HSC Advice (1 Viewer)

[Makematics]

Hey guys, so as I head into trials, there are few questions I would like to ask:
1. How do I write faster? After years of laziness, I seem to have lost the ability to write at a reasonable speed. In 40 minutes, I can probably write a maximum of 4 pages. For the geo trial, our teacher said he expects at least 6 pages for BOTH extended responses. How can I improve my handwriting speed? My writing is fairly legible but i dont mind making it messier, as long as it can be read. The time i lose in maths for my slow writing is made up by no time lost being stuck on questions (usually). However for english and geo in particular, I am gonna need to write more.

2. What subjects should I be improving to maximise my ATAR and what range of ATARs will I be looking at if these marks continue? As of late, I have picked up my game as the pointy end of the year approaches, meaning that these marks aren't an accurate indication of what my ATAR will be. What I am looking for is an idea of where I am heading if these marks continue. My school is ranked 10-20, and these are my marks and ranks for the most recent task in each subject.
English Advanced (15% weighting) - 87% (70/171)
Chemistry (35% weighting) - 80% haven't been notified but i'll estimate (40-50/114)
Geography (20% weighting) - 94% (1/6)
MX1 (35% weighting) - 98% (3/128)
MX2 (35% weighting) - 98% (1/62)

3. How much can your marks be changed by externals? Some of my teachers have asserted that after you finish your trials, your hsc mark will pretty much be fixed, and that there is little that can be done in the hsc to change it.

 

[Menomaths]

If you want to know your approximate ATAR range give your rank/cohort size

 

[Makematics]

If you want to know your approximate ATAR range give your rank/cohort size

yep my bad intended to put them in. edited.

 

[Menomaths]

I'm not really good at estimating so I'll leave it up to the pros. I would say if you want to write fast, and keep your writing legible, then probably the only option you got is practice. Just keep practicing writing and your speed will definitely go up.

 

[timeslowsdown]

1.Practice. That's the only way. Some people try adding weights to their pens - but I'm not sure how effective this is (I think it works if you use it consistently). But the best thing you can do is to simply do heaps of essays under time conditions - I found when I started, I couldn't write fast at all, but you'll see that you'll start to improve. For geo, quality is important but you want to showcase all the details you know, so quantity is important.
2. It looks like you're doing really well! Maths and geography are amazing. Since you haven't done much of english, it's hard to tell how you are going, but nevertheless, I'd try to improve english. Also chemistry. All in all, your marks look really good - you're looking at getting a really high ATAR (99+)
3. That's untrue. Your hsc mark can fluctuate. Your performance in the HSC is crucial! I'm sure you already know this, but I've seen many people look at their trial performance and really gun it before the HSC. Yes realistically, your performance throughout the year will reflect your hsc performance, but that's not to say there is still hope for improvement. For example, I knew a person in english who got a lower ranking than me, and she ended up getting a mark of 97 (I got 93). So there probably isn't much difference but there are rare cases. Basically have the attitude you can keep on improving. In some respects, the HSC begins after trials because that's when the polishing usually occurs - the extent to which you do this really differentiates students.

 

[JT145]

Regarding your first point: Do you write small? I write really small in comparison to my classmates and I can fit in about 3-4 pages in 40-45 minutes while others can hit 6,7 pages. It's all a quality thing. By now I've learnt to ignore the 'page' limit and just go for broke. However English at your school seems super-competitive, I've been hitting marks between 80% and 93% all year and I'm ranked either first or second.

 

[golgo13]

As timeslowdown has pointed out you, you gotta practice i think you could probably double wammy it by copying down notes if you had some already, or even writing them, to improve write speed, as for subjects balance all of them, your ranks on a whole are quite good, i would maybe invest a bit more time into eng and chem just to push them up a bit, maybe a bit more towards english

 

[Makematics]

Regarding your first point: Do you write small? I write really small in comparison to my classmates and I can fit in about 3-4 pages in 40-45 minutes while others can hit 6,7 pages. It's all a quality thing. By now I've learnt to ignore the 'page' limit and just go for broke. However English at your school seems super-competitive, I've been hitting marks between 80% and 93% all year and I'm ranked either first or second.

ummm no not that small, maybe a little smaller than average. but i can actually feel when i write that each word takes painfully long. like i can generate the sentence in my mind, but it'll take another few seconds to get it down onto the page and it sorta disrupts the flow of my thinking.
lol yeah english is really competitive, usually the average is lower... and that was my best mark and rank of the year by a fair bit. to come top 10 you need an average of 14.5/15 i think... the girl who is coming first has gotten 100% for all assessments.

 

[Makematics]

alright thanks guys so if i average out my ranks in the first half of the year and second half, it should be 98+. i'll just keep working at it and hopefully my efforts will be rewarded.

One other question, how do i speed up my reading! i know that this is similar to the question about writing in that i need to do practice, practice and more practice. as i child i was really into books but from yr 9-12 i pretty much stopped. Now i find that i am reading painfully slowly compared to my peers. this is especially concerning for the short answer part of the AOS paper. i have this habit of reading it so that i FULLY understand it. i probably cant read the four texts and prepare the essay and creative in the 10 minutes of reading time... how much do i have to skim read?

 

[ocatal]

Yeah I have the same problem with reading in paper 1. I tend to read it over and over until I fully understand it. Maybe in your reading time you could point out some key words in the question and try to find a basic link in the four texts. Especially with long articles I just underline short sentences which answer the question and extensively elaborate on that without reading the whole text. Just skim read most of the sections you feel are useless. For example, articles usually become less and less relevant towards the end.

Btw good job with your marks and ranks. Keep it up!

 

[Bobbo1]

1.Practice. That's the only way. Some people try adding weights to their pens - but I'm not sure how effective this is (I think it works if you use it consistently). But the best thing you can do is to simply do heaps of essays under time conditions - I found when I started, I couldn't write fast at all, but you'll see that you'll start to improve. For geo, quality is important but you want to showcase all the details you know, so quantity is important.
2. It looks like you're doing really well! Maths and geography are amazing. Since you haven't done much of english, it's hard to tell how you are going, but nevertheless, I'd try to improve english. Also chemistry. All in all, your marks look really good - you're looking at getting a really high ATAR (99+)
3. That's untrue. Your hsc mark can fluctuate. Your performance in the HSC is crucial! I'm sure you already know this, but I've seen many people look at their trial performance and really gun it before the HSC. Yes realistically, your performance throughout the year will reflect your hsc performance, but that's not to say there is still hope for improvement. For example, I knew a person in english who got a lower ranking than me, and she ended up getting a mark of 97 (I got 93). So there probably isn't much difference but there are rare cases. Basically have the attitude you can keep on improving. In some respects, the HSC begins after trials because that's when the polishing usually occurs - the extent to which you do this really differentiates students.

+1