Really worried about this year... please help? (1 Viewer)

NotCricket

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Hi! So I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this, but hopefully it is - I just was hoping for some advice regarding my upcoming study, and how much I'll need to do/what I should prioritise to get an ATAR of 99.95.
Historically I've always been in the top 3 ~ for my year at school (out of 300, and my school rank is generally around 30-40). This has been with doing next to no work (which I'm not at all proud of; but I've been a huge procrastinator in the past.)

This year I've dramatically changed, and I've been doing around > 5 hours of study each night, and 8 hours on weekends. What do you recommend is necessary to guarantee a 99.95 ATAR? What subjects should I spend the most time on?

I'm getting really worried, and I'm also writing this just as a sort of catharsis but I'm not sure how much help that is. Thanks for the help1 ;0
 

goobypls

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I think you'll burnt out before you even get to exams, balance is key, that's just my 2 cents.
 

rumbleroar

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There's no set amount of study that will guarantee you a 99.95 ATAR....

Keep a balanced lifestyle and work consistently throughout the year and you're halfway there! Don't do too much at once because you can burn out (but if you don't, then you should be ok)




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iSplicer

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I'm going to be honest with you because I was in your situation.

You can talk about balanced lifestyles all day long but at the end of the day, you need to have one of the top 50 aggregates in the state to get the nine five. If you get 'burnt out' for not having a balanced lifestyle, that's your problem. It's very likely that there are 50 people in the state as smart as you who will study 24/7 with no life and be completely fine and healthy. Suck it up.

If you're able to nail a nine five studying moderately, playing music and still having a social life, I'm genuinely, genuinely mirin' your intelligence. I know there are people out there like this - but unfortunately I wasn't one of them. And as an ASPIRING student, if you don't go completely all out flank speed, you're taking a gamble.

I studied about 7 solid hours a day during weekdays and about 25 hours in the weekend. You should be killing 12-14 hours a day during the holidays. Also, make sure you study as EFFICIENTLY as possible, you should pause every hour and evaluate what you've learnt and what your goal is for the next hour. ALSO, there's no need to deactivate facebook or put away your gaming system, etc. Treat yourself to a little procrastination every now and then - if you can't help yourself from wasting too much time it means you don't want the 99.95.

Also, get tutoring for every subject. EDIT: just saw your subjects and they aren't conducive for a .95. I'd drop 4u English and Ancient and focus on killing 4u maths, eco and 2u english. That would make it FAR more achievable.

All the very best =]. I genuinely believe you can do it!
 
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Phaze

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The only reason people ever burn out is due to a lack of motivation, if you're studying in a way in which you enjoy what you're learning and make sure you're still giving yourself time to do other things then you'll be fine, you seem to be pretty motivated, it's still early in the HSC Course but if you keep it up you should be fine. Don't overwork yourself, need to play around while it's early to find the balance.
 

NotCricket

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Hey! Thanks so much for the response. I think this was perhaps what I needed to hear; I really can't take any chances this year. I think I'll be thrilled if I can get 6 hours of study in each night and 12 each weekend; and I'm planning to do ~11 each day of the holidays.
I'm going to continue 4u english just because it's easy to compartmentalise it to the holidays, and English is the subject I'm most naturally talented at.

Thanks again for the inspiration, you're clearly a hugely discplined person and that's something I'm going to try and be :) All the best.
 

anomalousdecay

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This year I've dramatically changed, and I've been doing around > 5 hours of study each night, and 8 hours on weekends. What do you recommend is necessary to guarantee a 99.95 ATAR? What subjects should I spend the most time on?

To get a 99.95, you would generally need to keep that up for now. Next year term 1, you should be doing 20+ hours a weekend.
5 hours a weekday is fine IMO. Take at least one weekend completely off every month. And these hours should be at full study potential. No distractions, no music, nothing. Just pure study.

You need to set targets for each subject. You have 13 units. That is a high workload.
I would say that you need a 95 in 2-unit English, a 46/50 in ext.1 english and a 46/50 in ext.2 English.
In economics and 3-unit history, you would need a 95 in each.
For ext.1 maths, you need a 95.
For ext. 2 you need a 92.

I think you should drop an extension subject though.
You MUST have at least 4 subjects comprising of you ATAR.

This means that 4U of English and 4U of maths may count, but only 1-unit of history and 1-unit of Economics will count.
With the extension subjects, you are unnecessarily more like on 11 units rather than 13.

IMO, if you don't have a project already done for ext.2 English, then drop it.

I think you'll burnt out before you even get to exams, balance is key, that's just my 2 cents.
This is possible. OP be careful that this doesn't happen to you.
In this case, use your school holidays wisely. Take 3 days off every 2 weeks of holidays. Other than that, do 12 hours of study a day.


OP DROP AN EXTENSION SUBJECT. YOU ARE NOT ON 13 UNITS FOR ATAR. YOU ARE ON 11 FOR ATAR, 13 for hsc.
 

obliviousninja

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Drop to 10 if you want to get 99.95, there's no point have extra work.
 

anomalousdecay

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Drop to 10 if you want to get 99.95, there's no point have extra work.
Must drop either ext.2 english or maths, or else he won't be eligible for an ATAR.

Doing 4U English and Maths together, with only one other 2-unit subject = NO ATAR
 

strawberrye

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To get the ATAR you want, to a certain extent, the amount of time you spent studying is secondary to how efficiently you are studying-make sure that you take a break every single hour-if you feel 5 minutes is too long, then at least 3 minutes-and rehydrate yourself after every single studying session-it will increase your concentration, study efficiency and retaining of knowledge. Without a doubt, you should be spending the greatest amount of time studying for your English subjects-simply because they are subjective, there is often no straight forward formula for getting high marks consistently besides practice essay, feedback, practice essay, feedback, or practice creative, feedback-particularly for Extension one English and advanced...

Stuck the ATAR on a wall, look at it everyday, when you want to give up or tired, think about how much you want it and all the reasons why you want it-and keep going-make sure you don't study so much you burnt out, you need to ensure you remain healthy-it is no use to be sick before a crucial exam because you won't be performing at the level you should be with the amount of study you have done if you don't have an alert mindset-and for that matter, please don't do all nighters-make sure you at least have 7 hours of sleep-because in your sleep your brain categorises important stuff you need to remember and transform your short term into long term memory gradually-so sleeping time is not a waste of time

-I wish you the best of luck in achieving your desired atar, and I have very strong belief you can achieve it-but just also have some mental preparations if you happened to not be able to achieve that atar-it is not the end of the world, as long as you tried your best, as long as you are mentally prepared for both possible outcomes-you will be able to complete your HSC with no regrets-knowing you've given it your best shot:) best wishes...
 

NotCricket

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I'm going to be honest with you because I was in your situation.

You can talk about balanced lifestyles all day long but at the end of the day, you need to have one of the top 50 aggregates in the state to get the nine five. If you get 'burnt out' for not having a balanced lifestyle, that's your problem. It's very likely that there are 50 people in the state as smart as you who will study 24/7 with no life and be completely fine and healthy. Suck it up.

If you're able to nail a nine five studying moderately, playing music and still having a social life, I'm genuinely, genuinely mirin' your intelligence. I know there are people out there like this - but unfortunately I wasn't one of them. And as an ASPIRING student, if you don't go completely all out flank speed, you're taking a gamble.

I studied about 7 solid hours a day during weekdays and about 25 hours in the weekend. You should be killing 12-14 hours a day during the holidays. Also, make sure you study as EFFICIENTLY as possible, you should pause every hour and evaluate what you've learnt and what your goal is for the next hour. ALSO, there's no need to deactivate facebook or put away your gaming system, etc. Treat yourself to a little procrastination every now and then - if you can't help yourself from wasting too much time it means you don't want the 99.95.

Also, get tutoring for every subject. EDIT: just saw your subjects and they aren't conducive for a .95. I'd drop 4u English and Ancient and focus on killing 4u maths, eco and 2u english. That would make it FAR more achievable.

All the very best =]. I genuinely believe you can do it!
lol i did no where near this amount of work

you are legit so crazy

in a good way

but also not
 

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