flashtrick
Gap year? If only...
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2011
- Messages
- 98
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2013
Ok, I lied.
It takes more than a single week to learn a syllabus. It takes well more than a week to do the past 10 years of practice papers. It takes more than a week to create, consolidate and compile 12 units worth of notes.
I'm not trying to stress you guys out; in fact, I'm trying to help anyone anxious or feeling down about their preparation. My main message is simple, but I know many of you guys are so dedicated and in need of your 99+ ATAR that you often forget:
Doing more than you're capable of will only hinder your results. You're better off saving your energy for the exams. That means getting enough sleep (I don't care what study you show me, 3 hours of sleep a night is suicide), eating healthy, drinking water and going outside to get some exercise. Hang out with friends if you can. You're not helping yourself by entering the HSC stressed, tired, hungry and emotionally deprived.
You know, for trials I only studied the day before for my physics exam. And I ended up coming fifth (even more surprising considering it took me nearly an hour to get through the multiple choice!). How is that possible? Have you seen some people who studying 50% the amount of others and yet they all end up getting the same mark?
Well it's the 80/20 rule
"80% of your results come from 20% of your effort."
To boost your marks, don't spend hours on the tiny details. You should only focus on the little things once you're confident with the big ones. It's better to not know specific dates than to not have a developed understanding of the main concept/idea. I get lazy. Everyone does. But when you're behind, choose to be efficient. It makes catching up so much easier.
Some tips:
Well that's all I can write. I know some of you guys out there are very serious about the HSC. Hopefully I helped some of you out there, and prevented you from breaking the world record of staying awake the longest.
It takes more than a single week to learn a syllabus. It takes well more than a week to do the past 10 years of practice papers. It takes more than a week to create, consolidate and compile 12 units worth of notes.
But you only have 1 week!
I'm not trying to stress you guys out; in fact, I'm trying to help anyone anxious or feeling down about their preparation. My main message is simple, but I know many of you guys are so dedicated and in need of your 99+ ATAR that you often forget:
Fit one week's worth of study at most in this final week. Don't try to squeeze 2 or 3 weeks workload.
Doing more than you're capable of will only hinder your results. You're better off saving your energy for the exams. That means getting enough sleep (I don't care what study you show me, 3 hours of sleep a night is suicide), eating healthy, drinking water and going outside to get some exercise. Hang out with friends if you can. You're not helping yourself by entering the HSC stressed, tired, hungry and emotionally deprived.
You know, for trials I only studied the day before for my physics exam. And I ended up coming fifth (even more surprising considering it took me nearly an hour to get through the multiple choice!). How is that possible? Have you seen some people who studying 50% the amount of others and yet they all end up getting the same mark?
Well it's the 80/20 rule
"80% of your results come from 20% of your effort."
To boost your marks, don't spend hours on the tiny details. You should only focus on the little things once you're confident with the big ones. It's better to not know specific dates than to not have a developed understanding of the main concept/idea. I get lazy. Everyone does. But when you're behind, choose to be efficient. It makes catching up so much easier.
Some tips:
- Address you weaknesses before over-strengthening your strengths. If you're a boss at calculus but can't even do simple geometry, stop doing harder calculus! Get your geometry up to scratch. Would you rather turn an 80% to 90% for the first question, or turn a 50% into an 80% for another?
- Learn how to tweak your knowledge to answer specific questions. Why memorize 80 answers when you can learn how to adapt a single answer to a variety of questions?
- Find patterns in your subjects. Look through past HSC papers or the syllabus dot points. Often, there will be questions or specific areas that are always asked every year without fail.
- Exam technique is very important! In the beginning, skip difficult questions to answer easier ones, the ones that you know you can answer. Try to answer every question by the end, though! It doesn't matter if you're pulling ideas out of your ass, markers can only give you 0 if there's nothing in the lines.
- Use all your resources. Yes, that means the 10/15 essay you got for module B. Over the years, you may have produced tiny nuggets of genius. It could be a really good topic sentence or a useful equation. There's no shame in reusing ideas if they're good ones. Also, look online for tutorials or tips.
Well that's all I can write. I know some of you guys out there are very serious about the HSC. Hopefully I helped some of you out there, and prevented you from breaking the world record of staying awake the longest.
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