Chris@SummitTutoring
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2023
- Messages
- 7
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2008
“ In order to be successful you must be willing to do the things today others won't do in order to have the things tomorrow others won't have”
Too often I've heard students tell me “ I just don’t have time for anything other than study” While this is true SOMETIMES, most of the time students can do much more than they think they are capable of.
Typically, a NSW school day begins at 8.45am and finishes at 3pm from Monday to Friday. Yet many students place self imposed limitations on their own time. Let's say you get up at 7am and either catch the bus or train to school to arrive by 8.30am. You then finish school at 3pm, arrive home at 4pm and begin studying until 10-11pm at night. That’s not a bad effort at all! But what's missing in this seemingly solid study schedule? What’s missing is a precious extra five hours of potential study per week. If you wake up at 5am Monday to Friday to study, you will accrue an extra 5 hours of study per week. In a month that's an extra 20 hours of study and in the gruelling 12-13 month HSC journey, that's an extra 260 hours of study completed. The question to ask then is not whether it’s worth it but how much are you willing to sacrifice to study law, medicine, economics, journalism etc?
In conjunction with waking up early, exercise is often overlooked as a study strategy. Now this is not always possible due to other commitments and this is understandable, there are times where you just have to hammer on with assessment tasks. But generally speaking, when you arrive home at 4pm-4.30pm, completing one hour of exercise before studying can be a highly effective tool. Exercise is good for the brain, body and mind, it calms us down and releases a number of “happy chemicals”. It also does one other thing that is often not talked about. A new study from Austria's University of Graz has shown that people who regularly do exercise score higher on creativity than people who do not exercise. Intellectual creativity is key to HSC English! Creative writing, essay writing and comparative analysis ALL require creativity.
Finally, diet is very important. There are an array of foods that help concentration and memory, from blueberries, eggs, nuts and green vegetables. I know when I went through the HSC there were times where I showed up for an exam either on an empty stomach or only having eaten one piece of toast with vegemite, as we know, this is not a wise thing to do. In sum, an holistic approach to the HSC is a better one!
So, the question for some is are you doing everything you possibly can to achieve your goals? If you are, that's great, but if you know you could be doing more, how badly do you want to receive that top ATAR you tell your friends about all the time?
Too often I've heard students tell me “ I just don’t have time for anything other than study” While this is true SOMETIMES, most of the time students can do much more than they think they are capable of.
Typically, a NSW school day begins at 8.45am and finishes at 3pm from Monday to Friday. Yet many students place self imposed limitations on their own time. Let's say you get up at 7am and either catch the bus or train to school to arrive by 8.30am. You then finish school at 3pm, arrive home at 4pm and begin studying until 10-11pm at night. That’s not a bad effort at all! But what's missing in this seemingly solid study schedule? What’s missing is a precious extra five hours of potential study per week. If you wake up at 5am Monday to Friday to study, you will accrue an extra 5 hours of study per week. In a month that's an extra 20 hours of study and in the gruelling 12-13 month HSC journey, that's an extra 260 hours of study completed. The question to ask then is not whether it’s worth it but how much are you willing to sacrifice to study law, medicine, economics, journalism etc?
In conjunction with waking up early, exercise is often overlooked as a study strategy. Now this is not always possible due to other commitments and this is understandable, there are times where you just have to hammer on with assessment tasks. But generally speaking, when you arrive home at 4pm-4.30pm, completing one hour of exercise before studying can be a highly effective tool. Exercise is good for the brain, body and mind, it calms us down and releases a number of “happy chemicals”. It also does one other thing that is often not talked about. A new study from Austria's University of Graz has shown that people who regularly do exercise score higher on creativity than people who do not exercise. Intellectual creativity is key to HSC English! Creative writing, essay writing and comparative analysis ALL require creativity.
Finally, diet is very important. There are an array of foods that help concentration and memory, from blueberries, eggs, nuts and green vegetables. I know when I went through the HSC there were times where I showed up for an exam either on an empty stomach or only having eaten one piece of toast with vegemite, as we know, this is not a wise thing to do. In sum, an holistic approach to the HSC is a better one!
So, the question for some is are you doing everything you possibly can to achieve your goals? If you are, that's great, but if you know you could be doing more, how badly do you want to receive that top ATAR you tell your friends about all the time?
