How Much Study in the Holidays? (1 Viewer)

[Ben MacDougall]

So we're in the Term 2/3 holidays now, leading up to the trials...
How much study do you suggest???
I've done 7 hours the last few days but it has almost killed me.

I do; Eng Adv, Bio, Chem, Maths, Maths Ext1, PD/H/PE

Advice would be awesome!

 

[Martin_SSEDU]

Hey Ben,

If your stuck on what you should be studying this article might be helpful

http://www.ssedu.com.au/the-4-fundamental-habits-of-a-band-6-student/

But to help you out specifically you should honestly be trying to spend most of your day in front of a textbook or in a study environment. You're going to find that it starts off very slow and tedious and your going to be checking your phone or getting distracted when you first study but if you spend enough effort trying to develop a routine of studying at least for the majority of a day (9am - 5pm) and then night in some cases (7pm - 10pm) you'll have enough time to do what you need to do.

Now, timing is obviously very useless if you have nothing to do during that time and I suggest that you take some time to actually plan out what you have to do, unless your acing your subjects and see yourself doing the same in the trials you have to be putting in the hard yards to get your work done.

For Mathematics a lot of your time can be spent doing a past paper, a 2U past paper is in effect 4-5 hours where 3 hours is the exam and the other time is spent marking or learning the questions you did wrong. Even for 3U your looking at a decent 3-4 hours where 2 hours is actual working time and the rest is marking/fixing.

If you spend nearly every morning doing a mathematics past paper alternating between 2U and 3U and you started at 9am, you already take yourself to 12-1pm and thats most of your day done. Then as you would believe you can spend the rest of the day doing the rest of your humanitarian subjects whether it be writing notes, doing past exam papers, writing practice essays or practice short responses.

It's a pretty challenging process to get into routine to study but remember nearly everyone who is aiming to ace their trial exams is putting out the same amount of sweat and stress no matter how good they might be. Take it as a grain of salt but sometimes biting down and just powering through it pays off and this process becomes easier when you know what you have to do.

 

[nerdasdasd]

So we're in the Term 2/3 holidays now, leading up to the trials...
How much study do you suggest???
I've done 7 hours the last few days but it has almost killed me.

I do; Eng Adv, Bio, Chem, Maths, Maths Ext1, PD/H/PE

Advice would be awesome!

I suggest 2 or 3 blocks of 2/3 hour study periods per day with a 20 minute break in between them all

Spend more time on the subjects that you are not so competent at

 

[Carrotsticks]

I suggest 2 or 3 blocks of 2/3 hour study periods per day with a 20 minute break in between them all

Spend more time on the subjects that you are not so competent at

I don't think this is a good idea.

Too few breaks compared to the amount of work done.

Students now have an entire day with a window to study from say 9am until 9pm. You're suggesting they get 6-9 hours of work done, with one hour of rest, when the window is around twelve hours.

I work based off a work to rest ratio. On my lazy days, it's 1:1. On busy days, it could be 5:1 and during critical periods, it can even be 10:1.

The focus isn't to measure the amount of time studied, but how effective it is. How many times have you found yourself "studying" for one hour, only to realise that you could've done all of that in twenty solid minutes of work?

 

[Carrotsticks]

Of course but there are discrepancies, such as distractions, procrastinations, other commitments. For example, I tend to zone out and procrastinate when I study English too much, so eventually I only end up doing 8-10 hours of study anyway. So I agree with nerd and that there should be 3 blocks of 3 hours of study with breaks inbetween.

To be completely honest I don't really understand the point that you're trying to make. If anything you're agreeing with me, when you say you zone out (and I assume procrastinate) when you study too much English.

 

[Ekman]

To be completely honest I don't really understand the point that you're trying to make. If anything you're agreeing with me, when you say you zone out (and I assume procrastinate) when you study too much English.

All im trying to say is having a structured study rountine tailored to your working capabilities, is essential. For me its doing what nerd suggested for certain subjects such as English and chemistry. For other subjects like maths, I usually just study according to how you study. All I am saying is to hybridise multiple study routines for certain subjects.

 

[Carrotsticks]

All im trying to say is having a structured study rountine tailored to your working capabilities, is essential. For me its doing what nerd suggested for certain subjects such as English and chemistry. For other subjects like maths, I usually just study according to how you study. I am basically hybridising multiple study routines for certain subjects.

I think this is a much more appropriate response. Being flexible with what you're studying, depending on circumstances, is key.

I generally dislike it when people give "absolute advice" in situations where you need to be flexible (say due to factors like human nature when we procrastinate) , as it can be misleading and possibly damaging to those who follow it blindly.

 

[enoilgam]

I generally dislike it when people give "absolute advice" in situations where you need to be flexible (say due to factors like human nature when we procrastinate) , as it can be misleading and possibly damaging to those who follow it blindly.

Couldnt agree more with this. I always had goal based study plans as opposed to hour based ones, because effectiveness is far more important than volume in terms of study. I generally set weekly study goals and then calculated the average amount of work Id need to do per day. From there, I would plan the work each day based on how I felt and what I had on. If I was having an off day, I just did less work and if I was having a good day I did more. I found that having a flexible approach was far more effective for me, as it gave me a high degree of flexibility. Plus it's a confidence builder, because achieving study goals really helps maintain your motivation.

Overall though, how you balance your work is really dependant on the individual. Personally, I was the kind of person who could work for a long period of time without breaks. I wouldn't advocate that approach because whilst it worked for me, I know it doesn't work for many others.

 

[Crisium]

Weekends: ~ 10 + Hours

Weekdays: ~ >12 Hours

 

[BLIT2014]

I think 40 minutes studying,then 10 minute break works pretty well without overly exhausting oneself.

 

[strawberrye]

This is my advice, whilst obviously the duration of study is important, what's more important is you are targeting your weakness, there's little point in using excessive time to revise what you already know, use your time strategically and divide it proportionally and don't study so much that you burnt out. You should always quantify your study in terms of the amount of things you need to get done, like in terms of a to-do-list tick off rather than necessarily drilling yourself crazy. Also another tip, focus on fewer subjects per day so you can revise more in depth. The lesson to take away is there is no definite amount of study for success, but rather you should plan your time and follow that schedule and give yourself some breathing space so it can be a sustainable effort-Best wishes for your HSC trials

 

[swagmeister]

It's the amount of work that matters, in saying that if you work at a normal make aim for around 70-100 hours total over the holidays if you want to be getting band 6's

 

[Ben MacDougall]

Thanks everyone for your advice!

 

[Flop21]

So I've stuffed up guys. Left things a bit late.

But I want to start making flash cards for 2 subjects, bio and business, plus multimedia which is short. Is this an okay method of studying during the holidays? Making flashcards? They are going to take probably a week to make them. Then I'll start using them for study. Then add in past papers.

Trials are in just under 4 weeks.

Good idea, or no?

 

[Librah]

Who actually counts the hours they do studying.

 

[teridax]

Weekends: ~ 10 + Hours

Weekdays: ~ >12 Hours

WAT

how can u last that long lol

 

[faisalabdul16]

weekends: ~ 10 + hours

weekdays: ~ >12 hours

yeah no mate

 

[Crisium]

WAT

how can u last that long lol

I had an exam on the last day of school (i.e. The most recent Friday) and I've basically taken yesterday and today off

I will be going by that schedule from tomorrow onwards ~

I think its the fact that I underperformed severely in a majority of my assessment tasks in the previous term :/

^ In a way I'm kind of glad that I did as I now have the motivation to work my ass off and won't have to worry about falling into a complacent state of mind

 

[Crisium]

Also the fact that I have shit teachers for every subject and only go to tutoring for maths means that I have to spend more time self-teaching when it comes to tackling exam questions understanding concepts, etc.

Furthermore, people are taking up those fancy programs like HSC in the Holidays and tsfx and the only way to compete is to push myself over the next couple of weeks

EDIT: Forgot to add that I'm naturally untalented and stupid

 

[teridax]

yeah no mate

yeah, i don't get it

if you're studying for that amount of hours, then you're not efficient imo