedback
Extra reading (English, Humanities)
to get an extra edge, read widely so that you grasp the writing style
of academics
read novels to improve your English, but also read academic papers
such as from academia.edu and jstor.org
research topics could be topics such as romanticism or even specific
texts or authors
English
Rote it, make sure you keep improving the practice response though
Get the hang of flexible thinking with ideas and snippets of evidence
before you walk in with a prepared essay you cant even mould to
the question
Dont rote it for Module B as questions can be very very specific
State ranking essays have around 6 examples per paragraph
Memorise around 20-30 quotes per unit (incl related text)
You have to walk into the exam knowing pretty much exactly what
you are going to talk about
Consistently, Study Routines, Time Management
Crucial that you are consistent throughout the year
Consistency is greater then intensity - you need to keep going for
the whole year
general guideline for study - 2-3 hours a weekday incl. homework, 5
hours on Saturday and Sunday
plan when you are going to study and pre-plan breaks
have an outcomes focus, every time before you study write a to do

list of the things you will do during the study period

REMOVE DISTRACTIONS
Have a focus of revision on the weekend and homework + note
taking on weekdays
Prioritisation is key - if homework is not valuable dont do it
Sleep, exercise, healthy eating key to avoiding burnout
Be disciplined, this is greater then motivation
Make a study schedule or use a daily to-do list
Go hard or go home - what are you doing to Advance your HSC
journey today
Using a daily to-do list
If you are using a daily to-do list, on Sunday make a list of all the
tasks you want to achieve on each day of the week and not
mandatory tasks but things like essays, notes, PPs etc.
Aim for 3-4 tasks per day - one for each subject you had during the
day
do extra tasks before mandatory ones otherwise you wont end up
having time for the mandatory ones
anything you dont compete finish on the weekend (so dont
originally allocate tasks for Sat and Sun)
Studying Techniques
Teachers others is the best way to study, can do 1 on 1 teaching
with someone at the same level as you, someone who knows barely
anything about the material to force you to know the basics well and
be really clear
Practice papers and flash cards work well because you are practicing
retrieving the information
Take advantage of spaced repetition to increase memory retention e.g. spend 10 minutes review what you learnt in each class per
night and review same content on the weekend
Past papers are everything, but dont save them until the HSC
because you wont get time to do them - do relevant questions as
you learn stuff
Walk into your exam room with confidence, and not fake it till you
make it confidence but confidence gathered from familiarising
yourself with the styles of questions they can ask you, the style of
answering questions (essential for sciences), an impregnable
knowledge of the syllabus and skeleton responses for common types
of question
It's essential to understand the mechanics of what is considered as

a band 6 essay, short answer response and approaches to m/c.

Learn from the best in order to be the best. Especially crucial for
English and Humanities

Goals
Set clear goals as to why you want to achieve certain marks and
ATAR, and make sure you know WHY you want to achieve these
goals
Dont tell people your goals, its proven to make you less likely to
achieve them
You could mess up or misread one question in one exam and that
could change your ATAR, marker could not like your essay, cutoff
could increase etc. - set goals that are decently above the cutoff and
what you can achieve, don't aim for 90 if your course requires that
when you could get 97 if you pushed yourself
Success builds on success. Confidence builds on confidence. Start
conquering your subjects early and you'll steamroll through the
year. Get off to a shaky start and you put yourself in an
uncomfortable position. The key is to push through until you reach
another success. Smash your half yearlies and you'll be golden.
Never give up, it is completely normal to mess up at least one
assessment just use it as motivation to work harder
You can stick up a goal on your wall, but what have you done to
advance your HSC journey today?
Holidays (in particular the Summer Holidays)
Make as many notes as you can, at least up to the half yearlies
Spending time finding related texts, annotating texts, writing essays
for English
Math - in the summer holidays because up to 35% of the content of
the HSC exam can be from prelim make sure you have covered
everything from prelim really well and understand it all and do some
more prelim practice papers because you probably wont have time
to do this during the year as you want to focus more on the HSC
content which is harder in saying that definitely do some HSC
maths stuff as well
Even if you spend 3 hours studying first thing in the morning 5 days
a week, then you will still have the rest of the day free and you will
have done a lot of work by the end of the holidays
You are not going to be out partying the whole holidays - in
downtimes when you would just be gaming or on your computer for
like 5 hours use this time wisely

You need to have a break as well so you dont burn out, and relax
and re-energise for the year ahead