Tips on getting a 97+ atar (1 Viewer)

[gosfa747]

Any tips?

 

[LoveHateSchool]

Pretty general I guess but;

1) Have your long term goal, but set little small ones all along the way. Like get 85% in this assessment task in Maths etc. Rank 1-3 in all subs on half yearly report etc.
2) Be organised to get your work done, personally I had my subjects colour coded and a wall planner, because the colours matched my timetable, assessment thingos and that, it was really easy to keep tabs on my subs/prioritize.
3) Have intrinsic motivation-you will get lost having a number goal or trying to rely on competing with others. Why do you want that 97, what course, what college, what scholarship? etc.
4) I find the studying for X hours approach tired, rather I did to do lists with specific subject goals like;
*Do Q1-5 past HSC maths past paper
*Do 5DP summary notes for Communication
*Read and highlight Duiker reading for Modern
*Practice adapting Belonging creative to HSC question
And I often threw in an incentive for when I did a certain number on the list, and a bigger one when I did all of them. Like watch an episode of fav TV show when I got them all done and etc. That small end incentive helps because even with big goals and focus, some days it will seem like a chore and the impulsive part of your brain that wants to win out and procrastinate can sometimes be bribed short term.

What subs are you doing?

 

[gosfa747]

2unit maths
extension maths
extension 2 maths (maybe)
English advanced
physics
legal studies
economics

 

[TheOptimist]

I got 97+, to be on the safe side you would need to achieve 4 band 6's from those type of sub's, although it takes a lot of hard work and perseverance.

 

[LoveHateSchool]

Well maths is going to be one of your main study time subs esp. if you do 4u! Lots of time understanding theory, practicing questions and mostly past papers, past papers for all that exam question type application.

English Adv develop an overall understand of your texts so you can easily adapt and mould to alot of questions (for modules/speeches you must know all, to be able to appreciate each poem in the suite and work it in if prescribed). Read your texts early if you can, and then reread and annote when you start work on them in class. Most important thing is to write, write, write (essays, stories) and get diverse feedback, enact on it, and try again.

Physics, I don't know didn't do. Know your syllabus and dotpoints, know your calculations and practice applying this knowledge to HSC style questions.

Legal studies, content heavy I hear. I assume lots of content memorisation but heavy importance on being able to write good essays with the content (like modern).

Economics, I did prelim. I think it's a subject where having a conceptual understanding is very important, and having that understanding makes it easy to step yourself through MC, short answer and onto the essay Qs. I imagine summaries would be good for this sub in Year 12, with the content/case studies.

 

[inJust]

Pretty much try, but don't go all out.

 

[Kimyia]

Some of this has already been addressed but:
- For english, make sure you have quotes that cover a range of different themes for your text so you can better adapt to a question. E.g. don't just find quotes for belonging to family, make sure you are also prepared for belonging to friends, culture, society, etc.
- For physics, when your doing notes try to get them from a variety of sources because some textbooks may be lacking in their description for particular outcomes. Also, I think its important to understand the concepts, not just rote learning an answer to a particular type of question.
- Maths = past papers.
- Be organised: have your notes up to date, have papers from class organised in folders, etc.
- I found working towards small goals was better than studying for a certain number of hours (as LoveHateSchool said)
Best of luck!

 

[atar90plus]

Can people still achieve atars over 90 if they receive band 5s for all their subjects or with 2 band 6s?

I got 97+, to be on the safe side you would need to achieve 4 band 6's from those type of sub's, although it takes a lot of hard work and perseverance.

 

[nifkeh]

I'd say they could get over 90 provided they were getting a 85+ in the 'higher scaling subjects' such as maths 2U, ext 1, ext 2, bio, physics, chem, and possibly modern history and extension history and english extension 1 & 2 and advanced english and need to get a band 6 in subjects like ancient history, legal, and stuff like VA, general maths, music probably, standard eng etc

 

[molecule]

Can people still achieve atars over 90 if they receive band 5s for all their subjects or with 2 band 6s?

I got 97.7 with two B6's and rest B5's

 

[SuchSmallHands]

Can people still achieve atars over 90 if they receive band 5s for all their subjects or with 2 band 6s?

My brother did no study whatsoever, only got one band six and got a 92.2 this year

 

[LoveHateSchool]

You can even with higher scaling subs scrape a 95 if you get like all 89s lol. Some subs, you need straight b6s to get 90+ (very low scaling).

Really subject dependent!

 

[deswa1]

2unit maths
extension maths
extension 2 maths (maybe)

For maths, make sure you understand the content and then just hammer out past papers. Then do more papers. Then more. Dw that much about textbook questions imo. If you're semi-decent at maths- do 4U. The scaling will save you.

English advanced- Write a good essay for each module. Memorise it. Also have an understanding of your texts/other quotes in case your essay really doesn't fit. Then get a list of like 30 questions from each module and go through them and try and mentally adapt your essay to each one. If you can easily, move on. If you can't, it means you need to change your essay etc.

physics- Physics is generally easy because the syllabus gives you all the questions (though a lot of people got effed this year because there were more critical thinking questions -> 8% band 6 ratio). Anyway, know the dotpoints. Its useful to understand them but honestly, not that neccessary (I would recommend it though). For papers, I didn't do a full timed past paper for the entire year so imo, full papers are overrated. What I would do is when you finish a topic (i.e. space etc.), go through past HSC papers and do the questions from that topic. Before HSC, get heaps of papers (like CSSA, IND etc.) and then do the multiple choice. Then flick through the rest of the paper. Any hard questions, do them. Easy ones that you know you'll have no problem with- skip. Then read marking guidelines and sample answers. This way each paper takes you less than 1/4 of the time it takes others to do full papers -> more exposure to questions. Though if your exam technique is shady, it might make sense to do full papers.

legal studies - Didn't do

economics- Know all your theory- if you understand it economics becomes a joke. Learn graphs and stats because this is what differentiates a standard answer from a great one.

Note: I did all this and I got above 97 though there is no guarantee that you will -> it's all an independent thing (some will get 97 easy, others won't). Good luck though

 

[asadass]

Pretty much try, but don't go all out.

This.

Keep on top of things (make notes etc) but you don't need to complete thousands upon thousands of past papers.

 

[madharris]

What not to do (even though it worked for me in the end)
Go all out for half yearlies
Take a break term two and study less frequently
Burn out for trials
Regain motivation for hsc
That was my year ^^^

All I can tell you is don't do that ^^^

 

[inJust]

i got over 97 atar by doing nothing, #swag

Swerve *smooth hi5

 

[Michelle Lin]

Why 97?

 

[someth1ng]

I got 96.50 (close enough) and here are the mistakes that I made - I repeat, these are MISTAKES (so don't repeat them):
1. Neglecting English was a big problem for me as it ended up dragging me down A LOT. Pretty much all of my subjects had 98+ or 99+ ATAR equivalents except English.
2. Not focusing on all subjects - I never studied for MX2 - I should have done SOME work in it but not all of it (which I did for Physics and Chemistry).
3. Consistency - I often studied the most from ~4 weeks before exams - speaks for itself. Try to do maybe 45 minutes per night all term and maybe 2 hours before exams come up.

If I had done these things, I would probably have gotten 99+ ATAR.

 

[barbernator]

Get 100 in all subjects.

 

[someth1ng]

You can even with higher scaling subs scrape a 95 if you get like all 89s lol. Some subs, you need straight b6s to get 90+ (very low scaling).

Really subject dependent!

You can get 95+ with high scaling subjects with just mid 80s.