How do I even study smart?

[BadKarma_17]

It is already the end of unit 3 and I have been getting shitty scores of around 50-65% on all my SACS. I really want to make changes for unit 4 so I can get high marks. The annoying thing is that I am a good student, I do all the homework and study really hard to get high marks. When it comes to the SAC, then I end up getting a shit mark. I hate how despite studying well, I get a bad result. How can I change this? (btw I don't stress doing the SACs so I don't know what is the problem)
Btw I really want at least a 90 ATAR to get into my course. Is this still possible if I do well in unit 4 and the end of year exams, despite doing shit in unit 3?

Please, I really need some help. Legit the exams are in 4 more months! 

[mabajas76]

Well the lucky thing is that the units only ever acount for around 12.5 each to ur study score and may increase (or decrease) depending on ur cohorts exam performance. So it is too early to give up!
In terms of studying smart... it really depends on the person but I can try to give you some general advice?
-Whilst doing set HW is important...if u feel as though it isn't helping or there is something better that u can do, then don't do it unless u know ur teacher will check it. Honestly, even if they find out, point out to them that u feel as though u would benefit more from doing other things to study.
-Study AS u go, the lead up to the SAC should not be when u write revision, or at least not mainly. It should mainly be rereading ur notes and practice questions/essays. Maybe try at the end of each day, or even each week or whenever u finish a chapter, make ur study notes. Get a heading, get a sub heading, and explain the concepts in your OWN words. Seriously, if u need a diagram, use one, for one I often use some... inappropriate language (shhhhh) just to make them more interesting to me. I prefer writing mine of a word document but writing them in a book works as well. And if u feel super confident on a concept, don't bother studying it too hard, just make some quick dot points. Just make it personal and it will serve as a way for u to revise concepts and be able to remember them for exam.  I often use quizlet
Practice questions- Exercises, chapter reviews, extra self made questions. They really do help, even if u just answer them in dot point form, they help u get a feel for how to answer and serve as extra revision.
Organization- It depends on the person, but for some people study timetables work, some diaries, some check lists, it really depends on the person.

In terms of doing SACS, what helped me was highlighting the question, tying my answer back (unless it was math then I just made sure units were included and stuff) and then looking at the marks. I know it seems kind of obvious but looking at how many marks the question was really helped me think, each sentence I would reread and be like yep, that's one point=one mark, lets continue.
It seems like ur pretty confident in ur SAC taking and that u already study hard so alot of this may be useless but it worked for me, but remember just mindlessly doing busy work isn't the best way to learn. Do what YOU have to in order to understand something well and don't give up!