Treat all your subjects equally

The first step to consistent study scores is to look upon all your subjects as equals. Although subjects are scaled and this probably will affect your ATAR, it does not mean the subjects that are scaled down should be left behind. I know of some people who took all the “harder” subjects to boost their ATAR; you’ll probably hear this a lot. As someone whose subjects all got scaled down, I was seriously doubting my subject choices, however, I realised it didn’t matter if you worked hard for all your subjects.

Choose your subjects wisely. Choose the ones that are prerequisites, and if it is just the ATAR you need, choose subjects you love.

Devote equal time to all your subjects. Pretend study scores are the rating of your effort for each subject. To have them high and consistent, you must put in the effort to reflect that. Time management is probably the most important thing in getting the study scores you want. Allocating 3 hours to one subject but 30 minutes to another, which do you think will get the better score? A lot of people at our school did not make use of class time, which is probably the easiest time for you to get equal amount of study done for all your subjects. You are in class, you need to stay in class, so why not use this time effectively?

However, there are exceptions to this. Should you prioritise a subject when there is a SAC due?

Should you prioritise subjects?

In my opinion, I think there are times when subjects need to be dealt in higher regards to others. My scores were pretty consistent and maybe that was because of this. When there was a SAC for a subject, I would devote 90% to studying for that subject. It is the SAC scores which make up your study score. Sometimes, there were SACs for all subjects in one week, what I would do was, if I had a Psychology SAC on Monday, Sunday would be for Psychology. On Tuesday would be Studio Arts, so after school on Monday, I would study for Studio. The week before that, I would allocate equal time for all subjects. On another note, practically all SACs should be consolidating your knowledge for the exam anyway, so thoroughly studying for SACs also meant exam revision.

I definitely believe that you should prioritise the subjects with the nearest exam dates. As soon as VCAA release the exam dates, check to see how much time you have between each subject; are your exams one after another? Is the exam later on in the day which leaves you the whole morning to study? All this really matters. I would always study the subject whose exam comes first. I remember I had English, Psychology and the Further exams all in a row. So after studying English, and completing the exam, I had a little rest and studied Psychology. Lucky for me, the Further exam was later on in the day so after the Psychology exam I relaxed the whole day and then the next morning studied Further. Exams can count a lot towards your score so devoting a lot of time to each one when necessary, gave me a huge advantage, I gave myself the best opportunity to do well in each subject and thus, reap the best results for the study scores.

So I guess prioritising does matter when SACs and exams roll in.

Sharing is caring

Sometimes, there is a special moment in class where you find some of your subjects bleed into each other. It could be the tiniest of things but every bit of help you can find in Year 12, you should take it. I remember a lot of students who took health had already learnt things that were covered in psychology. This would have been great for them! In my case, qualitative and quantitative data was discussed in three of my subjects! I sure am never going to forget the difference, and this was examined on the three subjects’ exams. Having these cross-overs solidifies the knowledge for multiple subjects at one time, hence increasing your understanding of the subjects and thus leading to consistent scores.

I also found out that the subjects which I used the same revision methods for, they got very similar scores. I used Quizlet for Software, English and Psychology, and they were my three highest, two being the same, the other 2 points above. I think, if possible, sharing revision methods is a really great way to keep your scores consistent since you are familiar with that style of learning so it helps you absorb information more efficiently.

As always though, taking care of yourself is the most important thing. Trust yourself through VCE and do what you feel will get you to where your dreams lie.

Good Luck everyone 🙂