2024 HSC: is anyone else feeling really unmotivated and not getting through a lot these holidays?

[downonthewestcoast24]

Hi everyone,

I know this is the final school holidays before trials, so it should be when everyone is knuckling down for their trials and getting ready for the HSC. But I just can't help but find I'm doing everything I can to avoid studying, and I have done way below what I was hoping to get through. Does anyone else feel the same? I just find that I am feeling unmotivated these holidays (surprisingly) and was hoping to find out if anyone else is feeling the same. I feel like everyone else is just doing so much and getting so ahead, but I am not.

I set a goal to do a certain number of trial papers and never got there. I just don't feel like doing the work and end up sleeping most of the day away. It's frustrating because I know how important this period is, but I can't seem to find the drive to push through. I feel guilty about wasting time, but the more I think about it, the more overwhelmed I get, which just makes me want to avoid studying even more.

Any advice on how to overcome this slump? How is everyone else feeling with their HSC prep? Are there any strategies that have worked for you to stay motivated and on track? I'd really appreciate any tips or just hearing from others who might be in the same boat.

Thanks!

 

[katiekms]

Hi everyone,

I know this is the final school holidays before trials, so it should be when everyone is knuckling down for their trials and getting ready for the HSC. But I just can't help but find I'm doing everything I can to avoid studying, and I have done way below what I was hoping to get through. Does anyone else feel the same? I just find that I am feeling unmotivated these holidays (surprisingly) and was hoping to find out if anyone else is feeling the same. I feel like everyone else is just doing so much and getting so ahead, but I am not.

I set a goal to do a certain number of trial papers and never got there. I just don't feel like doing the work and end up sleeping most of the day away. It's frustrating because I know how important this period is, but I can't seem to find the drive to push through. I feel guilty about wasting time, but the more I think about it, the more overwhelmed I get, which just makes me want to avoid studying even more.

Any advice on how to overcome this slump? How is everyone else feeling with their HSC prep? Are there any strategies that have worked for you to stay motivated and on track? I'd really appreciate any tips or just hearing from others who might be in the same boat.

Thanks!

ME TOO ITS OKAY YOURE NOT ALONE. and what makes it worse is everyone’s talking about how much they’re studying and complaining about how little they study when it’s 1000x more than what ive done… and people always give tips about how to STAY studying but not how to actually START studying - it’s like no one understands the struggle of the paralysis we feel when thinking about how much we need to do im commenting so i can hear any actual advice too, thanks for this thread

 

[elliott07]

Hi everyone,

I know this is the final school holidays before trials, so it should be when everyone is knuckling down for their trials and getting ready for the HSC. But I just can't help but find I'm doing everything I can to avoid studying, and I have done way below what I was hoping to get through. Does anyone else feel the same? I just find that I am feeling unmotivated these holidays (surprisingly) and was hoping to find out if anyone else is feeling the same. I feel like everyone else is just doing so much and getting so ahead, but I am not.

I set a goal to do a certain number of trial papers and never got there. I just don't feel like doing the work and end up sleeping most of the day away. It's frustrating because I know how important this period is, but I can't seem to find the drive to push through. I feel guilty about wasting time, but the more I think about it, the more overwhelmed I get, which just makes me want to avoid studying even more.

Any advice on how to overcome this slump? How is everyone else feeling with their HSC prep? Are there any strategies that have worked for you to stay motivated and on track? I'd really appreciate any tips or just hearing from others who might be in the same boat.

Thanks!

You're not alone, just know that you can start now and it's never too late. you are procrastinating because your putting so much fear and pressure on you. try to pray, meditate, go outside do whatever you want to clear your mind and really get rid of TikTok/instagram or any short form content that takes a lot of attention away.

 

[liamkk112]

Hi everyone,

I know this is the final school holidays before trials, so it should be when everyone is knuckling down for their trials and getting ready for the HSC. But I just can't help but find I'm doing everything I can to avoid studying, and I have done way below what I was hoping to get through. Does anyone else feel the same? I just find that I am feeling unmotivated these holidays (surprisingly) and was hoping to find out if anyone else is feeling the same. I feel like everyone else is just doing so much and getting so ahead, but I am not.

I set a goal to do a certain number of trial papers and never got there. I just don't feel like doing the work and end up sleeping most of the day away. It's frustrating because I know how important this period is, but I can't seem to find the drive to push through. I feel guilty about wasting time, but the more I think about it, the more overwhelmed I get, which just makes me want to avoid studying even more.

Any advice on how to overcome this slump? How is everyone else feeling with their HSC prep? Are there any strategies that have worked for you to stay motivated and on track? I'd really appreciate any tips or just hearing from others who might be in the same boat.

Thanks!

perhaps your goal was unrealistic? if you go from doing 0 study to doing 3 trial papers a day, thats a lot, it's like trying to balance on a bike without pedalling first. if you have to start slowly then start slowly, at least force yourself to do one trial paper a day, even if its 30 minutes a time and it takes you 5 hours instead of the 3 you might have done it in if you did it all at once. its still something and you can ramp it up over time. even do 10 minutes extra today than the day before, it's a start to a good habit.

additionally, sleeping a lot is perfectly fine given how stressful hsc is, if you use your other time effectively. for me i did roughly 10am to 6-7pm for the final stretch which is already a lot, but afterwards i could eat dinner, shower, rest in bed for an hour or two, sleep at 10pm and wake up at 8am, which gave 10 hours of sleep, supposedly a lot. however for the majority of those hours between 10am-6pm, i was pretty productive, give or take some procrastination for english. the point is that as long as you do the work you set out to do, there's nothing wrong at all with using a sizeable chunk of your time doing things you enjoy or sleeping, in fact i'd probably encourage it, although in moderation. you can use it as motivation/reward system if you want - finish 2 trial papers and thats it for the day, you can do whatever you want, which i definetly used as a strat. make sure it's positive motivation though, don't beat yourself up saying that you haven't done enough, it's okay to not study sometimes.

also set a timetable, or use tissues/sticky notes for daily tasks with time requirements. at the end of the day just write down what u need to do tomorrow - i even wrote down specific trial papers i wanted to do, concepts i needed to revise, textbook chapters etc., and also use a timetable to roughly plan your activities (this is also useful to ensure that you spread study evenly across your subjects). it's nice to cross something off a list or be in a certain place doing a certain thing at a certain time, and it keeps you accountable in a way as you want to finish all of the tasks you wrote down. again, don't set massively high expectations, it's better to study for 2 hours a day every day than study for 8 in one and then lose motivation for the rest of the week - you know yourself best, so just make sure you set a target that's achieveable and won't burn you out.

remind yourself that these are the last few months of hsc, and the toughest by far. don't get overwhelmed though, and don't worry or feel guilty about "wasting time", chances are a lot of your peers are doing the same or worse (trust me, even if it looks like everyone is doing fine, you really don't know how they will perform on the exam) and you're not massively disadvantaged even if you've wasted a week or two. this is the first real exams you've done to this point and if anything use this as a learning experience to ensure it doesn't repeat for the finals, it's good that you identified your issues now rather than when the hsc exams are, because they are worth much much more than trials - trials are meant to be a learning experience to fix your exam technique and gaps in your knowledge, to ultimately prepare you for hsc. a lot of people get demotivated during this period, you just have to do everything in your power to keep slugging on, even if it's just pushing yourself to do an hour a day, which is still a solid 7 hours of study in a week

 

[Tryingtodowell]

perhaps your goal was unrealistic? if you go from doing 0 study to doing 3 trial papers a day, thats a lot, it's like trying to balance on a bike without pedalling first. if you have to start slowly then start slowly, at least force yourself to do one trial paper a day, even if its 30 minutes a time and it takes you 5 hours instead of the 3 you might have done it in if you did it all at once. its still something and you can ramp it up over time. even do 10 minutes extra today than the day before, it's a start to a good habit.

additionally, sleeping a lot is perfectly fine given how stressful hsc is, if you use your other time effectively. for me i did roughly 10am to 6-7pm for the final stretch which is already a lot, but afterwards i could eat dinner, shower, rest in bed for an hour or two, sleep at 10pm and wake up at 8am, which gave 10 hours of sleep, supposedly a lot. however for the majority of those hours between 10am-6pm, i was pretty productive, give or take some procrastination for english. the point is that as long as you do the work you set out to do, there's nothing wrong at all with using a sizeable chunk of your time doing things you enjoy or sleeping, in fact i'd probably encourage it, although in moderation. you can use it as motivation/reward system if you want - finish 2 trial papers and thats it for the day, you can do whatever you want, which i definetly used as a strat. make sure it's positive motivation though, don't beat yourself up saying that you haven't done enough, it's okay to not study sometimes.

also set a timetable, or use tissues/sticky notes for daily tasks with time requirements. at the end of the day just write down what u need to do tomorrow - i even wrote down specific trial papers i wanted to do, concepts i needed to revise, textbook chapters etc., and also use a timetable to roughly plan your activities (this is also useful to ensure that you spread study evenly across your subjects). it's nice to cross something off a list or be in a certain place doing a certain thing at a certain time, and it keeps you accountable in a way as you want to finish all of the tasks you wrote down. again, don't set massively high expectations, it's better to study for 2 hours a day every day than study for 8 in one and then lose motivation for the rest of the week - you know yourself best, so just make sure you set a target that's achieveable and won't burn you out.

remind yourself that these are the last few months of hsc, and the toughest by far. don't get overwhelmed though, and don't worry or feel guilty about "wasting time", chances are a lot of your peers are doing the same or worse (trust me, even if it looks like everyone is doing fine, you really don't know how they will perform on the exam) and you're not massively disadvantaged even if you've wasted a week or two. this is the first real exams you've done to this point and if anything use this as a learning experience to ensure it doesn't repeat for the finals, it's good that you identified your issues now rather than when the hsc exams are, because they are worth much much more than trials - trials are meant to be a learning experience to fix your exam technique and gaps in your knowledge, to ultimately prepare you for hsc. a lot of people get demotivated during this period, you just have to do everything in your power to keep slugging on, even if it's just pushing yourself to do an hour a day, which is still a solid 7 hours of study in a week

Hii there
If you dont mind sharing. How was your routine like towards prelims (like in terms of study hours, work put in). In your opinion, do you think you had to put in the same/more/less effort as trials/towards hsc.

I know that it all comes down to me but Id like to know how a high achiever like u does it

Thank youu

 

[liamkk112]

Hii there
If you dont mind sharing. How was your routine like towards prelims (like in terms of study hours, work put in). In your opinion, do you think you had to put in the same/more/less effort as trials/towards hsc.

I know that it all comes down to me but Id like to know how a high achiever like u does it

Thank youu

i didn’t really do well at all in prelims tbh, i definetly put in much more effort towards trials/hsc

routine for trials / hsc was ~8 hours of study a day for 6/7 days a week; which is very overkill but that’s what i did because im not very smart and i really had to push myself to get ahead (i had a very unusual education experience jumping between multiple schools and states which left me with pretty big knowledge gaps for a lot of subjects, and im just generally not too smart in the first place), for most people id say a solid 3-5 hours a day consistently works plenty fine.

essentially all of my time was spent on trial/hsc papers, with a few hours a week dedicated to either relearning stuff i didn’t fully get, or reading / working on notes (specifically for english i kept expanding my quote banks). nothing too complicated but i just made sure to do one section of an english paper every day so i wouldn’t procrastinate on english. usually id start the day off with the hard tasks (english + a paper with writing because i preferred spamming a bunch of maths instead of doing long response) and then the rest of the day would be maths and one other paper with writing, then the relearning and notes stuff at the end of the day. i did that so i knew that after i did the hard stuff, i could just throw on some music and spam math papers which was pretty chill for me, so i had some motivation to get through the stuff i didn’t like as much.

overall as u said it’s pretty dependent on the person, though at the core of everyone studying for the hsc should be spamming past papers (thankfully at uni there’s less focus on that)

 

[Tryingtodowell]

i didn’t really do well at all in prelims tbh, i definetly put in much more effort towards trials/hsc

routine for trials / hsc was ~8 hours of study a day for 6/7 days a week; which is very overkill but that’s what i did because im not very smart and i really had to push myself to get ahead (i had a very unusual education experience jumping between multiple schools and states which left me with pretty big knowledge gaps for a lot of subjects, and im just generally not too smart in the first place), for most people id say a solid 3-5 hours a day consistently works plenty fine.

essentially all of my time was spent on trial/hsc papers, with a few hours a week dedicated to either relearning stuff i didn’t fully get, or reading / working on notes (specifically for english i kept expanding my quote banks). nothing too complicated but i just made sure to do one section of an english paper every day so i wouldn’t procrastinate on english. usually id start the day off with the hard tasks (english + a paper with writing because i preferred spamming a bunch of maths instead of doing long response) and then the rest of the day would be maths and one other paper with writing, then the relearning and notes stuff at the end of the day. i did that so i knew that after i did the hard stuff, i could just throw on some music and spam math papers which was pretty chill for me, so i had some motivation to get through the stuff i didn’t like as much.

overall as u said it’s pretty dependent on the person, though at the core of everyone studying for the hsc should be spamming past papers (thankfully at uni there’s less focus on that)

tysmm

 

[hsc student 2021]

Hi there,

Thank you for sharing your feelings. It's completely normal to feel unmotivated and overwhelmed, especially now. You're not alone in this.

Here are some strategies that sound like from a textbook but may help:

Set Small Goals - break your tasks into smaller, manageable pieces. Aim to complete just one section or a few questions each day.

Create a Schedule - a structured plan can give you direction and make it easier to stick to your goals.

Find a Study Buddy - studying with someone else can help keep you accountable and motivated. Consider virtual study groups if in-person isn’t possible.

Practice Self-Care - ensure you're getting enough rest, eating well, and relaxing.

Stay Positive - focus on your progress and celebrate small victories. It's about progress, not perfection.

and lastly
Visualize Your Goals - remind yourself why you're working hard and what you want to achieve.

Remember, it's okay to feel this way. Keep pushing forward, even if it's just a little at a time. You've got this.

Best of luck with your studies, and take care of yourself.