Sleep vs HSC (1 Viewer)

[nailafun]

They say you can only have two of the three in the HSC: sleep, a social life or good marks.

I have assignments due in 2 weeks (half done), half yearlies in 6 weeks and I havent even finished my notes from term 4!!!!
Should I pull all nighters trying to finish my assignments, or would it damage my attention during class?

Oh, and I need a social life to keep me sane......or should I study during lunch/recess??.....

I am asking you people who have tried an tested their methods to PLEASE enlighten me with their views. And please tell me how you ended up doing in the HSC with your ways. Thankyou

 

[Spiritual Being]

Sleep is optional.

 

[madharris]

You can do all 3

Assignments should be done consistently throughout the time given, i didn't pull any all nighters and got everything done fine
I had ~8 hours sleep each week night and that's all I needed
Social life is easy to insert into your life. You have weekends, before school, recess, lunch, after school, however you just need to be cautious of the amount of work you have and what you want to do (it's a good idea to plan your week)
And good marks come when you do all of this ^^^^.

Although I didn't all nighted. For my trials and my HSC exams, i woke up at 3 each morning and crammed a bit.

 

[RishBonjour]

if you are sleep deprived, your memory is usually hindered.

but before exam time. fuck sleep. went all nighter for my physics and biology hsc exams.

 

[enoilgam]

Why cant you have all three? What I would do is get on top of things straight away so you can increase the time you have in hand. First prioritise the work - obviously the assignments will need to be done relatively quickly. When it comes to studying for the half-yearlies, dont just do notes for the sake of it - some of your assessments may not be tests per se and you may not need notes at this point (for instance, my Modern Half yearly was a presenting task). If that's the case, leave the notes until later when you have more time. Divide your work up into small, achievable tasks and spread them out over the coming few weeks. When tasks are broken up, they become more achievable and this will boost your confidence and morale which is critical. Spreading it out will also allow you to maintain your social life and sleeping patterns - both of which are critical.

 

[Kurosaki]

Sleep is optional.

Yes.

 

[Drifting95]

Sleep is optional.

hahaha, this guy speaks the truth. He did three all nighters in a row coming up to our preliminary exams, he got over 90% for five of his subjects as well.

 

[RishadM]

I went all-nighter study for my biology HSC exam and because I wasn't used to it, my brain literally ached the whole day of my Bio HSC exam and it was the test that I got my worst result in. So unless you really need to, don't pull all nighters - you should be able to avoid them if you work at a steady pace anyways. Studying recess and lunch isn't a practical idea lol. My friends and I planned to do this just before going into year 12. But when it came to recess/lunch, no one felt like doing it because we had all just come from classes and those breaks are break time for a reason!

 

[nerdasdasd]

hahaha, this guy speaks the truth. He did three all nighters in a row coming up to our preliminary exams, he got over 90% for five of his subjects as well.

Sleep is not optional, and time management is required.

 

[UnrealAnchovies]

why is this even a question

hsc > everything of course

 

[Kurosaki]

Sleep is not optional, and time management is required.

Sleep is freaken optional

 

[Sy123]

If people rote learned less, they would have more time on their hands hence they would not need to deprive themselves of sleep.

 

[SunnyScience]

I'll admit, I crammed 95% of my assessment tasks. Sleep was sacrificed on those very, very, VERY late nights/sun rises.

Never pull all-nighters for exams.

4 weeks is plenty of time to get most of your notes done. Focus on practice questions.
I studied my trials in 4 days, because I had 3 assessments due the week before. c:

 

[-may-cat-]

I have assignments due in 2 weeks (half done), half yearlies in 6 weeks and I havent even finished my notes from term 4!!!!

Is this not a lot of time...? Wait till you get to uni, then you'll know real time pressure, haha

 

[jnney]

People always joke about the whole, 'sleep is for the week', and I'll admit I used to say that in year 11 - but trust me, you do not want to be missing out on sleep. You're an idiot if you continually sacrifice your sleep to do work. The longer hours of study you are doing, and the later into night you are eating out of your sleep, the faster your concentration and quality of work deteriorates, and the less you retain. Essentially, it's time wasted that could be spent sleeping. Work it out. Get what you need to do within the day time/evening. Maybe you could wake up a bit earlier to study?

I think All-nighters are a no-no, unless you don't plan to listen in class. Even then, it confuses your body clock and suddenly you're going to be sleepy all day everyday until you start sleeping normally again. From experience, 2 drowsy days follow every all-nighter. That's also two days lost from efficient study you could've been doing.

Also, I would recommend you to keep your social life - it's kind of an outlet for stress, calm you down and a source or some other fun outside of classroom. On a personal account, I did become a bit crazy (lol) during year 11 and 12 with the lack of sleep and a balanced lifestyle. Consequences were that my HSC results definitely did not reflect my capabilities nor efforts throughout the year (97.85 ATAR). I just kept forgetting things that I had learnt over and over again because of the HSC lifestyle choices that I made - sleep deprivation etc.

Hence, I'd definitely recommend you to sleep as many hours as is necessary for you. Second, it might be time for you to up your game in study, which might be an additional 2 hours over what you're doing now, or whatever it might be when you figure it out. Perhaps you might have a FEW late nights, but don't push it. You don't want it to become an unhealthy habit. As for study specifically - find out what you need to completely, and try to write goals for each day, and track your performance so you won't be like 'oh my god I haven't studied for anything' one week before your half yearlies.

Edit. I would not recommend cramming, because during that time all the information you revise/learn is stored as 'short-term', and you'll end up having to learn/revise it all over again after the exams. It's not very efficient. Take it easy, and ask lots of questions if you need help, but don't wait until last minute. Cramming should be the absolute last resort.

Good luck.

 

[enoilgam]

I completely agree with Jnney - whilst it's mostly just a joke, the whole "sleep is for the weak" thing is a pretty stupid mentality. In my view, sleep is for the smart, because at the end of the day, getting a good nights rest is going to make you far more effective with study. Besides, there are more than enough hours in the day to do what you have to with study. So if you are resorting to all nighters, then that is more a reflection of a lack of proper planning and organisation as opposed to being "strong" or any of that nonsense.

I got around 7-8 hours worth of sleep during the HSC and even though I think I could have done with some more, it was definitely a very productive 7-8 hours, because it made me that much more effective with study.

 

[someth1ng]

I did quite well in HSC and my number one piece of advice would be to have AT LEAST 8 hours of sleep per night.

When you sleep enough, everything will just fall into place.

 

[J18134]

Dont sleep. You cant afford it if you want to avoid the asterix. How vigorous you work determines how well you do. Nothing else is more important than getting everything done and then re-doing it and doing it better. Because, afterall, the HSC is THE PINNACLE OF LIFE and there IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT not even your own health or sanity.

Seriously mate its a stupid question. Of course you need sleep and to be healthy. Just be logical about this stuff. THE HSC IS NOT the pinnacle of life so dont fall into the trap of treating it that way

 

[deswa1]

Don't do allnighters. You'll be way too tired to focus. You've got a lot of time until assignments- just prioritise and don't waste time on random stuff that isn't helpful and you'll be sweet. More generally, I recommend getting regular sleep- I never did an all-nighter during year 12. I would though cram before tests and that worked well for me- so in exam blocks I would cram until midnight and then wake up at 5 and revise more. Other preferred to sleep more the night before tests- that's your call on what works best for you.

I never really studied during recess or lunch- there's a LOT of time in the day if you think about it even to study and maintain a social life. Just don't waste time just floating around or pretending to study but just staring at the wall etc. Have a plan, do it and then have fun!

And my results were pretty good...

Good luck!

 

[Ustritsa]

The HSC is primarily about finding the shortest path from A to B. Of course with A being 0 and B being completeness of an assignment or exam readiness. With that said if you find the shortest path, (meaning the quickest in this instance) you may well have enough to time socialise and sleep.

Many great points in this thread, Enoilgram was really on the ball with the "you need to sleep" point. But I would just like to add that the only time you REALLY need to sleep is before your exams (short period before) because that is really when you need to be alert, think on the spot, adapt etc. If you have an assignment due or just a class task to finish writing an essay, an all nighter is by no means a bad thing (of course preferably it should be avoided). Back to my point which is, find the quickest, most efficient way to do a task to a high standard, think outside the box, dare to be different and not slave away.

I think this thread and the whole HSC extravaganza brings to mind Parkinson's law "work expands to fill the length of time which exists to complete it". A powerful tip I can give is to allocate yourself time for tasks to be completed, your own personal deadlines. Arrange a social outing at 6pm on Saturday, and that is your deadline, the assignment might be due on Tuesday but not for you. It seems small, but it indeed is powerful so give it a go.

Hopefully you will be rested, have lots of friends, and dux in no time