How do you study/revise? (1 Viewer)

[jacksonsteele]

So I have literally never studied in my life and coming into year 12 I've realised that I am going to need to.

I am making my notes for all my subjects, aligned with the syllabus, but once I actually have my notes, what's the next step? I can read over them but I don't know how effective that alone will be. I also know about past papers but is there anything else to add to my study sessions that would really help me to memorise everything?

thanks

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

So I have literally never studied in my life and coming into year 12 I've realised that I am going to need to.

I am making my notes for all my subjects, aligned with the syllabus, but once I actually have my notes, what's the next step? I can read over them but I don't know how effective that alone will be. I also know about past papers but is there anything else to add to my study sessions that would really help me to memorise everything?

thanks

What subjects are you doing exactly? I'm sure people can give you overall advice that will be beneficial regardless but it might be better providing the types of subjects you do so its most applicable. Some subjects require more focus in certain aspects than others, and entirely different skillsets meaning certain study strategies aren't as effective.

You wouldn't study say.. Physics as you would English, though stuff like making Study Notes or paying attention in class are broad advice that is crucial for both subjects,

 

[Epicman69]

Ayy same issue I was facing after my Maths Extension prelims which I completed in year 10. So honestly having completed the MX1 Course and now on my way to complete the HSC exam, the best advice I can give is to just sit down and do questions. Depending on the type of subject they are, you may need to use different methods. For maths especially, since it isn't very "content heavy" as in you don't really need to memorise the entire passages of text or information but rather you need to be able to apply the maths to different scenarios, the method would be to just expose yourself to as many question types as possible. Another case would be let's say biology, which in my opinion is the most "Content Heavy" science where you need to remember a lot of dot points rather than being able to complex calculations, so for this I would personally just rote learn all the content until I am able to remember all of it.

The next thing is to just do past papers. Like do as much as you can, I remember I did about every high ranked schools MX1 past paper for my trial test preparations as well as a 500 page doc of collated Trial Questions a friend had sent me. Honestly there is no easy way ... just get started and see what method fits you and your goals for the HSC.

 

[jimmysmith560]

It seems that the quality of your notes (which is an important element that contributes to the effectiveness of your studies and preparations) is not an issue, especially when considering the fact that you're aligning your notes with the syllabuses of your respective subjects.

Regarding your case, I can think of 3 important elements to consider:

• Frequency
• Consistency
• Regularity

Frequency in this case refers to how often you're going through your notes across your subjects. This is important because, as you may already know, going through your notes once may constitute insufficient (and potentially ineffective preparation, particularly if there are particular concepts you don't fully understand). High frequency is intended for you to be able to thoroughly understand and become able to effectively manipulate the content, allowing you to perform well in your assessment tasks/exams. This also allows you to (if applicable) identify areas of improvement in addition to any specific concepts that you don't fully understand, and subsequently seek assistance with those accordingly.

Consistency refers to your ability to maintain the aforementioned element to a high standard throughout year 12. This addresses factors such as motivation, determination, diligence and overall effort that you put in to be able to be consistent with respect to your studies and preparations, allowing you to maintain said frequency, which is ultimately desirable as it will likely contribute towards favourable performance.

Lastly, regularity is concerned with the time intervals you allocate towards frequency. For example, if you are taking a content-heavy subject (as mentioned above, listing your subjects would allow for more specific advice to be given) and decide to go through your notes covering a particular topic twice a week in an attempt to develop your understand and knowledge of this content, and because revision is important (so that you don't forget what you have learned, i.e. maintain familiarity), should you be repeating the process of going through your notes twice a week? If so, how many times should this occur?

I hope this helps!

 

[jacksonsteele]

What subjects are you doing exactly? I'm sure people can give you overall advice that will be beneficial regardless but it might be better providing the types of subjects you do so its most applicable. Some subjects require more focus in certain aspects than others, and entirely different skillsets meaning certain study strategies aren't as effective.

You wouldn't study say.. Physics as you would English, though stuff like making Study Notes or paying attention in class are broad advice that is crucial for both subjects,

im doing pdhpe, community and family studies, studies of religion 1, advanced and extension english!

 

[jacksonsteele]

Ayy same issue I was facing after my Maths Extension prelims which I completed in year 10. So honestly having completed the MX1 Course and now on my way to complete the HSC exam, the best advice I can give is to just sit down and do questions. Depending on the type of subject they are, you may need to use different methods. For maths especially, since it isn't very "content heavy" as in you don't really need to memorise the entire passages of text or information but rather you need to be able to apply the maths to different scenarios, the method would be to just expose yourself to as many question types as possible. Another case would be let's say biology, which in my opinion is the most "Content Heavy" science where you need to remember a lot of dot points rather than being able to complex calculations, so for this I would personally just rote learn all the content until I am able to remember all of it.

The next thing is to just do past papers. Like do as much as you can, I remember I did about every high ranked schools MX1 past paper for my trial test preparations as well as a 500 page doc of collated Trial Questions a friend had sent me. Honestly there is no easy way ... just get started and see what method fits you and your goals for the HSC.

thank you that is helpful! what does rote mean? i have seen it on a few threads

 

[zizi2003_]

im doing pdhpe, community and family studies, studies of religion 1, advanced and extension english!

try to implement active recall strategies in your study sessions, rather than passively reading over your notes- this will help you know whether or not you actually understood the info.
so for eg, using flashcards, explaining someone a hard syllabus dot-point you don't understand as well, and obv doing past papers without looking at your notes
for pdhpe/cafs, don't 'memorise' info word for word, but make sure you know your examples for each syllabus dot-point. I'd also recommend answering the syllabus 'learn to' questions. These almost always appear in exams

 

[jacksonsteele]

It seems that the quality of your notes (which is an important element that contributes to the effectiveness of your studies and preparations) is not an issue, especially when considering the fact that you're aligning your notes with the syllabuses of your respective subjects.

Regarding your case, I can think of 3 important elements to consider:

• Frequency
• Consistency
• Regularity

Frequency in this case refers to how often you're going through your notes across your subjects. This is important because, as you may already know, going through your notes once may constitute insufficient (and potentially ineffective preparation, particularly if there are particular concepts you don't fully understand). High frequency is intended for you to be able to thoroughly understand and become able to effectively manipulate the content, allowing you to perform well in your assessment tasks/exams. This also allows you to (if applicable) identify areas of improvement in addition to any specific concepts that you don't fully understand, and subsequently seek assistance with those accordingly.

Consistency refers to your ability to maintain the aforementioned element to a high standard throughout year 12. This addresses factors such as motivation, determination, diligence and overall effort that you put in to be able to be consistent with respect to your studies and preparations, allowing you to maintain said frequency, which is ultimately desirable as it will likely contribute towards favourable performance.

Lastly, regularity is concerned with the time intervals you allocate towards frequency. For example, if you are taking a content-heavy subject (as mentioned above, listing your subjects would allow for more specific advice to be given) and decide to go through your notes covering a particular topic twice a week in an attempt to develop your understand and knowledge of this content, and because revision is important (so that you don't forget what you have learned, i.e. maintain familiarity), should you be repeating the process of going through your notes twice a week? If so, how many times should this occur?

I hope this helps!

thank you that is really helpful!

 

[jacksonsteele]

try to implement active recall strategies in your study sessions, rather than passively reading over your notes- this will help you know whether or not you actually understood the info.
so for eg, using flashcards, explaining someone a hard syllabus dot-point you don't understand as well, and obv doing past papers without looking at your notes
for pdhpe/cafs, don't 'memorise' info word for word, but make sure you know your examples for each syllabus dot-point. I'd also recommend answering the syllabus 'learn to' questions. These almost always appear in exams

thanks will definitely give this a go!

 

[Epicman69]

thank you that is helpful! what does rote mean? i have seen it on a few threads

Rote learning just means to repeatedly study something by doing the same thing over and over again i.e you could be memorising pdhpe content through repetitive exercise questions. Basically it just means to HARD GRIND.

 

[nourished.]

So I have literally never studied in my life and coming into year 12 I've realised that I am going to need to.

I am making my notes for all my subjects, aligned with the syllabus, but once I actually have my notes, what's the next step? I can read over them but I don't know how effective that alone will be. I also know about past papers but is there anything else to add to my study sessions that would really help me to memorise everything?

thanks

Don't overthink it. Make your notes and do past papers. Then, condense everything into 1-2 pages per topic. Reread that once over every week.

 

[jacksonsteele]

that's awesome thanks!