The new year was always an exciting time for me when I was in high school as Term One was an opportunity to start afresh and with a clean slate. Starting the new school year right or coming back to year 12 with a fresh mindset will allow you to set yourself up for a positive academic year.

Here are a few of my top tips about how to start the new school year with a bang.

1. Read the syllabus

And re-read the syllabus. And read it again.

The syllabus is your guide to the HSC. It is how NESA communicates to you and your teachers everything that they can assess you on during the HSC. Therefore, it is in your best interest to read it and familiarise yourself with its content. I personally found that for subjects that I had made an effort to constantly expose myself to the syllabus, I was able to save time studying as I knew what I needed to know and what I did not need to know.

Your syllabus can be found through a simple Google search, however all of the syllabuses are accessible on the NESA website here: https://studentsonline.nesa.nsw.edu.au/go/syllabuses/

I recommend using the syllabus as your checklist. I had a system called the “traffic light system” whereby I would colour code syllabus points to correspond with my understanding of any given topic.

For me, the following colours symbolised:
Red = I really struggle with this concept, do not know key terms and examples and would not perform well in a question about this.
Orange = I know enough about this to get half the marks but depending on the marker, it could be way worse. I have an average level of knowledge but nothing to write home about.
Green = Full marks or close to full marks, please @ NESA make the whole paper about this topic.

I would do this review periodically, such as when I finished a module, had an assessment coming up or if I was lost on what to focus on during a study session. If you are feeling unmotivated to study, revisiting some green syllabus points can help you to boost your confidence, however the bulk of your study time should be focussed on the red concepts.

2. Create your organisation systems

January and February are a great time to revamp your organisation system and experiment with new tools. Use this time to reflect upon what worked well for you last year and what did not work well for you. Don’t feel as though you have to change your organisation systems, whether that be notes storage, productivity trackers or digital document organisation if your current system works for you. It is awesome to find systems that resonate with you!

I personally was a large fan of OneNote for organising my notes, assessments, results and to do lists. Having everything together reduced the friction between me opening my computer and starting my study session, along with increasing my productivity by removing distractions.

There were a few organisation systems which I realised were essential for me by the end of year 12.

Macro and micro to-do lists. These allowed me to write down my overarching goals for a study session and then break each task down into more depth.

Most concerning to least concerning tasks. This helped me to prevent getting overwhelmed by my workload.

Study trackers. These included productivity logs where I recorded my completed tasks at the end of the day, study technique trackers (such as if I had done practise essays for a certain topic) and schedules.

3. Leave the Summer holidays behind

With the Summer holidays now coming to a close, it may seem natural to reflect upon how you could have done more study to prepare for the new year. However, in the wise word of the prophet Elsa from the classic movie Frozen; “let it go”.

I never found dwelling upon my lack of holiday study to make me more productive, with this thought process rather making me feel regretful and frustrated with myself. Instead, if you found that you studied less than you would have liked to, you can make an effort as you go into Term 1 to reflect upon your to-do list, make some goals for the new year and if in year 12, revisit Term 4 content.

Use this new year to give you a clean slate, a fresh mindset and a reason to revamp your organisational systems. Here’s to a successful 2021 school year!