How should you prepare for your Half Yearly exams?
9 February, 2012For most HSC students across NSW their first set of HSC assessments in an exam format will take place before the April holidays. The half yearly normally makes up around 25% of the total assessment mark which means that they will contribute 12.5% of a students final HSC result. With this in mind we thought it would be a good time to talk about a few tips to ensure that these half yearlies contribute in a positive way to students final HSC results.
We always recommend that students have a good break over the Christmas holidays however we are now into week two of Term 1 and students should really be working towards these exams.
We recommend that students should be doing a minimum of 3 hours study per school night as well as one 3 hour block of study over the weekend. As with all exam style tasks, once the work has been covered in school, the only way to prepare is to practice doing exam style tasks under exam conditions. For HSC English this doesn't mean memorising essays but instead looking at lots of questions and learning how to negotiate different questions.
In speaking with students this week about their preparations we have noticed that some students are saying that they are not sure how to study for three hours at a time and some students have also mentioned that they don't feel that they are being effective when studying, taking much longer to do some tasks and having no time to do others. This is a time management issue which can be dealt with by completing a daily "To Do" list where every minute is accounted for in each study session.
| 4:00pm to 5:00pm | Complete Maths homework (60 minutes) |
| 5:00pm to 5:30pm | Review Topic 1 of Economics (30 minutes) |
| 5:30pm to 5:45pm |
Relax (15 minutes) |
| 5:45pm to 6:30pm | Fix up HSC Belonging essay based on feedback provided (45 minutes) |
| 6:30pm to 7:30pm | Relax/dinner/chores (60 minutes) |
| 7:30pm to 8:00pm | Finish Chemistry homework/review topic 2 if i finish early (30 minutes) |
| 8:00pm to 8:30pm | Start work on Modern History assessment (30 minutes) |
| 8:30pm to 8:40pm | Get organised for the exciting day of your HSC campaign! |
On this example schedule students can be finished work by 8:30pm and enjoy the rest of the evening and feel good about having completed 3 hours of work.
Of course this is easier said than done but the sooner a student starts building these good time management habits into their HSC campaign the better. Being able to manage your time and take personal responsibility for a great HSC result is at the core of a great HSC campaign.
Many of the HSC students who attend our tuition centre have a full schedule during the week with sport training, music rehearsals, music lessons etc etc so it is unlikely that they will be able to get home by 4pm each day to complete homework and study by 8:30pm every night. For these students we would receommend that they complete a similar schedule as the example above and whenever they don't have any other commitments and in the afternoon doing an extra hour or two on these occasions and less study on the days when they have Rowing, Swimming, Music rehearsals etc. Overall though a student should be doing around 18 hours of school work, homework or study per week.
For students who attend our Bondi Junction tuition centre and those students who are members of our online HSC tuition service please ensure that you are submitting your practice essays for feedback from our team of highly experienced HSC teachers and markers. Now is the time to be submitting your work for feedback so you have time to make the suggested changes rather than a few days before the exam which will be too late to make a serious improvement.
Remember that our students are the lucky few in the state who have the advantage of having current HSC markers marking their work; we have one of the head markers of HSC English Extension 2 on our marking team! Utilise these resources that other students are not lucky enough to have, it is important to remember that your final HSC mark is highly dependent on student rankings, and our website provides you with the means to improve your rank rapidly throughout the year.
For our regular HSC tuition students don't forget that you can attend the office on Saturday and or Sunday morning for additional support from one of our tutors who are ex-students of FergHSC and are available to help. Even if you don't need any help, why not use the office as a place to study around other students instead of feeling like you are the only person in Sydney studying on a Sunday morning!!
"We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment"
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