How much to study for a 85 ATAR ? (1 Viewer)

[xibu34]

I know this a largely subjective question but just wanted to gather an idea of what others are doing. I'm not looking for a crazy ATAR but just enough to get into the top 5 at my school for a scholarship, 85 would probably get me pretty high up there and also get me into my course of choice. Currently I'm doing around 15 hours a week, is this too minimal or am I doing ok ? I feel on top of the content and my rankings are quite high but would increasing the hours make a substantial difference ? I also have multiple commitments outside of school like going to the gym for 2 hours 6x a week and working so I'd rather not lock myself up and study excessively for no reason.

 

[mmmmmmmmaaaaaaa]

As @temporarylol said, quality of study is far more important than quantity of study. The amount of study one does to achieve their goal is also subjective so you can't really question that. However, I was in the same boat as you last year, in that I couldn't study that much because I had sport and other commitments.

In summary though, 15 hours p/w is definitely fine considering you feel on top of your work, you could even lower it a little. If you want to study more, have a think about the opportunity cost of one extra hour of study in comparison to less socialising, less going to the gym or how much it would increase your marks from where they are ... that should give you an indication of whether you should increase/decrease your study hours.

Ensure to stay consistent though so you don't burnout etc

 

[xibu34]

Quality > Quantity

The amount of hours is a useless measure really, I could put in more hours but at the same time slack off and procrastinate. The important thing is the amount of productive work and output you produce, so if you find that you are able to complete your homework, tutoring work, note creation, revision, etc in the time that you've allocated, that's more than sufficient.

At this point in time, I think increasing the amount of hours would make you prone to burnout. If your aim is an 85 ATAR, I think the hours you're putting right now is good enough to achieve your goal. Don't put in more hours at the cost of socialising, doing extracurricular activities and fulfilling other commitments, it's important you do those for your overall wellbeing.

Thanks for the input, sometimes I feel like I'm doing the bare min when i read that some people on here do like 6 hours a day.

 

[xibu34]

As @temporarylol said, quality of study is far more important than quantity of study. The amount of study one does to achieve their goal is also subjective so you can't really question that. However, I was in the same boat as you last year, in that I couldn't study that much because I had sport and other commitments.

In summary though, 15 hours p/w is definitely fine considering you feel on top of your work, you could even lower it a little. If you want to study more, have a think about the opportunity cost of one extra hour of study in comparison to less socialising, less going to the gym or how much it would increase your marks from where they are ... that should give you an indication of whether you should increase/decrease your study hours.

Ensure to stay consistent though so you don't burnout etc

For your ATAR how much/how hard did you have to study , Was it difficult balancing extracurriculars with the workload and did it lead to any burnout or was it relatively easy-going ?

 

[mmmmmmmmaaaaaaa]

For your ATAR how much/how hard did you have to study , Was it difficult balancing extracurriculars with the workload and did it lead to any burnout or was it relatively easy-going ?

It did get tricky managing extracurriculars, especially leading towards the exam blocks, as well as trials and hsc. I would say I experienced burn out not that often, but it did occur after trials and at the start of the term sometimes. It definitely wasn't easy going.

You can kind of tell when you're studying 'too much' and I think that's something you should be aware of, especially when you're trying to balance extracurriculars + schoolwork + not getting burnt out. To how much I studied ... I would always aim to study at least 2 hours during the weekdays and 3-5 hours on the weekend, but I tried to study efficiently so I could study the least I could. It did ramp up a bit when exams/trials/hsc neared though. I would say though that the school holidays is where a lot of study took place.

Also the people on here that study 6+ hours a day (or close to) are a minority amongst who you're up against

 

[popsmokeswife]

I know this a largely subjective question but just wanted to gather an idea of what others are doing. I'm not looking for a crazy ATAR but just enough to get into the top 5 at my school for a scholarship, 85 would probably get me pretty high up there and also get me into my course of choice. Currently I'm doing around 15 hours a week, is this too minimal or am I doing ok ? I feel on top of the content and my rankings are quite high but would increasing the hours make a substantial difference ? I also have multiple commitments outside of school like going to the gym for 2 hours 6x a week and working so I'd rather not lock myself up and study excessively for no reason.

in order to get an 85 atar, you should definently be doing 25 hours a day

 

[Average Boreduser]

in order to get an 85 atar, you should definently be doing 25 hours a day

bruh theres 24 hrs in a day how tf is 25 possible......

 

[Run hard@thehsc]

As @temporarylol said, quality of study is far more important than quantity of study. The amount of study one does to achieve their goal is also subjective so you can't really question that. However, I was in the same boat as you last year, in that I couldn't study that much because I had sport and other commitments.

In summary though, 15 hours p/w is definitely fine considering you feel on top of your work, you could even lower it a little. If you want to study more, have a think about the opportunity cost of one extra hour of study in comparison to less socialising, less going to the gym or how much it would increase your marks from where they are ... that should give you an indication of whether you should increase/decrease your study hours.

Ensure to stay consistent though so you don't burnout etc

damn that seamless economics reference

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

no cap if u just study like 1-2 hrs a day ull be fine

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

I legit had friends who never studied but the last day/week, but would keep up with the content just by learning in class and they got solid 88s. Its not that hard, if ur serious abt study u can def aim for a 95 else 85 is more than doable even if you have a job

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

This ^^

If you don't do 25 hours a day you'll probably get a mystery mark tbh



All jokes aside, I think six hours is quite a lot. Those people probably constitute of the minority aiming for a 99+ ATAR, so yeah don't stress about that

nah thats cap I studied even in my dreams, had no rest, never saw my parents or siblings in my study leading up to the HSC, even when eating I would make math equations in my food just to improve my integration speed. 99 ATAR GRIND GANG

 

[MaccaPaccca]

Thanks for the input, sometimes I feel like I'm doing the bare min when i read that some people on here do like 6 hours a day.

On top of using your time effectively, I think what matters more is that you outline your studying priorities. If you feel like you are hitting all the relevant tickmarks, 2 hours of study daily is more than enough for your goal.

Personally, I feel like what you should focus on more isn't your study time, rather I believe you should pay attention to your mental health and self-esteem. You need something to study for after all!

 

[pogchampion]

I believe that balance is one of the most powerful things if you really want to min-max your atar. Near the end of the year, I began to lose that balance because I felt like it was necessary to sacrifice other things in order to do my best. This was completely wrong, and I began to lose excitement for learning and perfecting my understanding of my subjects.
That being said, I think 3 hours a weekday and 6 hours a weekend is a very good amount of study to do during the term. However, I also pre-studied during exactly half the holidays.

Personally, I think that making small sacrifices in order to maximise your ATAR isn't so bad, since the HSC is only 1 year.
Think about how great it'll feel once the HSC is over

Good luck!

 

[xibu34]

I believe that balance is one of the most powerful things if you really want to min-max your atar. Near the end of the year, I began to lose that balance because I felt like it was necessary to sacrifice other things in order to do my best. This was completely wrong, and I began to lose excitement for learning and perfecting my understanding of my subjects.
That being said, I think 3 hours a weekday and 6 hours a weekend is a very good amount of study to do during the term. However, I also pre-studied during exactly half the holidays.

Personally, I think that making small sacrifices in order to maximise your ATAR isn't so bad, since the HSC is only 1 year.
Think about how great it'll feel once the HSC is over

Good luck!

good point, do you mean 3 hours 5x a week and 6 hours altogether on the weekend, or 6 hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

 

[pogchampion]

good point, do you mean 3 hours 5x a week and 6 hours altogether on the weekend, or 6 hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

I don't wanna sound crazy but yeah, 3 hours 5x a week, 6 hours on saturday and 6 hours on sunday in year 12. In year 11 you could do half that. Make sure you have other things on throughout the week because otherwise you will burn out. Personally I was doing robotics, working a retail job, and completing my Gold Duke of Ed until halfway through year 12. When I tried sacrificing stuff to study more I started to get burnt out.
When I was doing all the other stuff I would look forward to studying, so it kept me motivated as well.

In year 11 I was probably doing more extracurriculars than studying, I started to take it truly seriously in about halfway through year 11.

 

[hehe43]

I don't wanna sound crazy but yeah, 3 hours 5x a week, 6 hours on saturday and 6 hours on sunday in year 12. In year 11 you could do half that. Make sure you have other things on throughout the week because otherwise you will burn out. Personally I was doing robotics, working a retail job, and completing my Gold Duke of Ed until halfway through year 12. When I tried sacrificing stuff to study more I started to get burnt out.
When I was doing all the other stuff I would look forward to studying, so it kept me motivated as well.

In year 11 I was probably doing more extracurriculars than studying, I started to take it truly seriously in about halfway through year 11.

Nah you really don't need that much study for 85 atar. That's 27 hours a week, for an 85 I'd agree with most others that 15 hours a week and a bit more before exams and assignments would be sufficient. If you're studying 27 hours a week and your marks are looking at an 85 you aren't studying efficiently enough and you're probably using the wrong resources.

However, in answering the original question I would encourage @xibu34 to think in terms of things completed as opposed to hours done, this way you can somewhat ensure that you will get the marks you want.