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March 28, 2024, 09:47:38 pm

Author Topic: Advice for Year 10 students!  (Read 4641 times)

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Joseph41

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Advice for Year 10 students!
« on: June 18, 2018, 12:18:47 pm »
+10
Hey! I found Year 10 pretty difficult, to be honest. The workload was starting to ramp up a bit, and I sort of felt in no man's land - not at the top of the school, but definitely not at the bottom. In this thread, I'm going to give some advice on how to get through the year, and also how to prepare yourself well for Year 11 starting next year. :)


#1 Perception: your marks are important, but not so important.
Okay, first thing's first.

I remember in Year 10 having, very genuinely, no clue what was happening, or what would even count toward my final results. If you're in a similar position at the moment, you can read all about the HSC system here. But the point I want to make right off the bat is that your Year 10 results will not count toward your final ATAR.

BUT - that's not to say that they're not important.

Even though they don't directly count toward your final results, your Year 10 performance is important for a few reasons. Firstly, it may change what subjects are available to you at HSC level. For example, your school might only let you study 4U Maths if you perform at a certain level through Year 10 and then Year 11 maths. Working hard through Year 10 can also indirectly impact your Year 12 results. I'll explain what I mean here.

If you don't try through Year 10, you're not setting yourself up very well for Year 11. What that means is that, in Year 11, you'll b playing catch-up, doing the work that you probably should have done through Year 10. You might become more stressed as a result, or lose confidence in subjects you used to be really good at. Then, in Year 12, the domino effect continues. Basically, giving Year 10 your best shot sets yourself up really well for subsequent years, even though your Year 10 marks don't directly count.


#2 Use Year 10 to work out how you study best.
There are literally thousands of ways to study - literally thousands. It doesn't make sense to not at least try some different study techniques throughout Year 10. You never know - you might stumble upon one that really suits you, and makes studying a whole lot easier.

If you're not sure where to start, get around this article here, which outlines 18 different techniques you might like to try.

The idea here is that, come Year 12, you won't really have the time to be testing out different study techniques. Your best bet is to start early, and settle on a technique (or techniques) that works for you. Not your friends, not your teachers, not your family - you. Everybody's different, and if a certain way of studying works for you, then that's great!

The other benefit is that study doesn't have to be all drab and repetitive. You can draw, sing songs, write poems - whatever it is that helps you remember those pesky definitions and concepts. ;D


#3 Treat your exams seriously.
In the same way that learning how to study is important, so too is learning how to sit exams. In the HSC, a big chunk of your marks will come directly from exam performance.

For some of you, Year 10 exams will be your first proper exams ever (I know that some schools start them much earlier, but my school, for example, only started in Year 10). They can be draining, scary things - but they can also be a good deal of fun if you prepare well for them, and feel as though you perform strongly. Such is the importance of test-taking skills that we have an entire article focusing on it!


#4 HSC subject selection is important.
Come the end of Year 10, you'll be faced with selecting your HSC subjects. Exciting, but also difficult. There are so many subjects to choose from, and let's be honest - it's difficult to truly know what you're going to like.

But it's an important procedure, because the subjects you choose can have a pretty profound influence on your HSC experience. My general advice is as follows:
* Pick subjects you need as "pre-requisites" for any university course you're considering
* Then, pick subjects you think you'll enjoy or are passionate about

Simples!

And don't give much weight to:
* Scaling, which you can read more about here
* What subjects your friends are taking
* What you think you "should" be studying

But my best advice? Check out our HSC Subject Reviews & Ratings thread to see how current and past HSC students have found the subjects you're considering.


#5 But most importantly...
Try to enjoy the ride!

Realistically, there's not much need to think about what's to come at all, despite any of the advice given in this thread. Try to do your best on a day-to-day basis, have fun with your friends, and try to enjoy school for what it is - it won't last forever.

We're always here to help you if you want or need it. :) You can make a new thread in this Year 10 section of the forums - or, indeed, anywhere else on the forums that's relevant!

And we really encourage you to make your own HSC Journey Journal, so that you can vent about/think about /explain/discuss/question/diarise your own journey through Year 10 and beyond. :)

Good luck!

NOTE: This thread has largely been adapted from the VCE equivalent, as I actually studied in Victoria.

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RuiAce

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Re: Advice for Year 10 students!
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2018, 10:00:21 pm »
+6
Hey all, just wanted to add something whilst having tutored a Year 9 student this year.

Please take your Year 10 exams reasonably seriously. You don't want to treat Year 10 exams like HSC exams (nor do you want to treat Year 11 exams like HSC exams). But you want to treat them well enough because subject selection is important.

This won't be everyone obviously, but for those of you that wanna convince your teachers to let you enrol in physics or economics or 3U English/maths (or heck in some cases the decision between English advanced or standard) you want to convince your teachers that you deserve to be let in. Normally you can't be blocked out of things permanently, but they'll put up a great heap of resistance you might not be able to defeat if your results aren't convincing enough. The last thing you want is to have more than 4 units or something in your HSC being something you hate just because you weren't able to get into a better preference. Of course you don't need to unlock everything, but make sure you unlock the ones that you want to unlock.