Mindset:
The first thing is if your mindset is already wishing to get ahead, that is a solid foundation. The reality is 6 weeks is a massive period of time to strengthen weaknesses and reflect on year 11 and year 12 task 1. Most of your peers will relax during this time. It will be a strong competitive advantage. Though balance is key to avoiding burnout. I used to believe burnout was a ‘fake cop out’ excuse for the undisciplined students - this is a grave misconception.
Holidays Plan: 20 Dec - 31 Jan
20th - 1st: Depends how motivated you are, but it is usually good to give yourself this time off to relax. If you are bit more motivated (like I was), you can study in some of the days here, but make sure you give yourself the key dates 24th, 25th, 31st, to enjoy yourself and spend some time with friends and family. It will pay off. I like to use this time especially to do mood boosting activities (For me this is gym, basketball, beach visits etc). In your down time, reflection is super underrated. There is a long year ahead. I suggest really spending your time reflecting on your study systems last year - (Did I spend enough time doing past papers, if at all? Did I have a means of receiving feedback and improving, if at all for humanitarian subjects?; Did the time I spent writing detailed long reading notes actually convert to marks in maths and science subjects). Purpose reflection is so underrated and is vital to prevent burn out. What is your why? (do you have a course you want to get into, or is it just keeping your options open, or is it a pride thing - that is totally fine; mine was the latter two - just feeling a sense of accomplishment with working hard toward something and seeing my efforts pay off)
1st-31st: Grind time:
Approach.
- Focus harder subjects which require application practice - 3U Maths, Physics, Economics (maybe). From experience, don’t try get ahead in all subjects - you feel you get no progress done. Legal studies though content heavy is heavily rote learning so no need to get ahead whereas maths and physics are super important to start early. If you want, you can read your english texts in your spare time (if you’re super motivated. Or just spark notes the plot)
- Don’t go too fast where you just learn the content without practice. Don’t go too slow where you over practice (you will have school). Following tutoring pace will be good.
- Do couple of syllabus dot points a day. Learn the new content. Apply the knowledge with textbook questions, then once that is fine, scan couple past papers to do exam styled questions. Write quick brief notes consolidating your knowledge on question types and how to answer the questions. PLEASE ENSURE YOU ARE NOT WRITING EXCESSIVE/TIMELY NOTES DURING THE LEARNING NEW CONTENT PHASE. This will heavily drain you, and make you feel like no progress was done in holidays. (Find a good set of notes online and use them for physics. For maths use textbook notes and worked solutions to learn.) Only write notes after you have applied, not during learning stage - otherwise you will write down everything even unimportant stuff.
- All the holidays is for is making sure you know how to do it not memorise. You will focus on memorisation once you relearn at school. Now is just so when school teaches, you can remember how to do it as you are learning second time.
- Other than that, make sure you spend time doing activities you enjoy - maintaining physical and mental wellbeing. Spending 2 - 5 hours a day (depending on your motivation level and goals) is sufficient and leaves plenty of time for other aspects of life.
Sproutify
If these tips resonated with you, you’ll find
@_sproutify_ on instagram and tiktok super helpful too.
My name is Victor Yan and I graduated 2022 with an ATAR of 99.80. I currently study Law/Computer Science at UNSW. I wasn’t the most naturally gifted student, but I would say I was always an extremely hard working student, ramping it up from year 10. Though at times I studied ‘hard’ not ‘smart.’ Throughout my first year of uni, it became prominent that a well rounded character will best position you to success in your career and life in general. Yet after my year of private tutoring experience, I had realised that most students didn’t understand macro-learning - learning how to learn: the systems required to ensure efficiency and maintain a work life balance. Which is why, I wish to share all the knowledge, experiences and mistakes I have accumulated with high school students. My vision is currently to post infographics and soon start a free email newsletter sharing HSC tips and systems to help students sproutify. Stay tuned for more
If you would like to reach out, I’d be more than happy to assist with any enquiries. You can DM me on Instagram
@_sproutify_ or my personal instagram
@_victor_yan_.
)
