Advice on Study Strategies to Achieve a 95+ ATAR (1 Viewer)

[24kgold]

Hey guys!
I am seeking some much-needed advice. A bit of context but I absolutely flunked my prelims ranging from the 60-the 80s and I'm afraid that the study methods that I used in year 11 will not work anymore (note-taking and memorising chunks of information). I've heard that using flashcards like Anki is good for long-term memory but I was wondering if it actually worked. What other study methods should I use that ACTUALLY work??

Also, I don't know if it is realistic but I am aiming for an ATAR of above 95. Is this possible with the subjects I do? I know that chemistry and advanced maths scale pretty well but I am not sure how food tech scales (I've heard it scales down). Will this affect my ATAR? Also what mark should I be aiming for each subject?
I do 12 units consisting of:
- English Advanced
- Maths Advanced
- Chemistry
- Biology
- PDHPE
- Food Technology

 

[its_ace21]

yes anything is possible with any combination of subjects, but i think u should drop one subject (ur worst performing one)

 

[24kgold]

yes anything is possible with any combination of subjects, but i think u should drop one subject (ur worst performing one)

Is it better to do 10 units rather than 12? I've always thought I needed to do 12 in case I stuff one up. Also, across ALL my subjects I'm doing decent (at this rate). Hence, why I don't really have a worst performing subject.

 

[its_ace21]

Is it better to do 10 units rather than 12? I've always thought I needed to do 12 just in case.

i think its better to do 10, just keep 12 for now and wait till u get assessments this term, and which ever subject ur worst at drop it

 

[stevie444]

Is it better to do 10 units rather than 12? I've always thought I needed to do 12 in case I stuff one up. Also, across ALL my subjects I'm doing decent (at this rate). Hence, why I don't really have a worst performing subject.

I think it's better to do 12 if you are not sure which one will be worst and drop after term 1 or term 2 assessments if one is far behind the rest or if one requires far more effort to achieve equivalent marks.

You don't need to worry about scaling if you do well in the subjects. Scaling will only hurt you if you don't do well in a low scaling subject (and food tech is the only one that this could apply to) but as long as you achieve above a certain standard ( distinguishing yourself from the people that perform worse in other subjects and therefore create the poor scaling) you should be fine.

For 95 you should ideally aim for band 6s

 

[24kgold]

I think it's better to do 12 if you are not sure which one will be worst and drop after term 1 or term 2 assessments if one is far behind the rest or if one requires far more effort to achieve equivalent marks.

You don't need to worry about scaling if you do well in the subjects. Scaling will only hurt you if you don't do well in a low scaling subject (and food tech is the only one that this could apply to) but as long as you achieve above a certain standard ( distinguishing yourself from the people that perform worse in other subjects and therefore create the poor scaling) you should be fine.

For 95 you should ideally aim for band 6s

Thank you so much This helped me a lot! I'm actually coming top in food tech so I might keep it for now.

Anyways, If you don't mind me asking, how was your hsc?

 

[pikachu975]

Hey guys!
I am seeking some much-needed advice. A bit of context but I absolutely flunked my prelims ranging from the 60-the 80s and I'm afraid that the study methods that I used in year 11 will not work anymore (note-taking and memorising chunks of information). I've heard that using flashcards like Anki is good for long-term memory but I was wondering if it actually worked. What other study methods should I use that ACTUALLY work??

Also, I don't know if it is realistic but I am aiming for an ATAR of above 95. Is this possible with the subjects I do? I know that chemistry and advanced maths scale pretty well but I am not sure how food tech scales (I've heard it scales down). Will this affect my ATAR? Also what mark should I be aiming for each subject?
I do 12 units consisting of:
- English Advanced
- Maths Advanced
- Chemistry
- Biology
- PDHPE
- Food Technology

My study method for bio/phys (bio wrote my own notes, phys used tutor's notes) was just purely memorising them by printing the syllabus out and crossing each dot point off 1 by 1 as I memorised it.

In saying that, which study method works depends on the individual.

 

[24kgold]

My study method for bio/phys (bio wrote my own notes, phys used tutor's notes) was just purely memorising them by printing the syllabus out and crossing each dot point off 1 by 1 as I memorised it.

In saying that, which study method works depends on the individual.

How were you able to memorise heaps of information? Bio is pretty content heavy and my brain would just shut down.

 

[pikachu975]

How were you able to memorise heaps of information? Bio is pretty content heavy and my brain would just shut down.

For the stuff that was pure memorisation it was pretty much just reading it over and over.

However quite a lot of stuff in bio can be related to real life so you can understand the content instead of purely memorising it which helps a lot. E.g. red kangaroos sweat when it's hot to regulate body temperature as an endotherm. Stuff like that you can pretty much remember easily and reduces how much you need to memorise by a lot.

Also studying all the content in depth helped a lot since again it helped with understanding rather than purely memorising. I pretty much felt like biology had less memorising than something like physics since sooooo many of the concepts could be applied to real life -> easier to remember.

 

[carrotsss]

My study method for bio/phys (bio wrote my own notes, phys used tutor's notes) was just purely memorising them by printing the syllabus out and crossing each dot point off 1 by 1 as I memorised it.

In saying that, which study method works depends on the individual.

the new syllabus favours memorisation a bit less though so I don’t think this would work as well nowadays

 

[pikachu975]

the new syllabus favours memorisation a bit less though so I don’t think this would work as well nowadays

Oh yeah I still mean you should study content in-depth and understand it rather than purely memorise without understanding, I worded my original post badly. I should've said that I kept re-reading stuff then asking my cohort's biology group chat for any in-depth questions I had in order to remember.

 

[stevie444]

the new syllabus favours memorisation a bit less though so I don’t think this would work as well nowadays

I've found this is true for humanities as well, not just sciences. Ive always had a bad memory compared to others and so needed to be concise and precise in what I learnt ( which I actually think helped me in the long run )
Just make sure that you have knowledge that specifically links to each syllabus point, but you have to be prepared to express it differently or link between different ideas. The only good ways I've found to improve this is just lots of past papers and mindmaps. I know that there were often people who knew far more knowledge than me but I still way outperformed them by being more adept at answering specific questions on exam days, because I had a core of key ideas and knew how to make them relevant to any question.

Regularly hand stuff in to your teachers and if they are good follow the feedback religiously, which will help to get an idea of what that relevant knowledge is.

 

[Life'sHard]

How were you able to memorise heaps of information? Bio is pretty content heavy and my brain would just shut down.

Memorise by memorising

 

[24kgold]

I've found this is true for humanities as well, not just sciences. Ive always had a bad memory compared to others and so needed to be concise and precise in what I learnt ( which I actually think helped me in the long run )
Just make sure that you have knowledge that specifically links to each syllabus point, but you have to be prepared to express it differently or link between different ideas. The only good ways I've found to improve this is just lots of past papers and mindmaps. I know that there were often people who knew far more knowledge than me but I still way outperformed them by being more adept at answering specific questions on exam days, because I had a core of key ideas and knew how to make them relevant to any question.

Regularly hand stuff in to your teachers and if they are good follow the feedback religiously, which will help to get an idea of what that relevant knowledge is.

Thanks a lot! THIS is what I was looking for.

 

[stevie444]

no problem, glad to help.

 

[clive guo]

play genshin impact my brother played genshin impact for many hours a day

 

[pikachu975]

play genshin impact my brother played genshin impact for many hours a day

that's the secret to 99.95

 

[clive guo]

that's the secret to 99.95

bet

 

[Tribunal]

For the stuff that was pure memorisation it was pretty much just reading it over and over.

However quite a lot of stuff in bio can be related to real life so you can understand the content instead of purely memorising it which helps a lot. E.g. red kangaroos sweat when it's hot to regulate body temperature as an endotherm. Stuff like that you can pretty much remember easily and reduces how much you need to memorise by a lot.

Also studying all the content in depth helped a lot since again it helped with understanding rather than purely memorising. I pretty much felt like biology had less memorising than something like physics since sooooo many of the concepts could be applied to real life -> easier to remember.

How did you study for maths???

 

[pikachu975]

How did you study for maths???

Understand the content then practice via past papers pretty much. Also don't just read solutions and be like "yea makes sense", try develop a better problem solving method and thought process so you can tackle any future questions. Understanding the content also helps with tackling any question thrown at you.