appleali
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2023
- Messages
- 356
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2024
uhhh lowkey i did like no study during the christmas holidayshow long on average or how hard did u study during the 6 week christmas holidays before term 2 of y12? im planning to js prep for my at2s throughout the holidays (which will continue all the way up to week 7-9, when my tasks happen) and near the end of these 6 wks, do some revision on the topics that have been tested in at1 (i do the same subjects as u), and im also terrible at english so im honestly very worried about that. how would u go abouts actually improving your writing?
but i don't recommend that, i think you should do some study and maybe try to get ahead for some subjects
i didn't tho cos i couldn't be asked lmao
so if i were to do it again, i would probably do this (considering you do the same subjects as me this might work for you too):
1. get ahead with the content in all subjects
so what i mean by this is just study a bit ahead, e.g to the first parts of the next module for chem/phys or maybe covering a few bits of the proofs. in english, if you know what the next book is, then just read it, no need for notes or anything. also try and polish your essays from t1 if you can.
or whatever is next in 3u/4u. don't overdo it though, you'll burn out like that, use this holidays to chillax a little bit.
2. have a quick gander at your notes for each subject
take a look at your notes to refresh your memory like a week before school starts, so you're not relearning stuff while you're learning new stuff
3. do some practice questions
this is especially important for maths. i find it super annoying how after every holidays in year 11 i would come back and id struggle to do questions that i was easily doing at the end of the last term. in the last week or so before school starts, do some textbook questions to get back into it and be ahead of the curve when you're learning new stuff (also helps review content from last term).
4. english
so i hated english, it was always my worst subject and i was really bad at it
but i needed a high english mark for my atar cos it was my worst scaling subject, so i decided to get on my grind (i kinda cheated tho)
basically my english grindset was in 3 steps
1. getting a good tutor
honestly i'm not ashamed of this because i rly needed a good english mark and i was bad at it, so i decided i may as well get a good tutor who can really guide me and put me on the right track, because i didn't know how to study for english, all my other subjects are just spam past papers
2. build a good relationship with your teacher (important)
my teacher did not like me in year 11 because i wouldn't pay attention and sucked at english as well. but i decided to turn this around as i realised i needed her to support me in terms of reviewing essays and short answers and stuff. but more important than this, was that all people have an uncontrollable subconscious bias towards their students. so if you're a student she likes, you never know, it could make the difference between a 16 and 17/20 in an assessment task which may push your rank higher by a few. obviously don't suck up to her/him, but you can start asking questions in class, and going to her after class to ask interesting questions about the text/or for her to review your essays/answers. trust me, it makes a big difference and also made me want to study english more and get higher marks to 'impress' my teacher.
3. ALWAYS memorise essays
in the 99% of cases (correct me if im wrong), the students who do really well at english always memorise at least a base essay to work off of. i was bad at writing on the spot (which makes sense, writing a good and cohesive 1000 word analysis of a piece in 40 mins on the spot under exam conditions is very very difficult), so i memorised all my essays word-for-word. however, a caveat of this, is that the question may not be perfectly tailored to your answer. the way to account for this, is to do tons of practice, especially early in the year (it is a skill to adapt essays), and try to adapt your essays by changing thesis statements, topic sentences, and small parts of analysis to fit the question. tbh, i left this part too late but got really, really lucky with my trials/hsc questions. but at least you know this now (I didn't), so you can start prepping for it.
sorry for the essay and best of luck. take it easy as the HSC is a marathon not a sprint (my teachers told me this lol)