Immortality
Rekt by Adv. English
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2014
- Messages
- 109
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2014
I have seen many year 12's post what they should do during the summer holidays. I thought this will be a post to inform you of what to do and provide motivation.
The new year 12's have now just finished their first block of exams. They are given 6 weeks of pure freedom to do whatever they wish to do. Some are planning to use this time to study, some to play games, some to procrastinate and be bored, staring at a ceiling or twiddling their thumbs.
What everyone should realise is that time is valuable during the HSC. Time management is pivotal to your success. Cut out all that bullshit nonsense of burning out and the negative stigma of studying all day at the cost of playing. As the taco ad once said, porque no los dos, why not both. If you carefully think about it, you no longer have school, so that is 7 hours extra you will have at your disposal. If you are smart about planning your time, you will realise that you can play during the day time, whilst maintaining a solid study session at night, just like you would have during normal school terms (eg 6-11pm)
Really HSC is about a simple motto of go hard or go home. Life is not easy, results come from hard work, so please stop with the whiny comments of I did bad, am I going to fail. You have not really given a go unless you have given your all at something. Trust me in that if you put your maximum effort, you will get unexpected marks and you will not have any regrets if you fail. Go get that time management game on.
What you should do in the holidays
1. Make as much notes as possible in the holidays, at least minimum to your HY
2. Do at least 1 hr of maths a day
3. Write essays, English as I have learnt is an ATAR slayer
Why you should do it?
1. Essentially you will not regret this as whatever you don't do now, you will do later. Everyone has their periodic phases of absolute ceebness where they are just inefficient and can't be bothered doing anything. By doing things early, not only can you consolidate knowledge during classes, you are able to take a breather when you are feeling 'burnt out'.
2. Having what people call 'burnt out' or 'HSCeebs' only exacerbates a hopeless situation where they aren't prepared and can't be bothered working. This is mainly because they are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work they have to do. If a major bulk is already done, you are more inclined and more motivated to keep nudging on.
3. Another reason of doing a lot of things in the summer holidays is that whilst you may be feeling crap during your break, trust me that you will be the one feeling relaxed and organised when it comes to term 2 - term 3 exams/trials where it is essentially exam after exam. You will no longer have time to write notes and it is just a viscious cycle of unpreparedness where you are trying to tackle exams while learning ahead or keeping on top of things, a very strenuous and difficult task.
How to organise your time?
1. Get a big yearly calender and place all your exam block dates on it. Now back track and plan what you must do every week to be on track. I usually started studying 3 weeks before a HY/Trials, 2 weeks before the other ones. Also finish an assignment within the first week you get it.
2. Have a weekly goal of what to do. For me it was 1 module a week whilst doing maths
3. Have to-do-list's for every day, split out what you should do every day and try achieve them.
4. If you are not being efficient, this sounds counter intuitive, just take a break day. You will not be doing anything productive anyways and you are simply wasting your time. You will rather use that time to take a break, relax, get your brain together to go hardcore the next day.
What do I do if my first assessment was good or bad?
On the surface, this looks like 2 completely bipolar scenarios. However it is vital to realise that you have 3 more assessment tasks that will contribute to around 80% of your school rank + 50% of your HSC at stake during the actual HSC exams. You are just as likely to make a comeback as it is to fail the next assessment task and drop your hard earnt rank. Do not become complacent and keep working. HSC is a game of consistency, perseverance and mental resilience.
Whatever you don't do now, you will face the consequences later
The new year 12's have now just finished their first block of exams. They are given 6 weeks of pure freedom to do whatever they wish to do. Some are planning to use this time to study, some to play games, some to procrastinate and be bored, staring at a ceiling or twiddling their thumbs.
What everyone should realise is that time is valuable during the HSC. Time management is pivotal to your success. Cut out all that bullshit nonsense of burning out and the negative stigma of studying all day at the cost of playing. As the taco ad once said, porque no los dos, why not both. If you carefully think about it, you no longer have school, so that is 7 hours extra you will have at your disposal. If you are smart about planning your time, you will realise that you can play during the day time, whilst maintaining a solid study session at night, just like you would have during normal school terms (eg 6-11pm)
Really HSC is about a simple motto of go hard or go home. Life is not easy, results come from hard work, so please stop with the whiny comments of I did bad, am I going to fail. You have not really given a go unless you have given your all at something. Trust me in that if you put your maximum effort, you will get unexpected marks and you will not have any regrets if you fail. Go get that time management game on.
What you should do in the holidays
1. Make as much notes as possible in the holidays, at least minimum to your HY
2. Do at least 1 hr of maths a day
3. Write essays, English as I have learnt is an ATAR slayer
Why you should do it?
1. Essentially you will not regret this as whatever you don't do now, you will do later. Everyone has their periodic phases of absolute ceebness where they are just inefficient and can't be bothered doing anything. By doing things early, not only can you consolidate knowledge during classes, you are able to take a breather when you are feeling 'burnt out'.
2. Having what people call 'burnt out' or 'HSCeebs' only exacerbates a hopeless situation where they aren't prepared and can't be bothered working. This is mainly because they are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work they have to do. If a major bulk is already done, you are more inclined and more motivated to keep nudging on.
3. Another reason of doing a lot of things in the summer holidays is that whilst you may be feeling crap during your break, trust me that you will be the one feeling relaxed and organised when it comes to term 2 - term 3 exams/trials where it is essentially exam after exam. You will no longer have time to write notes and it is just a viscious cycle of unpreparedness where you are trying to tackle exams while learning ahead or keeping on top of things, a very strenuous and difficult task.
How to organise your time?
1. Get a big yearly calender and place all your exam block dates on it. Now back track and plan what you must do every week to be on track. I usually started studying 3 weeks before a HY/Trials, 2 weeks before the other ones. Also finish an assignment within the first week you get it.
2. Have a weekly goal of what to do. For me it was 1 module a week whilst doing maths
3. Have to-do-list's for every day, split out what you should do every day and try achieve them.
4. If you are not being efficient, this sounds counter intuitive, just take a break day. You will not be doing anything productive anyways and you are simply wasting your time. You will rather use that time to take a break, relax, get your brain together to go hardcore the next day.
What do I do if my first assessment was good or bad?
On the surface, this looks like 2 completely bipolar scenarios. However it is vital to realise that you have 3 more assessment tasks that will contribute to around 80% of your school rank + 50% of your HSC at stake during the actual HSC exams. You are just as likely to make a comeback as it is to fail the next assessment task and drop your hard earnt rank. Do not become complacent and keep working. HSC is a game of consistency, perseverance and mental resilience.
Whatever you don't do now, you will face the consequences later
I think it's time for me to make a contribution to this thread.
So this post is in response to the tons of other threads that has come up, and I feel like this will be necessary for all the current HSC'ers. To expand on what Immortality said with the first assessments...
You really should stop fretting too much about how you "failed" your first term assessments and start having a positive mindset. You can work with the feedback from your teachers to see where you can improve upon and hopefully do better in the next assessments. It's totally normal for us to be overtly melodramatic and panic about our "low" marks and not think calmly about it. I've done this a lot before, but you need to separate your emotional thinking. Why? Because when we get over-emotional about things, we don't think too clearly about things and start getting ourselves into a ruckus. This ruckus can cause unneeded stress, leading to a lowered capacity to perform well in what is arguably your most important high school year.
Instead of acting emotionally, think strategically. What can I do to improve upon my current marks in the next assessment? Will I need to write more practice essays? Should I ask my teachers what exactly is needed to address the marking criteria sufficiently? Do I need to dedicate more time to z subject or spend less time on y subject? Analyse and evaluate your performance; noting what you did well and what you did poorly in. Keep doing the good things, but correct the not-so-great things.
Expanding on what OP has recommended study wise for the holidays you should:
- English: Get the Discovery aspect out of the way as soon as possible. So yes, this includes being 100% comfortable with the reading task, and having a discovery essay and creative that is refined to the point where it can be used for trials without any problems adapting. It would also be beneficial if you read your prescribed text(s) for the next Module you’ll be studying next year; usually it’s Module A. Otherwise focusing on discovery in the summer break would be prudent to your study for English, especially in terms of getting a competitive advantage in your cohort over the next year.
- Maths: Consolidate the topics you learnt in term 1, and once you’re confident, proceed to doing questions from HSC past papers. Remember, practice is key in maths + do at least 1 hour of it each day. Another thing you could do is go ahead so that when you’re learning in class, the concepts are more likely to be cemented in your brain. Obviously you want to build confidence first by consolidating the topics learnt in term 1, but really, it’s your choice.
- Sciences: Put simply, create syllabus dot point notes with how much information that is required from the verb. Then, when you can remember your content, start doing practice questions from HSC past papers; but this time consider the sample answers and the marking criteria (markers are extremely stringent about this).
- Humanities: Similar to the sciences in which you build your notes via the syllabus, except you practice via essays/long responses. There’s heaps more content to absorb in my opinion, however it depends on the subject. If you do economics, you need to grasp the fundamental concepts and how they relate with each other; whereas with the histories, rote learning here is inevitable unfortunately.
Last word
I noticed how some students on the forums have stated that you should go hardcore with study throughout the summer break incessantly without stopping. In all honestly, you will burn out faster than a speeding bullet - try to still enjoy yourself and have a social life. In fact, if you haven't started doing school work, ease yourself into the routine; don't go all carpe diem by saying "ima do 8 hours a day, coz #yolo". You're better off doing 2-3 hours per day (separate them into smaller chunks if you will), because that way, it'd be more feasible to accomplish - since having a to-do-list is also helpful.
All in all, happy Christmas! (for tomorrow that is)
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