Thanks for that awesome advice The Cat In The Hat
How do you get through setbacks? You know, those times when you don't get the grade that you want.
How do you keep yourself from worrying about what your ATAR may turn out to be? Or is it not possible to stop thinking about what your ATAR may turn out to be?
I have a feeling that I'm going to have some setbacks but I just hope that in the end I'll reach my goals.
How do you get through setbacks? I find to get through setbacks what I do is... keep on working. Didn't get the mark I wanted this time? I get more determined to do better next time. (That may just be because I'm a stupidly stubborn person, but still.) Also, the pleasure of my parents is a pretty good incentive.
And keeping myself from worrying? Hmmm. While the pressure was really on (I have just one exam left) I had no time to worry about ATAR. It's not smart to keep constantly worrying, but I don't think it's really possible to
not. It is good incentive to keep working, though. Don't let stress get in the way of your performance. I found if I was too stressed, I would do my best to take a break, generally by merely reading through notes etc. without really trying to specifically
learn, and listen to bagpipe music.
It made me feel I was still doing something useful and yet not feeling too much pressure. This especially applied directly after SACs when I felt exhausted but still felt I should be studying; also in the leadup to exams, I did do a lot more of just reading to avoid procrastination. It really did help.
A small tip, though: if you're a relatively musical person,
don't underestimate how long a song you listen to will stay in your head and bug you during exams/SACs! I made the mistake of (somewhat accidentally) listening to 'Thank You For The Music' (ABBA) the night before one of my exams, and then during the exam it was difficult to concentrate on it since that song kept intruding, along with others I'd listened to even some more than a week earlier (without my wanting them to). My advice would be either restrict yourself to music in other languages you don't know how to pronounce/sing or something, or just instrumental. (That said, be aware of instrumental or otherwise music that has associations with yourself; for example, I made sure I didn't listen to Beethoven's
Tempest movement 3 for a while beforehand, because it had associations with a certain scene in the novel I'm writing, to avoid that novel coming into my head during the exam.)
Hope this helps!