how much of a difference can trials make??

[meditatingwalrus]

hi everyone,,


so im kinda down at the moment in terms of school. ive been aiming all this year for an atar above 99 (stupidly ambitious i know) but my internals so far have been kinda unimpressive. i mean im happYY with them but i feel as though its not enough to get me to where i want to be and i guess i kinda was wondering if anyone has any bounce back stories, where theyve managed to ace trials and bring up their ranks and get a final atar that they were happy with (not neccesarily 99 of course - .) but anyways these are my ranks

eng adv - 15/200ish
bio - 19/100ish
chem - 43/100 ish
modern - 10/100ish
ext 1 english - 8/40 ish
ext 2 english - 2/11

how much of a difference has trials made to your atar or other people you know? thanks in advance for any replies

[holky]

Heyy, so I definitely have a bounce back story.
I accelerated in Mathematics last year and in the half yearly exam I got 58%. I was pretty bummed. I studied my butt off and got around 70% in the trials and ended up getting an 84 overall. So it can definitely be done! As long as you work, work, work, you can improve heaps! Remember, your HSC exam is worth more than your internals, so whilst it's good to do well internally (and can help externally by setting you up with the skills), it's not completely over if you stuff up internally.
Although in saying that, my 58% still had me sitting at 9th (I'm not sure out of how many, maybe like 40? I'm really not sure) and I ended up ranking 7th. Your ranks do look pretty good though, so I'd say do your best and smash trials and then smash the HSC exams and you should be right for a good ATAR.
Also, anyone who knows more, please feel free to correct me, this could be completely wrong, it's just my knowledge from my own experience.

[beatroot]

Honestly I really can't say if my trials performance have significantly influenced my ATAR- because really the thing that gonna push your ATAR the most is your performance in the external exams. However, trials do influence your ranks for your internal marks. For example, throughout Year 12 I was ranked 15th for English standard. So I worked my butt off to really get into the top 10 and ended up getting a rank of 4th place. I ended up getting an 89 for english- not exactly a Band 6 but     it is difficult to get a band 6 in standard so 89 was enough for me. Same thing with Ancient History. I was ranked sixth but after trials I was third in my class.

Though like mentioned previously, what really matters at the end of the day is your performance in your HSC exam. I remember getting 56% for my maths trial exam but ended up getting 82 for my HSC maths mark. So don't stress too much about trials. They're called trials for a reason

[meditatingwalrus]

thank you so much 
i feel a lot more motivated now!