For the purpose of all you HSC doers out there, I attempted to cast my mind back to what I actually did during the procrastination-filled potential disaster that was the 3 week stuvac break. Problem was, I couldn’t actually recall any events from the time. So, I cracked open my diary to this time last year to see what I was thinking. Here is an extract from the night before my first exam (as is, no edits):
“So it’s getting real soon. I’m... freaked out, but it really comforts me when I know that we are all going through it, together. It’s all a learning experience, a journey that we take as individuals, whom are part of a collective. We are enriched with this voyage toward the end,.. OH MY GOD WHAT AM I SAYING?!”
Another interesting thing to note is that our grade’s message board peaked the night before our first exam, and this continues to be the “most people online” timeframe. Anyway, what I do remember from Stuvac are some study techniques that really helped with specific subjects. Read on for English, Maths, Japanese, Art, and some other general tips....
English (I did Advanced, and Extension 1 until... well until I didn’t anymore. So this will only really help for 2u)
Area of Study (*Shudder*) - the first thing to do is count how many days until you never have to utter the word “journey” again. Repeat the number to yourself every day. Even use it as a chant to calm yourself in times of voluminous stress. Friday, 20th of October, 11.30 am: universal time of celebration.
But seriously, the best thing to do for AOS is to do the past papers and get them marked by your teachers. Luckily (well I guess this depends on your view of the situation but in this case, it is lucky) you are the third year of Journey-ers, so there are two real past papers on the Board of Studies website, as well as countless trial papers that your teachers have probably thrown at you. Do them. Make sure you are familiar with the layout of the exam paper. For question 3, make sure you have your BOS stimulus booklet text ready, and also some extra supplementary texts aswell.
Modules: you have two hours to do three pieces of writing (same as AOS in fact). When you are studying, try to make structured notes and condense them to several main points, and then within that, a few dot points. It’s good to have a maximum of one page per module of notes to study - make sure you have relevant quotes that you have to memorise. A great way of deciding what to put in your condensed notes is to think of it as a “cheat sheet” - if you were allowed one piece of paper in the exam, what would you write on it? For Module C, make sure you have your supplementary text/s on the ready. Do some past papers, especially practice different text types like feature articles, speeches, radio interviews.
Maths (2u Advanced (or anything really but that’s what I did))
With maths, I’ve always found that doing past papers and exercises is the best way of preparing. First go through a list of all the topics and make sure you know how to do what you have to do. With topics you are unsure of, go back to your textbook* and learn how to integrate/differentiate/whatever, and tackle some exercises specifically for those topics.
When you think you’re ready, try a past paper to time. The first time you do it, let yourself have a formula sheet for reference. As you do them more, you’ll notice that you have memorised the formulas; it’s much more effective that trying to cram the formulas in at the last minute. You will have plenty of past papers and trial papers to practice on, so make sure you do the ones that you have solutions for! Mark the entire thing when you’re done and see how you went.
Maths (Extension 1)
This was so fun. My favourite subject ever. Bar none. Ever, ever. In the whole world.
Ah... I had an interesting relationship with Extension 1 maths. Basically what I found to be the best technique was the same as what I was doing for 2u, only more often. If everything looks like it’s going down the drain, motivate yourself with the fact that I got through BIOL1001, so you can do this!
Japanese (Continuers and Extension) (this may be useful for some other languages as well but don’t take this as your main repository of study techniques)
Well, at least the speaking test is over! I think for most people that is the most challenging part of studying an HSC language, so congratulate yourself for getting through it.
Listening: a lot of people find this the hardest section in the exam, and unfortunately it is probably the hardest one to study. Download the past papers - they all come with transcripts - and approach the best reader in your Japanese class (or anyone you know who speaks Japanese) with a box of chocolates and ask them to read the sections while you answer the questions. The best study method is practice. During the exam, you get two read throughs - in the first one, I found it useful to jot down everything important in the side column of the exam paper. If there’s a word you don’t understand, write it down in Japanese and look it up later, or in between the two readings. Note: there is no listening section in the extension exam.
Reading and Responding, Writing: I actually found these to be my weakness, so I did some past papers to time and got my teachers to mark them. Remember you can take monolingual and bilingual dictionaries into the exam.
Visual Arts
Major work is over!
Now it’s time for the other 50%, the written exam. As I said with everything else, get familiar with the exam layout. The first section is in three sections, increasing in mark weighting. They will usually have one question about the frames, one about the conceptual framework, and one about art practice. In section 2 there are 9 essay questions to choose from. Usually there are 3 about the frames, 3 about the conceptual framework and 3 about art practice. You only have to write one essay, and it’s based on artists you choose (ie the artists you probably studied with your teacher during the year). The exam isn’t a test of knowledge of art history as such, more of a test of your analysis of various artworks.
Be careful with timing - keep your eye on the clock the whole time. There are suggested times you should spend on each question, so try to stick to them. Even if you have a million things to say for Question 1(a), there’s still a maximum mark you can possibly get, so don’t waste your time writing too much. During the trials, one of my friends didn’t get any time at all to write her Q1(c) which was worth 12 marks because she had spent too much time on (a) and (b) so then she had no choice but to move straight on to the next section.
Finally, back to my diary, I found an interestingly huge gap in entries, spanning from two days before final exam** to several weeks later. Not even a day-after “WHOOP” of accomplishment. I must have been totally busy doing... oh, yeah! This period of time is accounted for by schoolies.
So good luck, think about the big picture, and feel free to us ask anything! Comment away!
*Or, if applicable, Call Nerdy Friend; my first port of call was unfailingly and always Ramanan.. he got me through maths and even biology in fact. What a hero!
**The entry pretty much consisted of a to-the-minute countdown of How Long Before I’m Free in which I gushingly refer to my diary as “My friend,” Crazy, scary times!