Yes, it's a bit late - but here are some little things I think it'd help to know:
1. Rank is the most important thing in your HSC internal (i.e. school) assessments. Before the HSC Exam - your aim should be FIRST rank. (I'm not going to gloss over the 'WHY it's important' bit, because there have already been a million threads compiled over it). So achieve FIRST rank - and do whatever you have to, in order to achieve this; whether this means familiarising yourself with what YOUR teachers, in particular, are looking for, OR teaming yourself up with people OTHER than your friends in group assignments, you go ahead and do it - this is your HSC. Final year. Do whatever it takes.
2. For Humanities subjects - read and learn from the HSC Exemplars. The Board of Studies has produced for all students, exemplar level responses for most HSC subjects - these are responses which had scored FULL marks in the HSC exams. They are accessible to any and all students here - http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/hsc/std-packs/ .Read them, highlight and focus on keywords you might like to incorporate into your own language for the subject, examine how they answered particular styles of questions (i.e. analyse the structure of their responses), understand what the HSC examiners demand of YOU in the HSC exam.
3. Acquire last year's state ranking HSC'ers / experienced teachers as TUTORS. Okay, this might sound like shameless self promotion, but I'm giving this advice because it works. Who else better to tutor you? Whilst someone who achieved an 85/100 HSC mark might want to tutor is, and seems quite capable, they'll never know what they did wrong in the HSC exams (no one ever comes across this information), and so YOU might never know what parts you're being taught correctly/incorrectly about your HSC course. On the other hand, state ranking tutors usually achiever near to FULL marks in their exams - so pretty much everything they teach you will be spot-on. Same for experienced teachers - and here, I'd probably advise you get tutored by a teacher who's Head of their department at whichever school they teach; this will ensure you get someone of high calibre and usually a broader/more experienced understanding of the course.
4. When HSC Exams come around - GO ALL OUT! The Trial HSC Exams should have helped you either gain greater confidence, if you scored highly, or gain greater motivation if you didn't score as well as you'd have liked to. The Trials HSC Exams should have also provided you with ample opportunity to experiment with new styles of writing / new ways of attacking exam questions. Now, when the HSC exams come around - GO ALL OUT! This means studying for as long as you can - yes, you should take breaks, but that doesn't mean going on 3 hour team campaigns in World of Warcraft! Study long, consistently - and also, efficiently. This means creating for yourself notes that will actually let you cover the course in the 6 weeks from Trials to HSC exams. If you create notes that are ineffective - full notes for the syllabus, but ineffective because it is almost impossible to recall the notes - then you're buggering up. Should you do past papers? YES for maths. For the humanities subjects - maybe 2 or 3. The most important thing is knowing key information. For a subject like Ancient History also - if you're compiling HSC Syllabus notes, make sure you review last year's HSC Examination to see which questions you can 'cross off' as needing to cover. The syllabus for Ancient (and i'd guess, Modern) history is too wide and varied to have the HSC examiners submit the exact same questions in on year's exams, and also the next's. Crossing off most of last year's questions cuts you some slack when studying your many, many HSC compiled notes for your subjects.
Personally, during the HSC Trial exams, I realised something about myself: On the morning of English Paper 2, I'd slept 6-7 hours, and then woke up to the worst thing ever - I couldn't remember anything. Seriously, I panicked - I couldn't remember my King Lear notes especially, and this led to a few tears (yeah yeah, I'm a guy, this probably makes me gay, whatever) - but I learnt then, that sleeping before my exam meant a gap in my memory, between what I had been learning the night before - and the exams in the morning after. So, for all my HSC Exams - the night before, I wouldn't sleep. I'd get my sleep mostly in the car on the way home, after the HSC Exam - and I'd stay in the car and sleep until 3-4pm (Most HSC exams finished around 11-midday for me). Now, this might not be the same for most people - and I'd usually take Redbull/V/Mother before the exams, just to keep me awake - but for me, I found it helps. Moral of the story: (and not, its not 'Don't sleep before HSC Exams') - learn as much about yourself during Trial HSC Exams as you can; about how well you cope, what helps you cope best, and what's most effective for you during exam periods etc.
5. You can still have fun during the HSC! Yes, you can. I don't mean the HSC IS fun - I mean, you can still go out during the HSC, whether it be with friends, girlfriends, whatever. I even jigged a day of school to go out withh my girlfriend - and no, it won't turn your UAI into an instant '30 or below'. BUT - you still have to balance it out. Don't start jigging school on days when you KNOW your teacher is giving out assignments. Skip school if you need to study for an exam which is on soon - but only do this if you KNOW you're going to study. And only do this if you're going to study from wake up time (i.e. 8-9am) until at least school finishing time - otherwise, what's the point? If you know you're a bludger - stay at school. Don't lie to yourself.
6. LAST TIP - Set yourself some meaningful goals! I don't mean target UAI's i.e. 99+ etc. I mean goals. My primary goal wasn't just the UAI. It was what it might come with - a scholarship. I aimed for the Scientia Scholarship at UNSW - 99.90 UAI required. I aimed for it, keeping in mind that it would save my parents (and myself!) around $40,000 total. Some teachers told me 'aim lower' - in terms of both scholarship and UAI. I kept my goals in sight - and yes, I didn't get the scholarship, and lost out on $40,000. But hey - I'm still wayyy FRIGGIN happy!
But I guess this is the real last tip: Self-belief. ALWAYS have self-belief. No matter what anyone else says/believes, whether it be teachers, friends, even the marks staring back at you on your HSC Trial exams. Look at them, and say to yourself "FUCK you fuckers I'm gonna get what i FUCKEN want, and when i do, you can ALL GO SUK A DIKK!". P.S - I told THAT to my Ancient History HSC Trial Exam mark of 85/100
And that's all the advice I've got to give. You can follow it, or you don't have to. Up to you's. Goodluck kiddos.
1. Rank is the most important thing in your HSC internal (i.e. school) assessments. Before the HSC Exam - your aim should be FIRST rank. (I'm not going to gloss over the 'WHY it's important' bit, because there have already been a million threads compiled over it). So achieve FIRST rank - and do whatever you have to, in order to achieve this; whether this means familiarising yourself with what YOUR teachers, in particular, are looking for, OR teaming yourself up with people OTHER than your friends in group assignments, you go ahead and do it - this is your HSC. Final year. Do whatever it takes.
2. For Humanities subjects - read and learn from the HSC Exemplars. The Board of Studies has produced for all students, exemplar level responses for most HSC subjects - these are responses which had scored FULL marks in the HSC exams. They are accessible to any and all students here - http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/hsc/std-packs/ .Read them, highlight and focus on keywords you might like to incorporate into your own language for the subject, examine how they answered particular styles of questions (i.e. analyse the structure of their responses), understand what the HSC examiners demand of YOU in the HSC exam.
3. Acquire last year's state ranking HSC'ers / experienced teachers as TUTORS. Okay, this might sound like shameless self promotion, but I'm giving this advice because it works. Who else better to tutor you? Whilst someone who achieved an 85/100 HSC mark might want to tutor is, and seems quite capable, they'll never know what they did wrong in the HSC exams (no one ever comes across this information), and so YOU might never know what parts you're being taught correctly/incorrectly about your HSC course. On the other hand, state ranking tutors usually achiever near to FULL marks in their exams - so pretty much everything they teach you will be spot-on. Same for experienced teachers - and here, I'd probably advise you get tutored by a teacher who's Head of their department at whichever school they teach; this will ensure you get someone of high calibre and usually a broader/more experienced understanding of the course.
4. When HSC Exams come around - GO ALL OUT! The Trial HSC Exams should have helped you either gain greater confidence, if you scored highly, or gain greater motivation if you didn't score as well as you'd have liked to. The Trials HSC Exams should have also provided you with ample opportunity to experiment with new styles of writing / new ways of attacking exam questions. Now, when the HSC exams come around - GO ALL OUT! This means studying for as long as you can - yes, you should take breaks, but that doesn't mean going on 3 hour team campaigns in World of Warcraft! Study long, consistently - and also, efficiently. This means creating for yourself notes that will actually let you cover the course in the 6 weeks from Trials to HSC exams. If you create notes that are ineffective - full notes for the syllabus, but ineffective because it is almost impossible to recall the notes - then you're buggering up. Should you do past papers? YES for maths. For the humanities subjects - maybe 2 or 3. The most important thing is knowing key information. For a subject like Ancient History also - if you're compiling HSC Syllabus notes, make sure you review last year's HSC Examination to see which questions you can 'cross off' as needing to cover. The syllabus for Ancient (and i'd guess, Modern) history is too wide and varied to have the HSC examiners submit the exact same questions in on year's exams, and also the next's. Crossing off most of last year's questions cuts you some slack when studying your many, many HSC compiled notes for your subjects.
Personally, during the HSC Trial exams, I realised something about myself: On the morning of English Paper 2, I'd slept 6-7 hours, and then woke up to the worst thing ever - I couldn't remember anything. Seriously, I panicked - I couldn't remember my King Lear notes especially, and this led to a few tears (yeah yeah, I'm a guy, this probably makes me gay, whatever) - but I learnt then, that sleeping before my exam meant a gap in my memory, between what I had been learning the night before - and the exams in the morning after. So, for all my HSC Exams - the night before, I wouldn't sleep. I'd get my sleep mostly in the car on the way home, after the HSC Exam - and I'd stay in the car and sleep until 3-4pm (Most HSC exams finished around 11-midday for me). Now, this might not be the same for most people - and I'd usually take Redbull/V/Mother before the exams, just to keep me awake - but for me, I found it helps. Moral of the story: (and not, its not 'Don't sleep before HSC Exams') - learn as much about yourself during Trial HSC Exams as you can; about how well you cope, what helps you cope best, and what's most effective for you during exam periods etc.
5. You can still have fun during the HSC! Yes, you can. I don't mean the HSC IS fun - I mean, you can still go out during the HSC, whether it be with friends, girlfriends, whatever. I even jigged a day of school to go out withh my girlfriend - and no, it won't turn your UAI into an instant '30 or below'. BUT - you still have to balance it out. Don't start jigging school on days when you KNOW your teacher is giving out assignments. Skip school if you need to study for an exam which is on soon - but only do this if you KNOW you're going to study. And only do this if you're going to study from wake up time (i.e. 8-9am) until at least school finishing time - otherwise, what's the point? If you know you're a bludger - stay at school. Don't lie to yourself.
6. LAST TIP - Set yourself some meaningful goals! I don't mean target UAI's i.e. 99+ etc. I mean goals. My primary goal wasn't just the UAI. It was what it might come with - a scholarship. I aimed for the Scientia Scholarship at UNSW - 99.90 UAI required. I aimed for it, keeping in mind that it would save my parents (and myself!) around $40,000 total. Some teachers told me 'aim lower' - in terms of both scholarship and UAI. I kept my goals in sight - and yes, I didn't get the scholarship, and lost out on $40,000. But hey - I'm still wayyy FRIGGIN happy!
But I guess this is the real last tip: Self-belief. ALWAYS have self-belief. No matter what anyone else says/believes, whether it be teachers, friends, even the marks staring back at you on your HSC Trial exams. Look at them, and say to yourself "FUCK you fuckers I'm gonna get what i FUCKEN want, and when i do, you can ALL GO SUK A DIKK!". P.S - I told THAT to my Ancient History HSC Trial Exam mark of 85/100 And that's all the advice I've got to give. You can follow it, or you don't have to. Up to you's. Goodluck kiddos.
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