Tips on getting a 97+ atar (2 Viewers)

Bobbo1

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Some of this has already been addressed but:
- For english, make sure you have quotes that cover a range of different themes for your text so you can better adapt to a question. E.g. don't just find quotes for belonging to family, make sure you are also prepared for belonging to friends, culture, society, etc.
- For physics, when your doing notes try to get them from a variety of sources because some textbooks may be lacking in their description for particular outcomes. Also, I think its important to understand the concepts, not just rote learning an answer to a particular type of question.
- Maths = past papers.
- Be organised: have your notes up to date, have papers from class organised in folders, etc.
- I found working towards small goals was better than studying for a certain number of hours (as LoveHateSchool said)
Best of luck! :)
Seems about right, but for English you really need to have prepared essays ready to go if not there is no way you can pump out 1100+ words in 40 minutes...
 

LoveHateSchool

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Seems about right, but for English you really need to have prepared essays ready to go if not there is no way you can pump out 1100+ words in 40 minutes...
This is arguable-I'd say most people at least like to have scaffolds though. It's rare to find people with the great ability to totally write esays from scratch to 1100+ length in the HSC anyway.
 

siera

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i got 99+ and all i can really say is chose subjects that you like but also the ones that are good scaling since you're gonna hate them all by the and anyway!
I'll highly recommend:
ADV. ENGLISH
MATHS EXT1
MATHS EXT2
CHEMISTRY
ECONOMICS
and work your ass out for the school assessments cz they're what really matters and can get you soo much ahead of everyone!
aim for top5 if you go to a selective school or 1st for non-selective schools!
study ahead of your peers (yes that includes making your summary notes and answering questions before the class has even started the topic!)
DO PAST PAPERS!
FORGET YOUR RELATIONSHIPS! ANY GIRLFRIEND/ BOYFRIEND IS THE LAST THING YOU WANT TO DISTRACT YOU!
nail the trials! they really matter!
spend time on your english essays for every assessment task! PREPARE A GENERAL ESSAY even if the task is in-class since they'll be your savior in the last minute for the HSC! I did 25 drafts for every essay (yes no exaggerations!) and practiced writing them to different questions rather than trying to come up with new essays 'on the spot' as some of your teachers might suggest! and it got me 94 while some of friends who obeyed the teachers were stuck in the mid 80s
WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS: I only chose chem because it was a good scaling subject but i absolutely sucked at it in yr11! I almost failed the yearlies getting only 55! but i literally dedicated more than 1/2 my study time to chem and did summaries ahead! I ended up with 94 as my mark!
guess thats enough for now GOOD LUCK!!!! and feel free to ask any more questions :)
 

sinawi

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FORGET YOUR RELATIONSHIPS! ANY GIRLFRIEND/ BOYFRIEND IS THE LAST THING YOU WANT TO DISTRACT YOU!

That's extremely relative and dependent on whether both partners involved are 'on the same wavelength'. From my experience, my misses and I got within a .4 ATAR of each other, and both succeeded in our respective units during the HSC. Not only that, but we both achieved state ranks for particular subjects we studied 'together' for. There were many nights where we wouldn't talk because we were both under an immense workload, but because we were on the same wavelength we totally understood the situation and it didn't damper anything. She also motivated me a good deal

In my opinion, the key to high ATAR is consistency and time management.
You are on the money good sir!
 

Rawf

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I had really poor time management during my HSC (studying just moments before exams, like the day before basically)... tbh I don't even know how I got my ATAR -__-

It's different for everyone I guess.

The real secret for me was determination and endurance. I have heaps of random quotes on my wall like "pain is temporary pride is forever" and when I'm sick of trying to do something I'd stare at it and be like 'IT'S OKAY, I CAN DO THIS'. - i kinda sound lame but eh.

Also, if you do bad on a test, then just forget about it and try harder next time, there's no point in dwelling on it because that will only tear down your confidence. Thankfully I don't have spaztic asian parents, even when I get 50% in a test, they just encourage me to do better next time.
 

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