First of all, before you even think about planning for the final push, I want every single one of you to think for a second. Think about the fact that you survived your trial exams, despite the seemingly endless amount of content that you needed to memorise. Think about the countless assessments that you studied for and submitted, your half-yearly exams which probably just seem like a blur at this point. Think about the first day of Year 12, and how far you’ve come since then. You’ve learned more in this year that in the rest of High School combined! Before planning the future, you need to take some time to think about the past. What worked for you and what didn’t? Where have your strengths been? Which subjects did you adequately prepare for? Where were your strengths in the Trial exams? Where were your weaknesses? These are questions to consider and internalize, whilst also remembering how incredible it is that you’ve made it to this stage.

Now, let’s talk about planning for the next fifty or so days. It’s seriously important to have an action plan in place, because this isn’t the time to just sort of wander through study and hope for the best come the HSC. Now is the time to be extremely organised, even if that hasn’t been your style up until now. I’m going to take you through the next month and half, chronologically. I would strongly recommend following these steps, or at the very least coming up with a definitive plan of your own!

Planning Stage 1: The Break (1-2 weeks)

You need to start by taking a break. Rest, because honestly, you’ve earned it. Trials are much harder than the HSC; the time period is shorter, you don’t know the content as well, and it’s probably your first time sitting full 3 hours exams. Like Jamon wrote about last week, taking a break is really important for your recuperation. As I’m sure you’ve heard a billion times, the HSC is a marathon, not a sprint. As such, making sure you don’t burn out is key. Take a break, go to the beach (weather permitting), get some exercise, meet up with friends, go out, drive somewhere cool, lie in bed, definitely watch some Netflix, etc. etc. etc.

The tough part, following any break, is getting back into the swing of things. So, to make sure you don’t completely leave the reservation, I would recommend counting down the days until you plan to start studying again. Personally, I had a piece of paper on my wall that I used to cross off each day as the HSC got closer. I would circle days that were important, and write why that day was significant (eg. ‘GET BACK TO WORK!’ ‘ONE WEEK TO GO’ etc.). Planning your time like this is important, because time will move differently as the HSC draws nearer. Some days will pass in a blink of an eye, whilst others will drag on for what feels like centuries. To an extent, your study regime should be on autopilot, and you really shouldn’t be thinking about what you need to do in a day. That’s why, personally, I think crossing out days is a really good idea.

Planning Stage 2: The Preparation (1 day)

Like I said above, you shouldn’t be starting each day wondering what you plan to study. Instead, you should have a solid plan for essentially every day between now and the HSC. You need to spend at least a day coming up with an absolutely ridiculously comprehensive list of tasks to set for yourself. The next month should just be completing these tasks.

This is how went about my HSC planning. Of course, you may have a totally different regime/idea, however at least I can tell you that mine was highly successful. First, I got a piece of paper for every subject I was doing. Using a different colored heading on each, I comprehensively decided what each subject required of me. That doesn’t mean writing ‘do practice English Essays’. Instead, a list for Advanced or Standard English might go something like this

Compile a list of all past HSC questions, ordered by Topic
– Discovery
– Module A
– Module B
– Module C
Determine the different ‘types’ of questions per Topic, and write a thesis statement for each
Write an essay plan for each ‘type’ of question (send difficult ones to teacher)

And so on and so on. Be specific with your list, so that you can cross things off as you go. The idea is that, once you’ve crossed everything off, you should be able to sit the exams without any issues whatsoever! Personally, I included an area for ‘past papers’. I had a whole bunch of boxes, and filled one in every time I completed a past paper. That way, I could tell when I had been focusing on one subject too much, and need to focus more on a particular subject.

For content-heavy subject, include dotpoints that you plan to go through again in their entirety. Similarly, if you want to polish up your notes in any particular section, include that too! But, now that you’ve done your planning, the time to work is upon you.

Planning Stage 3: The Study (2 weeks)

Now is the time to tick off items of your list that are particularly content-heavy. Add things to your notes as needed, compile information, go over sections of the curriculum that you particularly struggle with. This is more the ‘standard’ type of studying you’ve been doing throughout the year; just trying to make sure you have everything under your belt, somewhere, so that you can quickly try to recall information in an exam. Whilst studying during this period, and planning for the next, it is important that you make sure your study is as efficient as possible. Essentially, you need to study smart, now more than ever. If you want more tips on how to do this, check out an article I wrote here! However, just a few words of advice regarding things you should be thinking about during this time, and when planning your study.

Each Subject is Unique; Treat Them Differently!

The amount of time you spend on each subject won’t necessarily be the same. I would recommend writing out a list of all your subjects, in order of your perceived strength. The time you spend on each subject should be inversely proportional to your strength; ie. if you are an absolute gun at Mathematics, but have never written a practice Legal Studies essay in your life, probably focus on Legal. These are the sorts of things to consider when studying; HOW best to study for a subject, WHEN best to study for a subject, WITH WHOM you should study with. These are things only you can decide when planning your study, but they are crucial to success.

Don’t Fall into the Trap of Standard Studying Techniques

We’ll talk about doing past papers later, but the point I want to make here is that there are heaps of ways to study other than the usual methods. For instance, when it comes to memorising content, I would highly recommend my Worksheet method (which you can find detailed here!). I identified my weakness (memory) and created a solution to fix it (repetition). You need to do this as well. Look to your Trial exams, and see where you made the most mistakes in each subject. Then, accurately target those areas of weakness so that you can be best prepared for the HSC.

When it comes to actually studying, a lot of you will be doing 5-10 hours every single day. That’s brutal. I tried to ‘keep things interesting’ by going to the beach to study (as the weather warms up), setting up a desk outside, going over to friends’ to study, going to the library, even going for walks and just talking myself through some content. Don’t sit in your room for 10 hours a day for four weeks; it just isn’t healthy, for your body or your mind.

Use Online Resources when you Need Support

If you don’t understand something, looking over your notes probably won’t help. Use resources like YouTube, google and even (*gasp*) your teachers to try to understand content that you’ve spend the year struggling with. However, wouldn’t it be great if there was a free online community in which you could ask literally any question you want, about literally any subject, and there would be someone on the other end to help you out? Sort of like free online tutoring? Hmm… and if that were free, that would be the most invaluable resource for HSC students right? Well, turns out it exists. Check out our totally free forums for English, Science, Maths, Humanities and more. Get essays marked for free; whatever we can do to help you!

Effective Group Study can Bump Your Atar

Now that the competition is well and truly over, working in groups can be an incredibly successful way of memorising content. I used to spend days at a time bouncing ideas off friends, just having a chat about the content. It’s a great way to identify errors in your learning, gaps in your knowledge, and also strengths in your understanding. Put together a great group of people, head to the library, and spend some hours just having a chat. However, DON’T do this to your own detriment. If you find yourself wasting days at a time, drop the group and go off on your own.

Use the above tips for as long as they are useful. However, there will reach a time for every subject (not necessarily the same time for different subjects) where all you can be doing is past papers. And that, my friends, is where the penultimate stage in study comes into play.

Planning Stage 4: The Polish (2 weeks)

You’ve got all the information you need together, and you’ve gone over your notes so many times that you could cry. All there is to do now is past papers! Past papers, over and over again, from 1930 to now.

Now, almost every student does past papers incorrectly in some way. The fact is that there IS a most efficient way to study using past papers, and unless you are ticking all the boxes, you’re not getting the most out of the experience. So, here is how I would recommend planning out your past-paper study.

Timed Conditions

There is no point, at this stage, in doing past papers unless you’re under timed conditions. You need to know how much of a paper you can get through, how much time you have to check your answers, and how you work under pressure. You can pause your time and go and do other things, but make sure you’re always keeping track. This will help you develop your past paper technique.

Using your notes in progression

If you’ve read any of my past articles, you’ll know I’m a big advocate for having your full set of study notes, but then summarizing them into just the information you absolutely don’t know and plan to memorize to form ‘super notes’. When doing past papers, you should try not to use your notes. If you really don’t know an answer, try using your ‘super-notes’. Only use your extensive notes as a last resort.

Answer every question

No matter how dull, or how many times you’ve answered the same question, you need to repeat yourself. It will become second nature, which is important, because then the actual HSC exam will seem like just another practice paper.

Mark your work

This is obvious, but too many students don’t do it anyway. Mark any past paper you sit, and don’t do past papers you don’t have the answers to. Add up your marks and see how well you do, comparing your mark to other papers you’ve sat to check improvement. Write out mistakes you’ve made, and why you’ve made them. Then, move to the final step.

Record questions that you messed up

Keep a list of all the questions you don’t get. Just the question, and where the question’s answer can be found. Then, the next day, redo the question. If you get it right, cross it off your list. If you don’t, do it again the next day. Keep going so that you ACTUALLY LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES! This is potentially the most important aspect of doing past papers; identifying issues with your knowledge, and dealing with them appropriately.

Planning Stage 5: The Final Cram (1-2 days)

I’ve written about cramming quite extensively, so I’ll leave you to go and look at the details in my article here. However, just briefly, I want to talk about the day or two before your exam.

The fact is that you know the information you know, which also happens to be way more than you would expect. To be honest, last minute study is unlikely to do much for your mark. However, it can definitely ease your mind. As such, cramming is a good way to feel more confident with your knowledge. Go through the entire curriculum, writing out information you absolutely don’t know, but should. Be succinct, use colors, and have fun with it. Then, study from that document only the night before/day of an exam. There’s no point using anything else. Anyway, check out the article above for more details on that.

And that is how I would recommend planning the next months. Make sure that you have a plan; that’s seriously important. If you have any other questions, check out our free online tutoring service! We’re here to help you, every day of the week, whenever you need us. Good luck all; the end is in sight, just one final push!